Hi Everyone:
Well..... my daughter is 7 years old. She started ticcing (eye blinking) when she was 2 1/2. Her main triggers are strobe lights, flash lights and t.v. She would go over a year without ticcing if not exposed to the light triggers. At age 6, after an intense light show from a Disney Ice Show, her tics started up immediately (after no tics for more than 14 months). It was bad tics that moved down her body: facial, neck, fingers and sometimes her wiggly toes. No big movements (arms, lets). The tics sometimes were just 1 tic. Sometimes they were multiple tics, multiple patterns, sequential and non-sequential. No real patterns. It was bad for about 2-3 months. Then it calmed down. As she has aged, when her tics are triggered (camera flash, disco lights (chuck e cheese), etc) , it is mainly facial tics. She has tics most days than no days. These tics (age 7) are not as bad as the tics triggered by the strobe lights at the ice show (age 6).
After seeing our daughter's new tics at age 6 (before was only eye blinking tics), our pediatric neurologist said she most likely will become tourettes. She said she isn't worried about her too much since she is a female. Their tics are usually not that frequent or severe as boys (from her experience). She told me, with tourettes, tics usually peaks around puberty. Puberty meaning the time girls start to menstrate. She said, "usually 1 -2 years before puberty and 1 -2 years after puberty."
My daughter has facial tics. I'm just so afraid of how bad it will get when the tics peaks. I'm actually hoping that since she started ticcing so young, she will finish ticcing early. Not so says our neurologist. There is no patterns in terms of when one starts and one ends. Also, at adulthood, most of her patients have less tics that only they themselves know they are still ticcing (good news). Most of her patients still have the tics throughout the adulthood - don't outgrow. Just got better. A very small percentage stays the same (as when they were children) or have gotton worst tics. Hardly any of her patients tics disappeared forever.
Can anyone share their tale of how their childs tics have progressed throughout their lives? I am so sad about this. I keep hoping the neurologist is wrong. However, so far, she has been pretty acurate.
Thanks for posting.
