azhorsegal

Wow, what a very interesting article. Not sure if this is a related topic, BUT, when I set an appointment for my daughter with a NMD for her tic disorder I also mentioned she had eczema. He made the comment that could be a sign of a problem in her digestive system. Her regular pediatrician who has given me ointments after ointments to calm her eczema never even suggested such a thing. Like the tics, I was told there is no cure and not much you can do. This article has made me think harder about what the NMD said. I'm looking forward to seeing this NMD, because he seems to be more open minded as to what could be causing all these problems in my daughter. Maybe I should email this article to my pediatrician. It's amazing how much I'm seeing MDs just being so closed minded. I mean, can't they at least take a "What if" attitude, instead of "no, it won't work." Thanks for sharing this article!

That definitley sounds like a big possibility. Thanks for your input. Anyone else out there have some opinions? I have to agree with Sheila, brain storming is the most important part of what we do as parents/patients, in trying to find answers. So don't be afraid to share, every opinion is valuable. Thanks in advance!

In doing further research to help my daughter with her tic disorder I've noticed several people seem to also have ecyema and if triggers are found to cause the tics and taken away, then the eczema also seems to be reduced. Does anyone else have this issue with there child or self, and have found the two to go hand and hand? My daughter has suffered with Eczema all her life, but it's been pretty mild. Still, I avoid bubble bath and I wash her clothes with Purex, the clean and clear kind. (I have found Tide, and others like it, make her Eczema explode.) When her tics started to become more noticeable, about 4 months ago, in remembering back, that's when her eczema started to blow up. I am a firm believer that foods and environmental influences can trigger tics, but I have a question to toss out there. If it is foods and other environmental things, then why have the tics started to show up now, at 7 years of age. Yes, she did start with the eye rolling a few years ago, but why now all of a sudden she has the motor tics (all over). She's pretty much ate the same foods for the past 5 years, why would the tics show up now? I am taking her to a NMD next week to see if we can figure out any allergies she might have, so hopefully that will help us out with our detective work in finding triggers. I was just curious if anyone here has come up with answers to this question. Why wouldn't the tics start as soon as they started eating those foods, when they were two years of age? (If anyone missed my last post my daugher has been diagnosed with a "Motor Tic Disorder" by her Neuro, however, he thinks nothing can be done, just basically have to ignore it and maybe she will grow out of it in a few years. If it gets bad then have her come in for drugs. Obviously I'm not satisfied with that answer so I'm doing further research.)

Thanks so much Chemar and Sydsmom, your encouragment is greatly appreciated. I will certainly not give up and will not be detered by the Neuro. My father suggested seeing a DO, Doctor of Osteopathy, I guess they focus on taking care of the whole patient, not just the illness. So maybe that will also be an option. I did have a pediatrician friend give me a slight warning about the Neuro I was going to see, saying he doesn't have the best bedside manner's and to just be prepared that he might not be as helpfull as I'd like. So at least I wasn't shocked by his attitude of, "Well, yes it's tics, but not much you can do." My friend did give me a psych's # that she said I might want to go to, to at least help us deal with this new development in our family. Her son sees the same psych for his OCD and said this lady is very helpful and is a believer in the more natural the approach the better. But like you said Chemar, I will definitely ask if they work with Tics and Tourette's. Thanks again!

Well my husband and I took our 7 year old daughter in to see the Neurologist because she's been having tics, started with eye rolling when she was 5, and now the tics are pretty much everywhere, though she can still play, run and they don't seem to bother her that much. Other kids do notice but so far have been pretty laid back about it (of course she's not at school yet). She did tell me last night though, that she wishes she was just back to normal, it broke my heart. The Neurologist said she had Childhood Motor Tic Disorder but would not classify it as TS, because she didn't seem to have OCD or ADD or those others, just tics (she's also had motor tics, small ones, but did not have them during our doctor visit). He also said that what she eats or drinks has nothing to do whatsoever with her tics, triggering them or increasing them. He's a firm believer that whatever is going to happen will happen and there is not much I can do about it. He didn't give us a support group # or anything to help us cope with this new issue that's in our daughter's life, and this WILL bring up some emotional times because of her disorder. I for one am not giving up and am going to do my own research to try and figure out if certain foods and/or ingredients do trigger her tics. He said if her tics do become disabling, then we can stick her on Topamax. Has anyone taken this drug and found it to help, or does it just cause more problems than what it's worth? I did order that book "Tics and Tourette's: Breakthrough Discoveries in Natural Treatments" so hopefully that will also give me some help. If anyone here knows of a doctor in the Phoenix area that understands tics let me know. THANKS! Oh, what's a DAN doctor?

My daughter goes in on Friday to see if TS is what she has, knowing it may be some time before we know for sure. But she started looking up with her eyes about two years ago, would be talking or playing and her eyes would shoot up to the top corner. She did this for a few weeks and then it went away, only to come back a few months later. We didn't know what it was then, but now I'm pretty sure it was the early signs of TS. She no longer rolls or moves her eyes like that, but now the tics are everywhere else. Again, I'm still knew to all this so have no clue why it starts there, or at least for our daughter. It will be interesting to see what others who have more experience on this subject have to say. (EDIT: My daughter has been diagnosed with Motor Tic Disorder.)

Thanks Jeff, I will start doing that to see if it gives my daughter any relief. It's been so heart breaking watching her these past three days as her tics have really picked up. Monday was really bad, Tuesday was half as bad and today she started getting bad again. I did notice that late in the evening they seem to be the worst, when she's tired. Someone else mentioned MSG could also trigger the tics, have you heard anything like that? The artificial coloring and flavor seems to be the most common theory, so I will start taking away the artificial colors away and see what happens. Thanks so much for your advice as this is all knew to me, and it just breaks my heart to see my daughter go through this. Has your daughter been diagnosed with Tourette's or did you just do your own research?

Thanks for that link, will definitely read every bit of it. I noticed today it was her whole body that seemed to tic, including her legs. She said to me today after seeing a cartoon x-ray picture, that she wishes she could get one, so doctors can find out why her body twitches. It broke my heart to hear her say that. Waiting until Friday to get it checked out is going to be really tough. I'm thinking of just calling her pediatrician to let him know what's going on, see if he wants to see her again, because at this point, I don't think she'd stop to where he couldn't see it for himself, she does it all the time now, and I now have it on video tape.

Chemer - I've been doing some research on PANDAS and learned it can't be tested through any lab tests (like blood tests), but just oberservation and history of the child to determine if he may have PANDAS. Of course I could be wrong because I just started researching this, but I got my info from http://intramural.nimh.nih.gov/pdn/web.htm , which is said to be the official website of PANDAS. It does make sense though for my daughter because the tics seemed to start when she was diagnosed with strep throat, but it doesn't explain the eyes rolling up (maybe that was a totally different problem). But I don't consider my daughter to be OCD, just has tics.

Thanks, I will be sure our doctor tests for PANDAS, especially since she's already been diagnosed for strep once already. I'm already on the defensive about medications for TS, as it seems more natural treatments seem to work better, and I really don't want my daugter on meds if at all possible. But also understand if it's PANDAS she's going to need something to clear that up.

A few years ago my now 7 year old daughter would roll her eyes up to the upper right corner for no aparent reason. We asked if she was doing it on purpose and she said yes, but she was at the age that she really didn't know what that ment. We would ask her to stop and she seemed to get frustrated at not being able to. I told my husband maybe she's doing it for attention, if we ignore it maybe it will go away, and it did. It came back again about a year ago, but didn't last long and went away, so we didn't worry about it. A few months ago she started getting head tics, at first we thought she was just trying to get the hair out of her eyes, but then I noticed she was doing it a lot. Her teacher then noticed and asked her to go to the school nurse where she observed her for a while. She called saying we might want to take her to the doctor to figure out what was going on. I was kind of glad the nurse called because my husband was playing it off as "Oh it will stop, just like her eye rolling" but I wasn't so convinced. Of course the time we took her to her doctor the tics stopped so all we could do was give him a description of what was going on. He checked for strep throat and wouldn't you know it, she had it. He said strep can do weird things to a body and to see if the treatment for strep stopped the tics, letting me know that medications for having tics sometimes has more side effects than what it's worth. So we started treating her for strep and the tics seemed to subside. Two weeks ago they seemed to slowly come back, and we were about to go on vacation. She stayed with my parents for a week while my husband and I went off on a little vacation. I told my husband lets see if grandma and grandpa notice anything. Well, when we got back we noticed our daughters shoulders and arms had tics, and pretty noticeable too. She said her wrists felt weird and she was shaking them to try and make the feeling go away. I held her arm and could feel her little nerves just going crazy. That was it, I was calling the doctor. She also has a slight verbal tic that started a few weeks ago, kind of like clearing your sinus or something, just in her throat, not any words or anything like that. When I first realized my daughter might have TS I was terrified. How could this happen? Seeing your daughter have these tics is just heart breaking to watch and she's starting to get tired of them. I did read about someone here useing Carnosine to slow down the tics so I will bring that up to the neorologist. But I just couldn't stand by and wait for the appointment so I wanted to get your opinion on what my daughter is doing. Does it sounds like TS? Any ideas of what I can do now to help her, while we wait for the doctor appointment, one week from today. (Sorry this is so long.) Oh, she's also VERY sensative and can start crying over the simplist of things. I thought it was just being a young girl, but having a second daughter that is now 4 years old, I've noticed the 4 year old is not even close to being as sensative as her older sister. This may be just a personality trait, but we are sometimes shocked what can set her off. Not sure if this is a trait of TS or not, but thought I would throw that out there too. OK, I'm done. Any words of help would be greatly appreciated from this very worried mom.