tics

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Hello,

My 7-year old son has had tics before, but now they are really 'bad'. He has 2 motor tics (eye rubbing + nose touching and a hand tic) and one vocal (throat clearing). I didn't keep track of them, but the three of them are now present every day for at least a month. Before that, there was always one of them present, in any form. It is very noticeable, and his teacher apparently gets annoyed by it. I took care of that by explaining her he can't help it and she should no longer make him aware of it by asking to stop. I hope I made myself clear. If not, I'll do it again .
My question is: is there anything else I can do? I know exercise helps, and there is some (small?) evidence that avoiding colorants and taste additives might help. Any tips are appreciated.

My son had his first bout of tics around 9, I think. He has a new one that involves eye rolling and shuddering. I don't know if there is anything that helps, but I can tell you that for my son, asking about it or drawing his attention to it makes it worse, so IMHO, you are right to tell the teacher not to bring it up anymore. In the past, my son's tics have always just gone away on their own. I'm hoping they will again, too.

Thanks! We are seeing a physical therapist today, he's a friend of mine who works with kids and says he can help. I'm a bit skeptical, but maybe the relaxation will help. He mostly does cranial therapy, I had that done too. It's basically lying down while he holds the patient head and does some foot reflexology. I know, it's pseudo-science. .

Actually, I had cranial therapy once and I felt very relaxed and "balanced" afterward. Pseudo-science or not, it can't hurt and if it helps, who's to argue that? Humans can't explain everything through science. Just because we have not yet figured out how to explain something does not rule out it's possibility.

Indeed, it doens't hurt.
It was a bit weird, since junior had a very hard time lying still, but at one point I saw something which I rarely in him: something that was very close to relaxation.
The therapist said something about tension in the cranium and the vocal chakra being not what it should be. I'm not going to wear myself out forcing myself to take a stand on weither or not this is factual. He almost relaxed at a certain point, so I m going back.

I have been reading on diets for tics and Tourettes, but it's a bit blurry. I can't seem to find significant research that backs up the wonder stories about kids who lose all their tics when they stop eating dairy / aspartame / artificial dyes / colorants / something else.

I don't from your post if the tics are severe enough to consider this route, but there are medications that are used to reduce tics in cases like tourettes. My son takes meds for ADHD, and one of them in particular is a non-stimulant (in his case taken to reduce impulsivity) that also reduces tics.

Thanks, Zette. Thankfully, they're not that bad, imo. Just hope they don't get worse, apparently the side effects of tic medication are not to be underestimated.

I just wanted to chime in on 'alternative' treatments such as the cranial therapy - I have never heard of this but we took our autistic daughter to a chiropractor for years and it really helped her - It sounds like the cranial therapy is much the same thing - getting the brain to talk to the rest of the body more effectively.

We also put our daughter on a special, all natural diet for about a year - no additives, no preservatives and absolutely no food coloring. It changed her behavior drastically - but I agree there isn't a lot of science behind it. She did seem to outgrow it and we slowly allowed her to eat more foods that had these types of chemicals in them.

I say, give it a try - it isn't going to hurt anything and may possibly make things a lot better. No one really needs all of the junk in the food we eat and it isn't hard to believe that trying to process all of those chemicals is hard - I am not sure sure about the dairy -though it is a very common ingredient for people to be sensitive to - again - try it and see what happens.

Thanks, Dmarcotte. I'm going to give it a try. I know his dad is so not going to do this, but if I manage to serve him additive-free food for 5 days a week, it should make a difference if there is a correlation.

I could have written this post too! And my son is also 7.

I'm listening in.

So, far we have focused on relaxing--more warm baths with lavender, making certain sleep habits are as good as they can be, guiding him to notice before he gets too anxious and take a break (he finds a finger labyrinth particularly calming), and chamomile or valerian root (herbs that promote relaxation).

I have been close to taking him to the dr for it though. He has been complaining that his eyes have to blink so much that he's missing important parts of school.

The focus on relaxation has helped a fair bit though.

(We think his father may have Tourette's. Dad insists that bringing attention to it is the WORST thing you can do.)