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Finally, after years and years of despair, powerlessness, and just thinking and grinding in my head, I think I've found triggers that cause my son's tics. What has helped me enormously (really HUGE) is this platform, in which I have never shared anything myself but have been reading for months). It makes you aware of the fact that you are not crazy, because sometimes your environment thinks that 'it's not too bad' or they think I make it worse than it is. While as a mother I feel that something is not right, that there are causes, and that you want to solve them for your child. It really seems like some kind of primal instinct. While at the same time trying to find the balance so as not to overdo it, which I found extremely difficult. This site also helped me in that, I've read messages from people who said that you don't get the years back and you have to enjoy your child, that he is not just the tics but has so many talents. And that you don't help him by going too far... I think this was and still is the hardest for me. Our story and my quest in short: Our son has had problems with his throat and breathing from an early age, a lot of coughing, a lot of throat infections and was sick with a fever every two weeks. From the age of three there were frequent sniffing noises, throat clearing, etc. They were not really 'tics' yet. Later we had his throat and nose tonsils removed, despite the fact that I felt I had tried everything first. This helped a lot with the fever/being sick etc. But those slight tics kept coming and going. After an intense period of moving / new school / corona / death of grandma (all at the same time) the tics exploded. They alternated but were almost always with throat / nose and later with eyes (that's something from the past few months). We've known for a long time that dairy makes it worse, so we hardly give that to our son (we know what can and can't). I am also aware of PANDAS, but I do not feel that this is the cause for him. Now I recently discovered by paying very close attention / writing down that MSG (glutamate) plays an enormous role and he gets a very bad tic with throat clearing because of it. Also from glucose fructose. As soon as he gets an abundance at once (such as a lot of spring rolls last weekend) it was immediately extreme. And he also suffers from pollen / seasonal allergies / dry air due to the air conditioning. Now that I finally have more insight into the triggers, my thoughts turn to the cause. Why are these triggers a problem to him? And doesn't my other son suffer from it? I now suspect it all comes from the gut. He also regularly suffers from worms in his stool and from candida in his toes. Finally, I think he has a magnesium deficiency, it also seems to be the only thing that REALLY has a positive effect (I give magnesium citrate). Now I have discovered after a search that these things are also related to each other. Would he suffer from parasites? Which in turn cause a magnesium deficiency? A magnesium deficiency can also affect the candida infection. And then I read again that a magnesium deficiency causes more complaints when consuming glutamate: If there is too little magnesium in the brain and too much glutamate, which is often added to processed foods as a flavor enhancer, the risk of neurological disorders seems more plausible: this is a negative combination of an excess of stimulant and a deficiency of inhibitory substances. It's a long story, I had to get it out. And I will now continue with a magnesium test (not a blood test as it doesn't measure it well enough) and a parasite test. I hope this post might help you in your search or read something that will help me in my search. I also read here several times that people said 'don't stop looking for triggers' and Chemar has it on her profile: Never stop exploring, seeking and investigating information....your light at the end of the tunnel may be just around the corner ! And that sentence really stuck with me. Thank you for all your time to share your experience.