A Father Shares Which Trigger Reports Helped Him the Most (Premium)

I’ve personally dealt with Tourette syndrome—my tics and obsessive behavior started in elementary school.  Fortunately, my symptoms have been under control for many years. They didn’t just go away, though. I followed the methods recommended on this website: diet changes, keeping an allergy-free home, plus taking some supplements. It made all the difference for me. The possibility that my son, Jess, would develop tics has always been in the back of my mind. He’s in elementary school and everything was fine until a few months ago when I noticed some tics, mostly throat-clearing, a neck tic, and eye-blinking. I kept waiting for them to go away, but there they were, over and over again. They started making him self-conscious. I knew how to control my own tics, but now I wasn’t sure where to start to help him. (Both Jess and I have allergies, and he also has a mild case of asthma.)

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I found myself turning to Sheila DeMare’s two books. I’d already read Natural Treatments for Tics and Tourette’s: A Patient and Family Guide. I revisited it with a fresh outlook, hoping for answers to jump out at me. The chapter on nystatin to control a leaky gut caught my eye and I’m going to look into that. I also ordered Stop Your Tics by Learning What Triggers Them. I found reassurance and motivation in the parent reports in both books. If you are concerned with tics, many of you have probably seen these. I wanted to mention a few that encouraged me to actively start digging into what is going on with Jess. They were so inspiring, especially to realize that even when tics are severe (Jess’s are not!) there is hope.

Inspiring reports from other parents

Television viewing and computer exposure are sure triggers for my son. We experimented and found that he was helped greatly by eliminating screen viewing. His problem behaviors and tics were reduced significantly by this intervention. . . Since that time, we have changed many other things to help him, the most significant being beginning him on a food elimination diet to determine sensitivities and giving him vitamins and essential fatty acids. After removing milk, corn, eggs, and chocolate from my son’s diet and starting him on a supplement program guided by a naturopathic doctor and our pediatrician, he was again able to tolerate the screen viewing.

My 8-year-old had severe, disabling tics for several years. At their worst, they would stop him from doing homework and feeding himself because he couldn’t control his hands. Sometimes he couldn’t speak because he had to go through a 15-second routine first. He was often on the verge of tears and it was absolutely gut-wrenching for all of us. The tics ran from sucking in his stomach, to mouth-stretching, to hand-stretching, neck-stretching, vocal tics, swallowing repeatedly, and also ADHD symptoms that went with it.

I have been through health issues of my own, and was helped by seeing a local dietitian and getting a food intolerance test. Since my son seemed to have frequent stomach pain and nausea, and there definitely seemed to be a food connection, I decided to have him tested for both allergies and food intolerance.  Long story short, he had some nut allergies (which he barely ate anyway) but also had severe food intolerance reactions to both wheat and sugar, as well as a list of random foods. Let me tell you, in case you haven’t been through a wheat-free/sugar-free diet, sugar and wheat are everywhere and in everything!

We took out all of the foods that weren’t on the safe list our dietitian gave us, and within four days the tics started going away. Three weeks later, they were down to 5%. A month after that, they were gone completely. We have since reintroduced almost all of the foods except for his two severe foods, with no tics occurring. Everything he eats is organic. We also keep food coloring out. I am not suggesting that wheat and sugar are your problems, since everyone will have their own list of troublesome foods.  I want to cry when I think that I was sending my son to bed every night with a jam sandwich on wheat. But, I’m elated that we can move on, and that his future looks bright and clear.

My poor boy suffered through a lot. Tics started appearing at age three. By age seven he was doing horribly, with all-around multiple tics. He was walking on all fours because he was ticcing so much.  He was having a terrible time with allergies, and we were told he had asthma along with all his tics. Diet changes, including no dyes or preservatives, have helped my child. We went all-organic, and use healthy cleaning products. We put our son on a diet that reduced his allergies and sensitivities greatly. We boosted his immune system with probiotics, and then in the long run he didn’t get sick as often. My child never took an allergy medication, and his tics improved significantly. I would be more than happy to stand in front of millions of people and say that my child’s tics were helped by dietary changes, improving the immune system, and addressing environmental factors. If it wasn’t for the Latitudes.org website to guide me, I fear what would have happened to my child.

Here’s what I’m going to do

• I’m going to tighten up on allergy control at home, and look into what exposures Jess might be getting at his summer school camp program. I know they feed the kids snacks, and I haven’t looked into what he’s eating there, I also haven’t seen the classroom to see if it might be moldy or have other issues.
• I’m gong to find a doctor and check into whether Jess has a leaky gut and might need nystatin (an antifungal medication that I know helped me). There’s a chapter on that in the Natural Treatments for Tics and Tourette’s book.
• We will do a food intolerance test. Both my wife and I work full time and I don’t think we will be able to manage doing a food elimination diet, even though I know that’s a good way to go.
• Jess is pretty self-aware, and I’m going to ask him to see if he notices anything that makes his tics worse.

I hope we can get a handle on this quickly. I’ll let you know how we make out.

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