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9 year old boy with eye blinking


marystro

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I am new to this forum. My 9 year old son just started frequent eye blinking last week. My husband got him a PS3 for his birthday 1 week ago and he has been playing lots of video games. I am wondering if video games could have triggered his eye blinking tics. Should we stop him from using the video games for a while and see if it improves?

 

I hope he does not have TS... but I also read that TS improves over time as a child grows older, is that true?

 

Really worrying mom,

Mary

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Hi Mary and welcome to Latitudes/ACN

 

yes, photosensitive reactions from the flicker on the TV could be triggering the tics (if you have a CRT and not LCD TV screen)

and yes, the only way to determine if this is the cause would be to stop any exposure to flicker (TV or Computer unless it is an LCD screen)

 

that may be easier said than done huh!!

 

MANY other things can cause eye blinking in a young child so you have no reason at this point to suspect TS, especially as TS involves both motor and vocal tics, and yes, in a vast majority of cases it does diminish in intensity and frequency as kids get past the hormonal years

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Just wanted to add - it is not just the CRT vs LCD - the other contributing factor even when watching an LCD - is what kind of graphics are in the game - lots of flashing - quick action can trigger - any japanimation - pokemon/yu-gi-oh. My son has been ok on the PS2 but he only plays about a half hour at a time on the LCD sitting far back. He really has not taken to it too much and has not played in weeks. Over the holidays his cousin brought a gameboy over - within 5 minutes of looking at it my son started to blink - he had been tic free before. I believe the gameboy is LCD - but the screen is really small. Also - there are warnings on gameboy about blinking or other movements - and to stop using if you find this happens, If you look at PS3 I am sure there may be some similar warnings.

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Hi,

 

I really appreciate both your replies. My son has some (not often) throat clearing and some (again not often) words that he repeats the first syllabus (e.g. "look", "so"). They are not frequent and very very mild and unnoticeable. Only I notice it because I am always a "worry" mom. My husband says he doesn't notice as much and thinks that it's normal.

 

This morning, he did not do the eye blinking at all except a couple times in the car to school. He may have a "mild" case of TS or just tics. He does not seem to notice them himself. He is a happy 9 year old, very popular with his friends, lots of fun and lots of energy. His teachers love him and anyone who's around him is rubbed off with his "BIG" smile all the time! He is also a very smart boy, tested for "GATE" (gifted student category in CA) and has great memory. We notice his performance is excellent in almost everything he does. He plays piano, water polo, tae kwon do and soccer (not all in the same season except piano and tae kwon do). His teacher says he is very good in Math. We have probably overscheduled him in the past since he is so good in everything he does. This year we have reduced his commitments and he seems to be doing much better. When he was younger, he was active at times and we attributed that to his immaturity and the overscheduling. He appears to have grown up quite a bit this school year. According to his teacher, he now takes a lot of pride and more responsibilities in school.

 

Regarding the PS3, my husband told him last night that he will have no PS3 for 7 days. It's for behavioral reason because he was whinning and complaining when we asked him to stop playing after 1 hour. Deep down, we want to see if this will reduce his eye blinking. We want to avoid medication as much as possible and take measures that can help (e.g. making sure he has enough sleep, not yelling at him when he does not listen - I am so impatient, etc.) We will be monitoring the situation and praying really hard that it improves overtime. I hope that he will "grow out of it" and try not to worry nor remind him of the issues.

 

A question that I have been pondering the last few days - should we take him to the doctor to get checked out or should we wait till the next annual check up and observe for now? I worry that if we take him to the doctor he may become more conscious of the tics which may worsen. If there is no cure to this, what good is to go see the doctor since it is not affecting his daily activities (at least for now)?

 

Mary

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hello Mary and welcome,

If you decide to go to any doctors, what I would suggest is to speak to the doctor alone before he sees your son so he will not be aware of why he is there. That is what I usually do. I tell the doctor that I don't want him to hear what my fears are so as to not cause more stress for him.

 

Perhaps you could take him for his annual eye check-up, but would suggest a full opthomologist exam. That is what I did to make sure there was nothing wrong with eyesight or eye allergies. Just talk to the doc or assistant out of earshot of the child and he will just think its his regular routine visit. You can discuss your concerns with the doc privately.

 

My personal feeling is to just focus on what is going on right now and not be concerned with label, as that won't change anything. It may never manifest into that.

 

Good Luck

Faith

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Hi Faith,

 

Good advice to keep my conversation with the doctor private. We will probably see what happens without PS3 for 7 days before we make a decision about doctor visit.

 

We just received an email from his teacher today and I emailed her over the weekend about what other improvements we can make to help Alex further. So she is suggesting reward system but also said that he is still distracted easily at class. She may even consider giving him a permanent location in the classroom which I don't think it's a good idea. His grade is a solid "B" and could be better if he is more focused according to the teacher. He goes to one of the top private schools with very high academic standards. I am dreading the thought that he has attention issues or just behavior related. However my husband seems to think that it's normal for an "active" boy and that he has improved substantially which is true. We will talk to the teacher today and strategize with her.

 

On a related notes, I noticed there are lots of children nowadays with ADD and tics problems. One of my son's best friends is diagnosed with ADD and he grunts constantly. His other friend likes to jump up and down and claps his hands. His mom said that that is a way for him to "pleasure" himself and is not doing anything about it. In the old days, people talked about "nervous tics" and that kids would outgrow it. I wonder if it is just diagnosis bias or something to do with diet with so many cases...

 

When my son was a baby, he took only soy milk since he was allergic to milk. He's been drinking milk after his baby stage. We are wondering if we should stop dairy products given his history. What kind of special diets should we be considerig to help improve the situation? He also takes fluoride pills from his doctor. Overall he eats healthy and of average size. I am just so worried about all these and am very glad to have found this forum!!

 

Mary

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Hi Mary,

 

Wanted to welcome you. I also was told by my son's guidance department that learning takes a back seat to growth, and boys are really affected. If your son is going through a pre-teen growth spell this might be why he is not having the attention he had in the past. This was true for my son, and he struggled for about a year, if you can call getting 2 C's a struggle. He was getting all A's, so he knew something was not right. Then things got better for him and he is an A/B student now, and is happy with those grades. It just seem to make sense about the growth taking over, and their brain keeping up.

 

You could try him on the Kids Calm.

 

Just wondering... why does your son take fluoride pills?

 

C.P.

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Mary

 

many of the medications prescribed for ADHD have a side effect that induces tics...this may be why you are noticing tics in those other kids.

 

I was also wondering about the fluoride that your son takes? Honestly, you need to read up a bit about the problems for kids with neurological issues and fluoride and also the general info on why, despite what the dental recommendations are, we should all be staying away from fluoride additives

 

If your son showed previous allergy to milk, you may well want to check on whether this is again problematic. We have had parents here who have seen a dramatic reduction in tics just by eliminating allergens from foods that the child is sensitive to.

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I was not aware of the correlation of fluoride and neurological problems. I need to do more research on this. If anyone has some write up regarding this, I'd apprecite it.

 

Yes, we decided that we need to get back to soy milk just to rule out any allergy.

 

Today is Day 2 without PS3 and TV. Yesterday my son seemed to be doing much better regarding eye blinking. I noticed just a few times and not continuously anymore. But I couldn't observe him at school so can't really tell. We were all much calmer yesterday since the teacher's conference when we (parents and teacher) agreed to focus on positive reinforcement. Instead of TV or video game, he played with his lego and we played tennis. At dinner, I tried to explain to him perhaps even after 7 days of no PS3, he should not play with that anymore. I started to explain to him perhaps there may be some bad effects on eyes. He said, "oh, is that why I have been blinking so much..." but he still likes his PS3. So, my husband and I are trying to figure out the strategy to explain to him. I already made up my mind that PS3 is gone - still have to get my husband convinced but I think he is leaning towards the same conclusion.

 

If anyone has any advice how best to handle this (explaining to my son and fully convince my husband), I would really appreciate it. I think it's so much healthier to play balls, do other 3 dimensional activities than sitting in front of the TV/computer anyway. Unfortunately not everyone sees that.

 

This is such a great forum and I feel that I am not alone out here.

 

Thanks so much.

 

Sincerely,

Mary

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I saw a cartoon yesterday of two kids sitting in front of a trash can that had TV rabbit ears attached to the trash can. That really sums up how I feel about screens of any kind.

 

You said your son goes to a private school. I know my kids would share with their friends what they were giving up for the Lenten Season when they were in private school. If you are Christians maybe he would feel proud to set aside the TV/computer for the faith for a time. My kids feel really happy to give stuff up, and find out they didn't really need this or that as much as they thought they would die without it.

 

C.P.

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Hi there and welcome,

 

My son did very well with the removal of milk (casein) from his diet for a few years. He can now tolerate milk without ticcing but really he only has it with his cereal, cheese on pizza etc. I still would not ever give him a glass of chocolate milk etc. I also have a one year old boy who I have had on soy milk. At one and one and a half I tried giving him whole milk and I instantly noticed a change in him with head banging and other behavioral stuff...anyways, I am sticking to soy milk with him for sure. My 5 and 8 year old kids seem to be fine with milk.

 

As far as the PS3, we also have gone down this road and this was our solution...my kids can only use the computer, play station on Fridays (after school and in the evening)...they look so forward to Fridays, especially since they have discovered pokeman crater on-line, anyways, my sons do react a bit to the PS2 but because they are off for the weekend it is ok.

 

Hang in there. My other advice would be to take things SLOWWWW, one thing at a time, for example first eliminate the PS3 for a week, assess any changes and THEN remove milk for a week or so, assess, then if you are going to add supplements, make any other changes to his diet do it "onen thing at a time" and keep a diary as to what you are doing because after awhile it is hard to remember what you did. Take care. Ronna

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Welcome, you can see our story under "8 year old with transient tics". Your story has a very similar start as ours. He started with eye blinking and progressed to limb and abdominal twitching. Made me a complete basket case until I searched desperately for answers that the DR's weren't offering. When he first started the blinking, we didn't do much, they left for a couple months then came back worse, then he started the twitching and I took him to ER one Saturday when it go bad. They did a very in depth check on him and ruled out siezures. The best thing for me has been this forum. He is doing so much better now. He is on Kids Calm and we did the no TV thing all at the same time. I just wanted him better. The teachers didn't notice anything, he was as happy as ever, but by me bringing it up to him and getting emotional about seeing him ticking, well lets say I wish I could do things over.

He is back to playing Xbox and Wii in very limited amounts. He seems to know he is better off playing it only 20 minutes at a time and not every day. He has been without tics since just after Christmas, very seldom do I see anything. I need to just appreciate him for what he is, and stop stressing out about what he may or may not ever become. He is also on soy milk, he had be as a baby, his twin sister did too, but now is on milk. He gets abdominal pains if he drinks milk, like a starbucks cream drink (no caffeine).

Lenny

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Hi Lenny - It's quite a story about your 8-year old. Hope things are on the upside. I believe in nutrious food and if anything we are all on a healthy diet!!

 

Today is Day 2 without PS3 / TV. I did not see any unusual blinking. It is still too early for any conclusion but I am keeping my fingers crossed. Threw away the fluoride pills. Sent husband to buy soy milk, green veggies, fish, brown rice, etc. He is now mumbling something about how to get rid of the PS3 now --- he does not want to get rid of it since he took a lot of effort to buy it and surprise him with the present. I feel bad about it but if it causes damage to my son, it's out of the door in my book!!!

 

As for myself, I am pretty stressed out the last few days since this episode started. I have a benign brain tumor called acoustic neuroma, diagnosed and treated last summer with a totally non-invasive amazaing high tech radiosurgery called Cyberknife. Although the treatment and recovery were really uneventful, this is bringing on a bit of toll on me and I lost my appetide. Residual side effect or perhaps stressed induced symptoms is causing some minor discomfort. I think I will take your advice, Ronna, to go SSSSLLLLOOOOOOWWWW, real SSSSSLLLLOOOWWWW. Think positive thoughts...

 

Just want to let you all know that your posts are giving me lots of comfort and support. You are the BEST!!!

 

Thanks so much,

Mary

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As many people have mentioned, "it is a journey" and it is much easier if you have someone to take it with. For me, I have God to talk to and I claim his promise that "He will never give us more then we can bare". I don't know what I would do if he had to have open heart surgery right now, he is going to in the next several years due to his aortic stennosis, but I won't be taking that journey by myself either. I have a suporting wife and mother as well.

It is so easy to get depressed about your situation and ask questions like, "why is this happening to me", but you read peoples stories on this forum, and you see kids in Childrens hospitals with cancer and you end up praying for them and thanking the Lord you have a comparitive "healthy" child.

I would recommend you try the adult version of Kids Calm, Natural Calm. I am convinced it makes me sleep better and seems to make me handle daily stresses better as well.

Lenny

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I was reading over the forum, came across this thread and felt I, as an avid gamer who was "diagnosed" with TS at the age of 4, might have some insight that would prove useful.

 

As much as it pains me to say it, I will have to agree that playing video games can have an adverse affect on Tourette Syndrome. I, much like your child, mainly have an eye blinking tic. When I was younger my eye blinking was extremely pronounced, rapid and caused me great distress (I was nicknamed "twitch" throughout middle school). It was accompanied by neck twitching, facial twitches (often resulting in rashes from twitching my nose and mouth in undesireable ways) and a small amount of vocal tics (mostly grunts and throat clearing).

 

I was lucky that my mother had known what Tourette Syndrome was (her uncle had it and she knew it was hereditary) and that she was, for the most part, supportive (there were several occasions where she would get frustrated and say "just don't do it"). Her first incling was to take me to a behavioral therapist, because at the time (this is around 1994) drugs weren't very popular for treating Tourettes. I was originally offered Haldol and Clonidine; you can imagine how well those worked for me. After we decided that those drugs were not for me (the side effects were tremendous) I began regular therapy sessions. I was made to play Nintendo during the sessions in an attempt to place me in a farmiliar enviornment, by a therapist who knew nothing about Tourette Syndrome (I apologize for typing out Tourette Syndrome and not the ubiquitous "TS", i'm compelled to spell it out fully; it's kind of a OCD thing I have). All the while he would ask me questions about symptoms and what I, a pre-pubescent boy, thought caused them. Let's just say that: the combination of video games, an unfarmilliar enviornment, (I've always been afraid of anything that resembles a doctor) and probing questions extremely aggitated my Tourettes and caused me to become irratable during and after the sessions. For this I was put, incorrectly, into a support group for people with anger management issues; I have never been in a fight and am one of the most peaceful people on this planet.

 

I guess I should get to the point of this now: I will agree that TS is effected by video games and that for me it has always been a negative effect. However, the stress of having my games taken away almost always reproduced the same symptoms as playing the games themselves. While it might be in your best interest to limit, or even cut out, video games in order to manage Tourettes, I do have to caution that there is no sure fire way to treat Tourettes (not insulting your intellegence; i'm sure you already know that) and while it might help in the short term, your child will most likely have access to video games at a friends house. If he develops into a full blown gamer, it would most likely be in your best interest to cave in and give him the games. Stress issues have always had a more direct coorelation to tic severity and frequency than video games ever did, at least for me.

 

While this might not work for everyone (or even most people), I was able to use video games as a way to control, or as I like to call it "channel" my Tourettes. I would do this by focusing on the most annoying and prominent tic urges and then focus them somewhere else, such as: a facial tic that was highly visible and caused great distress I would then turn into a foot tick in which I'd tap my feet in time with a song in my head, or to some number sequence (i'd bring my big toe up on 1. place it in the middle on 2. and down on 3). You will be surprised at how naturally gifted at music, sports and reflex related activity people with Tourette Syndrome are. This "channeling" has also helped me to concentrate on a single tic that I know I could easily bear with and force out thoughts of more annoying and noticable tics. The mere thought of the tics that annoyed me the most would be enough to allow them to creep up on me, even after days/weeks/months without having done them, and force them back into some level of severity. I am not a therapist or psychologist, but these are things that helped me get over some particularly bad spells. While I have always had eye blinking tics, the rest of my symptoms have wax and wane over time and most of the non-blinking tics have diminished to the point where they are not noticable and cause me very little stress; or they have disappeared completely.

 

With that said: As I grew older, several of my "tics" have receded or disappeared completely. I am now able to play video games for several hours on end without having any real, or lasting issues with my Tourettes. I would classify my Tourettes when I was a child as "moderate, bordering on severe" (as I believe it is the reason why I have an acute astigmatism in my left eye, from constantly rubbing it with my hand) and my Tourettes today as "very mild".

 

Before deciding to take away his game system (unless he could care less about it, towhich I say: go for it), you need to think about the ramifications. Will he be frustrated and upset that his new favorite toy was taken away from him? Will he become insecure about his tics because they result in, what he/she sees as, punishment; this is often how I felt as a child in similar situations. Also, will it inevitably cause him to supress his urges which will only make the issue worse in the end (I suggest, at least at a young age, never supressing tics outright but instead "channeling" them to more managable tics; in a way similar to how I explained above).

 

It is late here and i'm sure I came off sounding condescending and ignorant, but if anyone wants to speak to someone who has experienced the good and bad of Tourette Syndrome and has come out of it no worse for the ware, please feel free to contact me personally and I would love to answer any questions you might have. I would especially love to hear from anyone with a child who is having trouble coping with Tourette Syndrome, because I have felt the pain and emberassment they are probably experiencing (I get teary just thinking about it) and would do anything I can to help aleviate their pain and supply them with peer guidance and an idea of what to expect as they get older. To their parents: I can offer you insight into what helped best for me as I was growing up and things I wish my parents, as supportive as they were, could have done better.

 

I'm glad to have joined this board and look foward to posting on it in the future. It is full of such a wealth of useful information and it makes me feel like I have somewhere to belong. It is hard to find another TS person in real life; I often feel marginalized and negatively stereotyped against, because of the common misperceptions associated with Tourette Syndrome in society/popular media.

 

I apologize for the length of this post. It's been a long time since i've discussed Tourettes with anyone (or any "entity") and I got carried away.

 

now please forgive me, there is an XBOX360 with my name on it.

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