fitforit

Hi There Well, we have been back in Taiwan now for a month and my little boys legs have started up again. Again he is telling me that his legs are crazy. It has been 6 weeks since it last stopped I am beginning to think now there is something more serious wrong with him now. Has anyone ever taken their kid to the doctor about the tics and the doctor has diagnosed them with Multiple Scheloris or Spasticity or some other "Disease" or "Syndrome". Things that may have been a trigger this time: I have avoided all the foods that he was eating when this last happened, so I don't know... He only takes a multivitamin but it has been irregular since we got back over the past month. He did catch a cold at the beginning of last week and I had to take him to the doctor, sore throat and coughing, so I am wondering if it is PANDAS. He received antibiotics, but they only ever give 3 days worth of medicine here and the cold did clear up. But I am begnining to wonder about this as when his squeak noise started on Christmas day last year he also had a bit of a sore throat but he didn't go to the doctors. The squeak lasted nearly a month until the legs took over. He also had the leg thing going back in October, but I can't recall him having a sore throat or cold then... He has been running everywhere and when he runs, he doesn't do his frog step. I think he knows this and this is why he runs everywhere. I asked him where his legs feel uncomfortable and he pointed to his thighs, calves and ankles. I aksed him if he feels he want to move his leg or if it just happens and he said it just happens. He said he tries to relax like i told him, but it still happens. All three times that it has happened, it has "just started". He just very noticable started walking weird. He will walk fine for a while and then he starts doing a kind of frog step and this can vary sometimes from just once or to many frog steps in a row. It looks quite distressing to watch him walk this way. It kind of scares you as he will walk normal and then, whammo, frog step. I was wondering with the parent who said her kid just started ticcing on the soccer field, what kind of things were happening? But then it has also just subsided. But if you only saw these frog steps, you would think there is something very wrong with him. Everything else about him is stll fine, he is doing great at school, he can make friends down the park, in fact he is usually the leader of the games. I know with me, I still get a sensation to roll my ankle over outwards but I usually can releive this sensation when I push off in my walking motion. I also get a sensation to tense up my upper leg muscles sometimes. But these don't interfere with my walking action. He is also having problems wearing socks and scrunches his toes up when I first put them on. I remember when I first got this, it was in Year 8 in High School after my mom bought me a new pair of school shoes. I just couldn't keep my toes still, and I still have that to today but not as bad as back then. So I see quite a few similarities between us, but he seems to be worse. Like I said previously, my mum said she never saw me walk like that. I don't think I ever did, but I had the weird leg tics. So I will need to take him to the doctor as I think there is something very serious wrong with him that maybe he won't grow out of. I truly hope not. If anyone else has had anything similar or any other advise, please, thank you... Fitforit

My boy has still been walking so much better now, but as he sais yesterday that his eyes were sore, well he has started the eye rolling again today. So on this vaction his tic has gone from his squeak noise to his bunny hops to his eye rolling which is back to where we were when I first wrote to this forum. And again to discuss the ignorance of some people on the tic issue. I was again around my sisters place and he was playing with his 14 y/o cousin all afternoon. But just before dinner time I heard my cousin yell out, "What's with the eye rolling?" and then when we sat down at the table for dinner his cousin said so loudly again two times, "What's with his eye rolling?" bringing everyone's attention to focus on my little boys eyes. And of course then my little boy couldn't control it. I just wanted to divert the attention away from him as again, sitting there over the dinner table with a bunch of people who have no idea what tics are would be the best thing at that point of time. I just said, please don't talk about it now, it will make him feel more uncomfortable... Do others find some people so ignorant or insensitive? The only triggers I can see today is that he was sitting really close to the TV this morning, maybe only about 3 feet away from the screen but also he can get himself very worked up sometimes when angry and as he was playing with his cousinall afternoon, well of course they did have some fights and arguements as kids do but as his cousin is older, he usually won those which made my little boy very very angry... It was a computer game played on the TV that I feel first caused his eye rolling so I stopped that so I am suspecting the closeness to the TV today could have been the trigger, but also I have tried to teach him to relax and let things go when things don't go his way and not to get so angry as when he does he pulls a real stern looking face and point his head down but looks up to stare at who he is angry with and I think that puts stress on his eyes... I know he feels uncomfortable with the eye rolling, but eyes or legs... none would be preferable... fitforit...

Well my boy's legs have been fine now since Thursday. It just stopped. I have tried to cut out all junk food as much as possible, but I didn't realise how much junk food we really eat here in Australia until we came back for our vacation. When you go out anywhere, it is quite difficult to by non greasy food. I have tried to cut as much fatty food out as possible, french fries or chips as we call them here, as well as coke... back in Taiwan there is so much variety of drinks available but Australia it is quite limited... I know he could just have water but that is boring... And I have had to stop him plaing all video games, even on my cell phone which he sneaks and plays every now at then. He is just taking a Children's Multi-vitamin. His little squeak noise came back for a short while and he has told me his eyes are sore again but I haven't noticed him rolling them. But the strange thing is about my family's ignorance of this issue. I mentioned previously about when my mum noticed his legs and then I told her he gets tics every now and then and she replied "in his legs" and then I told her that I do too and have all my life and her response was that she never saw me.... well around at my sister's place today, she keeps offering him junk food, like candy, coke, ice-cream with Chocolate (which he reacted bad to before) but I told her I don't want him eating anything like that. Actually my boy is quite good with it now, he seems to accept he has to listen to what I say... but my sister asked me why he can't, so I said that I think he is having some reactions to some foods, and she asked me what kind of reactions so I told her that he is getting some tics. Her response was, "what is a tic?" but as my boy was sitting on my lap at the time I didn't want to have to explain it all to her as he is big enough to know that we would be talking about him, about his legs and his eyes and his noise and I didn't want it to start up again through becoming selfconcious... Well it made me wonder... I have my tics, but my mum "never noticed" and my sister mustn't have suffered from them or either of her two boys who are 14 and 18 now as she doesn't know what tics are... I am starting a post graduate degree in Health Promotion this year... I am thinking maybe I should do any assignments I have about TT and TS... Just rambling... thanks Fitforit

Hi There Well my boy was walking around a lot easier today, but still got the bunny hop going, but no where near as bad as he did yesterday. I was feeling so much better until after stopping at the supermarket on the way home tonight and after getting out of the car he took one step and then it all started. Jumping up and down, to the side, bending his knees out and luckily I was hold his hand as he did fall down. He looked at me and said, "Dad I can't walk properly, my legs are crazy". My heart just dropped right out and fell on the floor. The only thing I can see he had different today was a bit of chocolate coated ice cream, but he has eaten both chocolate and ice cream before and had no effects and also there was some egg in the salad we had at dinner. I was beginning to suspect eggs as he has been eating a lot lately since we have been on vacation and thinking back to the first time he had this leg situation he was eating an egg sandwich from the breakfast shop every day for about 2 weeks. I stopped that and it seemed to clear up. but he only ate a little egg tonight and otherwise hasn't had an egg for about 3 days now. He doesn't seem to have any problems when sitting or running, but I asked him tonight in the car on the way home if his legs feel funny when he sits down and almost immediately they started twitching. Then he said he needs to roll his ankle and foot around like the Chinese Doctor told me I had to do when I was going there recently for an unrelated problem.... He says if he does that it feels better. From what I can see, it looks like the jumping stretches and stresses the lower leg muscles and he rolls his ankle when walking which make him turn his knees out, but when the actions are combined together, that's when he really looks out of control. I am beginning to wonder if he has something more than just a tic here... fitforit.

Hi There Well my little boys "squeak" noise has almost disappeared now. I am thankful for that as it was so annoying... But, his leg tics have returned and today is the worst I have ever seen it. It started again I noticed just a bit on Saturday, just a bit of ankle rolling as he walked. This is the type of tic that I still get in my ankles... The feeling of needing to stretch the muscle down the side of the lower legs and the only way to do this is by rolling the ankles... But it gradually got worse and worse and by today he was jumping like a kangaroo, 3 or 4 hops at a time. He would walk a few steps and then jump up and kick one leg out to the side. It was most unpleasant having to watch him do this. As I am on vacation, I had planned to go to an interactive museum with him and invited my mother along too. Well I noticed the tic right from the first few steps of him getting out of bed this morning and then after we drove to the train station and got out of the car and started to walk, that is when it really got scary, he was just jumping up and down and side to side, to be honest and maybe sound crude so I am sorry if I offend anyone, he looked retarted... I almost burst into tears. Well my mum asked me what is he doing, he was doing that yesterday, so I told her that he sometimes has been getting tics... and she replied "In his legs?" Like she was shocked to get tics there... well I didn't want to go into all the details right there and then as we were walking to the railway station, like he has had eye blinking, eye rolling, grunting and snorting noises as well as the latest squeak noise and that he also had this leg tic back in October last year and it only lasted a couple of weeks. Instead I just told her, I get those too, I have as long as I can remember, to which she replied that she had never seen me do that... Well I never have done it as bad as what he did today. By the late afternoon, it had settled down alot and he just had a bunny hop every now and again, but this was only after hopping and jumping and kicking his way through the museum for over 2 hours... My poor little boy. It is just strange that I have removed all the things that I have thought to trigger his tics and as I feel with success with his squeak noise, but for this leg tic to come on so strong, I can't think what this could be now. He acts like it is nothing and he tries to disguise it with running, which he doesn't do it while he is running as well as doing his TaeKwonDo kicks to disguise the kicking action. He actually ran and side kicked me in the knee today and as I wasn't ready for it I turned around in shock and pain and he was standing there saying Sorry Daddy... I know he didn't mean to do it... We are supposed to be having a relaxing vacation....

HI There Well my boy's squeak did slow down a lot in the weeks after Christmas. We are currently on vacation back in Australia. We have been here for a week and a half so far and his squeak has started to increase in frequency. He does it all day long now... from once every couple of breaths to a couple of times every breath and in breaths between mouthfuls of food while eating and also while speaking or reading sentences. The only things I can see that are different, despite the change of location for our vacation are that he has been playing his Gameboy a lot and drinking more Coke than usual. The only other thing is that he is bilingual but I do feel Mandarin is his first language and as we are in Australia now for vacation he can only speak English. His English is fine, but maybe the thought process going on inside is causing this tic. Anyone else had this kind of experience. Before he got eye-rolling from video games, but I have stopped them again in case it is causing the tic and we have stopped coke too and started on the multi vitamins again. I left them back at home so he hasn't had any since the vacation started... So like usual it should take about a week or so after changing things for this to stop. He calls it "my noise" and he tells me he can't stop making it. It is a really annoying noise, but I guess it could be a lot worse. I am staying with my parents while on vacation and while grandma and grandpa haven't said anything, I am sure they have noticed... Maybe they won't say anything, just like I am sure they would have noticed my tics when I was a little boy and teenager and I still have some now, but they never said anything... Anyway, that's what's happening... Fitforit Daddy

Hi There Well it has been 6 weeks, but my boys funny hop/step has returned. I noticed it bad tonight asd I asked him if he was OK and he said that his leg feels funny like it did before. I also noticed starting on Christmas day him making a small squeaking noise every few breaths. This has cooincided with a bit of congestion he has, though he does clear his throat every ow and again, but I don't think that is at an abnormal frequency, the sqeak is.... and it is a very annoying noise to listen too. The only other thing I can possibly relate to both of these are that over Christmas he did eat a lot of junk type food and I was unable to control some of this intake, though he knows that I don't want him eating certain things. I am wondering if he slipped some things a some chrissy parties when I wasn't there. Guess we will just have to wait till this gets through his system... And if this is like all his other tics, it should be gone in a couple of weeks... I am praying...

Hi Well I am glad to say that it seems that my little boys tics have all subsided recently. He has stopped his most recent frog step and all seems OK again. He is bugging me for chips and to play his TV game again. But I am just holding off for a while longer. From what I see on this website, it seems my boy had only a slight case... I should be thankful. It hurts so much to see your baby in so much discomfort. Thank you to everyone for the support and information offered. I truly appreciate it. I wish everyone out there well. Fitforit

Tonight was much better. I only noticed him turn his knee out a few times on the walk home tonight and no hop at all. I hope he can have a rest from this thing for a while now... or forever... firforit daddy

Well my boy told me his legs were a little better today. I picked him up from the baby sitter and I noticed it again straight away. He told me not to look at his legs, though I was trying to do it out of the corner of my eye. I guess he has noticed people looking at him now and is becoming self concious. Anyway as I previously said I haven't noticed it while he is running around or while he was practicing TaeKwonDo, so maybe he knows this too, so while coming home from the babysitters tonight he just ran forward then ran back to me practiced kicking here and there. He just kept moving. Don't know which is worse, the tic or him jumping around like that... We had a short talk about it tonight and we discussed that I think some foods are making him feel a little "funny" inside (as he has told me). I told him that it happens to daddy sometimes too like if I don't get enough sleep or I get angry my shoulders feel funny inside, so this is why I try to sleep early (but I don't, I think I am an insomniac) and I try to relax so i don't get angry so I can try and feel good. This is why I want you to not eat those chips for a while and let's see what happens. He seemed pretty cool, calm and collected about it. I love this little guy so much. He is due to start his soccer comp in 2 weeks so I hope this has cleared up by then as I feel he may say he can't play because his legs are funny. But by what I have seen, his legs should be fine as long as he is running around and not walking. So let's wait till tomorrow. fitforit daddy.

Well my boys ankle rolling/frog step was worse tonight. I picked him up from the babysitter and I noticed it straight away. Again he told me his "legs were wrong and he has to walk funny". We stopped in the park to play and I watched him run around and play with other kids and it didn't happen for nearly 30 minutes. But then as soon as I called him over and told him it is time to go home, it started again as soon as he slowed down to walk. I also noticed it didn't happen during Taekwondo class last night either, but happened walking home after. But tonight is worse. I was watching him and he rolls his ankle outwards so then his leg turns out and then he has to kind to do a hop so he can put his foot down again properly so he won't fall over. He saw me looking at him and he told me not to look at him walk funny. I asked him where his legs felt uncomfortable and he pointed to the midle of his thighs. Anyway I was back reading some comments when I saw the one quoted above from Jeff. My boy likes to each potato chips and the ones he wanted on the weekend were BBQ flavor and have Red #40, Yellow #5 clearly marked as an ingredient as I now know to look for and avoid. Guess I am going to have to stop all potato chips now. Have to wait a few days to get this lot out of his system I guess, but just like all his recent tics, they only seem to have lasted around 2 weeks or so. But were will it be next... But maybe it will be gone altogether. I think he kind of knows his leg tic relates to his eye tic. He also told me tonight that maybe in 10 weeks his legs will get better too.

Well, my boy's eye rolling has stopped, but... he then started making a constant clearing his throat type nois, not too loud but defiately annoying while sitting in the living room trying to watch TV. But that has also cleared up. I have now noticed that he has a slight neck stretching forward type tic now... This is similar to what I have. I know with me that this tic gets worse with stress and little sleep. I have tried keeping our place as stress free as possible. But now I have also noticed an action like he is rolling his ankle over when he walks which means he kind of bows his legs for a couple of steps like a frog. I also have this kind of tic in my ankles too i don't do the frog step. Again he has told me that his legs are wrong, just as he told me his eyes were wrong. Why do these things keep moving around? Anyway he has asked to play computer games again as his eyes are better now... My beautiful little boy... I love him so much. Has anyone who has had tics, or maybe not... how have you explained the tics to your children to that they can understand what is happening to them... For example with me... I had the feeling that "my skin was out of place" and my boy just says his eyes/legs are "wrong". No one ever told me anything about tics or TS... thanks all. fitforit.

Reduced Dramatically It seems the eye rolling has just about stopped. Maybe he can supress it a little now so that I don't notice as much. I am not sure, but the very few times I have noticed now are when he is going to bed and he is obviously tired and the few mornings when we have been running late and I have really had to move him along to get to the bus on time. We have stopped the video games, he is a little annoyed about that, but kind of agrees to stop. Other than that, like I said previously, just try to get him to bed earlier and try to have a much of a stress free environment as possible and a multi-vitamin. My beautiful little boy...

Seems better again tonight. So, hopefully this Tic has reached its high point and is fading out now. I only noticed him rolling his eyes a few times tonight. This is kind of what happened when he had his first eye blinking tic. He told me one night before bed, "Daddy, my eyes are broken" and all I could do was hug him and tell him that I loved him and it faded away not long after that. Anyway, what I have done for him since this eye rolling tic started and became distressing to him was to cut out the TV video games, playing the computer, trying to get get him to sleep earlier, and give him a multi vitamin as well as try to keep him as relaxed as possible and not to get angry about silly things. Thanks for the replies everyone. Fitforit Daddy

Why did I email my friend an article? To educate. From my friends uninformed opinion, perhaps if I told her that I do that to and have since I was a child, she would say that was because nobody told me that it was wrong to move my eyes like that and now it is too late to correct it, just as she said about my son. As I mentioned in my email. I am 40 now and still have Tics at different times around my body. Mostly now in my shoulders and neck which feels like tights muscles and I needs to stretch them to relax them. With my eyes now, I mostly get an urge to lift up one of my eyebrows, the side chages from time to time and actually now, when I get on the train for work in the morning and sit down and close my eyes to have a short nap, I have the urge to roll them up and to the side under my eyelids, but when sitting there with open eyes, I don't have such an urge. The other Tics I get most often are and urge to roll my ankle to the side, again as if stretching the muscles, and the same with my wrists. I mask these as I have don for years as if I am doing an exercise, as I go to the gym and exercise a lot. I didn't tell my friend about my Tics as I don't wish to draw attention to them as I feel she will always be looking for them now. Well my boy got up this morning and he was still pretty tired and his eyes started almost immediately, but he was just like having a quick look to the left and then havig a quick look to the right. He complained that his eyes hurt. Maybe they did, as he loked like his usual tired self in the morning, kind of like when you are really tired and you have to get up but you don't really want to, and he was very irritable. The morning time is the time when we argue the most often as he doesn't want to get dressed and doesn't want to eat his breakfast and doesn't want to brush his teeth and we only have a short time to do all this before the school bus comes. I don't really want to wake him up earlier as I feel he may be even grumpier. I thought all that was just part of being a parent, but now we have the eyes to deal with in here. Fitforit Daddy

Hi, No, I can't recall that I Tic in my dreams, but I can speak Mandarin perfectly (I currently live in Taiwan) and do the splits which is great for my TaeKwonDo. But Tics, I don't thinks so. Fitforit Daddy

I told a close friend last night about my little boy. This is the first time I have told someone in close to me about this. I only did so as she noticed his eye rolling tic and asked him why he was doing that and told him to stop. She really had no idea of such a thing as "Tics". Only if we were all that lucky. I emailed her an article I found on a website with a general overview of TS and Transient Tics. I checked my email tonight and this was part of her reply: "I think like you said we shouldn't force him to correct it but we should still try to let him know or somehow try to remind him it's not right to act like this.... Otherwise, I am afriad he may think it's nothing wrong with it and keep doing it for a long long time and maybe hard to correct him later..." Poor Little Boy. He is the one who told me, "Daddy, my eyes are wrong." I told him last night that I know his eyes don't feel comfortable now and that it sometimes happens to Daddy too. It should go away soon. Actually tonight I did notice that is ws much less frequent and severe. I also printed some articles out and gave them to his Kindergarten teachers today, so maybe there hasn't been so much attention drawn to it today. By the way, I am an Australian living in Taiwan, so this is really difficult for me as it really seems people are either ignorant or don't like talking about it hear. I am also a Kindergarten teacher and I have seen a fair few kids with Tics. Right now I have one girl in my class who constantly blinks and there is another Daddy of one of my children who also constantly blinks, sometimes so hard his head tilts forward, and I have taught other kids before with mostly eye blinking or eye rolling. Is there anyone from Taiwan out there or does anyne know of a support Group here in Taiwan. It is hard to find information and I don't know where to find an article in Chinese so to make the Chinese teachers and my Taiwanese friends more aware of this. Fitforit Daddy

Hi, just a little story before my other story. I have had some tics all my life, the earliest I remember was when I was 6 years old and I remember the feeling I had was that "my skin was out of place". I remember standing in school assembly fidgeting with hip and shoulder tics. After assembly and going back to the classroom, I remember my teacher looking around the class like she wanted to choose someone for a classroom duty like she did, so enthusiastically I put my hand up first. She then asked me and 2 or 3 other children to stand up. Then I was the first person she spoke to. She did an imitation of my tics in front of the whole class and and then said, "Why are you doing this?" I started to cry and just mumbled, "My skin is out of place." She then told me to sit down and nothing was ever said again to me by that teacher. My parents have never said anything to me about my tics, but they must of surely noticed. I haven't noticed anyone else in my family with tics. I manage to supress most of my tics, though I have been "caught" doing them sometimes and have been asked by some people why I move my "Whatever Body Part" like that. The tics move around my body but mostly in my shoulders and neck now and they do get very sore sometimes. These have been persistant for nearly 5 years now. It mostly feels like tight shoulder muscles and I need to relieve the tension. I know that being stressed and not having enough sleep increases the frequency of my tics. But I have had a stressful time with a divorce and fighting to keep my son, which I do have custody of and I just cannot sleep until around 2pm every night but still need to get up at 7:30 every morning. Not being able to sleep is also something that I can remember from being around 5 or 6 years old. I am 40 years old now, and my son is 5 and a half. And my son has started having tics. First it was the eye blinking which lasted about 2 months. I cried when he said "Daddy, my eyes are broken" That stopped. He had a short bout of constantly blowing rasperries, that went away. His eye blinking came back for a short time, only for a couple of weeks. Then he started snorting like a pig. Lots of people noticed it. He told me that he was "crazy". That lasted maybe six weeks. Now he has started sharply rolling his eyes up and to the side. It happens both sides, I haven't noticed if to one side more. It started shortly after I bought him a TV Video game. But also he has really started reading a lot of books and "trying to read the words" not just looking at pictures. Actually for his age I feel he is quite advanced in his reading. And he has also started using my computer a lot to download computer games to play. He also goes to bed quite late and over the past few weeks it has been past midnight as he refuses to sleep. Kind of like what I remember about myself at that age. Anyway we are giving the computer and video games a rest and I have stopped him reading in his bedroom after I put him to bed as it isn't bright enough to read. I know my stress can affect him though I try to be as calm as possible in front of him. And I have tried to keep him from getting angry as he does tend to get angry easily. Anyway he has now told me "My eyes are wrong. I can't stop turning them. My eyes are crazy". What do you say to a little boy about this? I feel so helpless. He is a very smart boy actually. He is bi-lingual, he can speak English and Mandarin Chinese and he is a little athlete as well. he has always been strong, has roller bladed since he was 2 y/o, no training wheels on his bike since 3y/o and he is also right into TaeKwonDo right now too, he has been practicing for more than a year. He loves art and he loves going to Kindergarten. He can be a little naughty at times, but I don't think he is that bad. I am also a Kindergarten teacher and I have seen "naughty kids". What can I do? Should I take him to a doctor to comfirm he has tics or that it could be something else. I am sure he doesn't have any allergies as there hasn't been any change in his diet to start or stop his tics. My poor little boy. I love him so much and it hurts me so much to think he is going to go through what I went through and what I still do go through. Thanks anyone for listening. Fitforit Daddy