butterbean

Susanna: Hi and congratuations on child # 3! I found myself in the same situation recently, and now have two girls and a nine month old little boy. I breast fed all of them and only mixed formula with cereal at about 6 mos. Still BFing the baby - he won't take a bottle, just chews on it. Aargh! it's exhausting, but worthwhile I know. My 6YO was diagnosed this winter after much strange and uncharacteristic behavior was displayed at school. We have since learned of a family history of tics/OCD on my husbands side, and this explains my husbands obsessive nature and some other small things. We now see some of what (looking back we can identify as early warning signs with our oldest) in our 4YO. She has unusual extreme fears and is crossing her eyes when tired, etc. So, I am new to the knowledge that my child/children have tourettes. However, from what I understand, this is a NEUROLOGICAL situation. Certainly some foods or allergens may adversely affect anyone, however, if in fact your child is wired a particular way - that is simply the way they are wired. So I don't believe wether you breast feed or not will change the way that God has created their little brains. Having said that there are things that absolutely affect my daughters behaviors. Being tired, stressed, hungry - we can see it on her face when she is any of those. A strep infection brought out some really strange things and a later ear infection saw another upswing in her movements. I have trouble calling them tics, because I understand tics as rapid movements, and my daughter displays more "complex/deliberate-looking/compulsive" type movements and fixates on thoughts etc. Still she at times is socially overwhelmed. From what I have read this is a male dominant condition, so I too worry that my little guy might have a hard time of it. My girls are already noticably socially different and seem unhappy and overly senstitive/emotional much of the time. Bottom line - I think BF is great for giving them a great start, but remember - food senstivites do not CAUSE the tourettes but may (as with any other bodily irritant) efffect the child's condition. Comments on this opinion are welcome. Thanks and good luck with the pregnancy!

Jim: As a parent of a 6YO with newly diagnosed TS, I have suspected and seen evidence in my child to support that a the tics are only just one symptom of this condition and not reveal the ENTIRE nature of the situation. Although TS is defined by the tics, the things that are of greatest concern for me are not the tics. My daughter at times seems emotionally detached. She doesn't seem to concerned with others feelings. It is not just immaturity, I believe. She has intrusive thoughts at times and "knocks" on her forehead to "stop thinking things" that disturb her. This happens at times when she is tired. Apparently the TS runs in my husbands family. I can say that at times he (and his father too) can seem emotionally unavailable. It's annoying, but I try to overlook it because it is not all the time. Rather than a void of cognitive thought, my husband has the opposite -- he obsesses about intellectual thought, taking a topic through a string of possibilities. That is interesting and fun for him, so it's not a problem - but I believe it is part of the OCD-type symptoms that can accompany the TS. Hope that helps and you can relate to some of this.

Hi. I am NOT in any way an expert on PANDAS, but in addition to the strep bacteria, our pediciatrician ran a blood test to determine if strep antibodies were present -- and they were. It is the strep antibodies that would effect the basal ganglia of the brain if I understand correctly. You should request to have that test run on your child. Evidently the strep infection can be gone, but the strep anitbodies can remain. (please someone correct me if I am wrong here.) Our daughter was diagnosed with TS with OCD tendencies. She is 6YO. I hope someone else replies with more specific information for you. God Bless.

Hi Chemar, I have noticed many posts from you and I can imagine as someone who has been dealing with this for years that you have a lot of experience to share. So thank you for your input. Interesting that your son was sick at the time of the hallucintion and that he also saw something "coming up" at him. My daughter had been flushed and pink cheecked since she got home from school. She felt warm to touch and had a headache. No fever registered on the thermometer though. 2 days later and she is still pink in the cheeks. She may be coming down with the flue and it just hasn't become full blown yet. Her vision was also a fox moving about her, bugs on the chair, worms on the floor and the fox "coming up the chair." Sounds just horrible. It started with her seeing a bird looking in the window, but it was dark outside and there was no bird. She later said that she knew, even as this occured, that it wasn't real. She said (during the hallucination) "my brain is thining everything that I don't want it to." She squeezed her eyes tight and held her hands over them. Pretty smart for a little 6 year old I thought. I made a note of what we ate for dinner, wondering if that may have exaserbated her TS. Quite possible. we have not done any of the food elimination or allergy testing yet, but plan to do so. We have only requested so far that her teachers not give any more candy or sweetened anything at school. We have to go through all the steps ahead and this was a huge shock that this could be related to the TS. I wanted Nick to know that he was not alone. Glad you also have some evidence to support a theory here. Chemar, did your son have unusual fears when younger? Our daughter is afraid (and now I understand why) to be in another room from us - just yards away - and gets jumpy if i address her when she is walking away from me. Thanks so much. PS it seems so funny to be referred to as "butterbean" - my daughter's nickname. Ha ha

This is my first post to the site as my 6 YO daughter was diagnosed with Tourettes 2 weeks ago. Our process began with unusual/uncharacteristic behavior at school and we did not know what they were talking about. After 2 months of this and several meetings with the school, we took her for a full medical check up and our pediatrican took everything quite seriously. He was really good and ran a bunch of tests including MRI to rule out a tumor. We were referred to a specialist at NIMH who helped us gather information and made the TS diagnosis. Previously much of her behavior would fall under a complex tic descrption with things like breaking pencils, writing on tables, making noises in school. At home she was irritable and emotional. Since the diagnosis, she is doing more simple tics - clapping hands, eye rolling, etc. Last night, while sitting at the dinner table she had what I would describe as a full hallunication followed by eratic eye rolling/eye movement. This was the most involuntary that any of her so called "tics" has appeared. She told me she could not stop her eyes from "squiggling" and she was scared and sad. I won't get into the details but to say that it was a visible (not audible) hallucination that lasted several minutes. I watched the whole thinkg and it was really scary. Being little, she went to bed a short while afterward and had a hard time being still in bed to fall asleep. Her head was moving and her feet. She was tired but could not stop moving to fall asleep. I wanted to share this so that you might know there is someone else out there who experienced this and also get he post back active to see if anyone else has had this experiecne. We are seeing a TS specialist at Johns Hopkins in the next few weeks and will inquire about it. Thank you all for sharing your stories and advice here. I am so glad to have this connection.