Shelley19

logismum- Best wishes for successful doctor visits next week! Hope everything goes well and you get a lot of answers for your DS. Safe travels!

Cara- Just thought I'd mention this; There's a book called "The Disconnected Child" by Doctor Robert Melillo. It contains a treatment for neurological conditions (like TS) that is non invasive balance, listening etc. exercises. You can do them at home and it can be made to be a fun game each day. My grown daughter, who has a Masters in Occupational Therapy, read the book for me and thought the premise was a good one. Some of the exercises are the same as what she uses with her patients with cognative issues. We did the program, at home, for a couple of months and this was, again, a positive experience. I think we lost interest because she was doing so well at the time but I would definatly pick it up again if the motor tics come back. Just thought I'd throw that out there as it's something you could try that is not stressful but rather can be calming and fun (we laughed a lot).

The diet changes are distressing for a kid...No birthday cake or icecream at the friends party, having to order that chicken sandwich without the bun...But we have discovered so many tasty substitutes it gets easier all the time and DD doesn't complain much anymore. DD still gets her treats, we just have to go to Whole Foods to buy them We even found a gluten and dairy free frozen pizza! I would stick with the diet if I were you, it can take time for the gut/body to heal and adjust. And, I like the Bonnies because I don't have to worry "what else is in there?" With our DD we look at the big picture, the progress over months rather than weeks. I agree with Chemar, don't throw too much at him at once, but I know it's hard when the ticcing is so bad you'd do just about anything to give him relief... I hope you see some positive changes real soon.

We saw a reduction in motor tics in about 48 hours. They went from horrible (tears and won't leave the house) to relatively tolerable . This was with a TOTAL elimination of both gluten and all dairy. It will be a year in August since she's had those foods and it's been a steady improvement when I look at the big picture. Finding out her sensitivity to eggs and peanuts, and totally eliminating those, also seemed to cause a little jump in improvement and I really think the allergy drops are helping too. We've been off of eggs and nuts and on the drops for 6 months now. Oh, and anxiety was a real problem, sudden fears and tears for no apparent reason. Haven't experienced that since the new diet. Now we are trying the Bonnies. It's all she takes besides her allergy drops. Hoping for even further improvement.

Just started my daughter (9) on TS Plus Control about 2 weeks ago. We do 10 a day and she's a real trooper getting those big capsules down! DD started with vocal tics at age six then added motor tics, Sometimes she had 5 or six she was doing in one stretch. We went to an enviro doc and she is sensitive to quite a few foods and airborn allergens. He started her on allergy drops six months ago. We are off gluten, dairy, eggs and peanuts. I run a hepa air cleaner in her room 24/7. Right now I would say she is 80-90% improved. Motor tics are gone and her little "yelps" have stopped. She still does some throat clearing and sniffing. I decided to try the Bonnies and I'm going to give it the 2 months. I think they they might be the reason she's having loose stools right now though, so instead of giving them to her all at once in the AM she's doing 5 in the morning and 5 before bed. I feel for you, Cara. The screaming tic must be a hard one But he will be OK, you will figure it out. Our DD had a head flinging tic that was painful and scary for her. It was quite severe. When we changed her diet it subsided quickly and I haven't seen it for 6 months now. It's a puzzle to be solved..

I found it all so overwhelming too. I'll just mention what we did that has seemed to help a lot. We give dd (9 yrs) a teaspoon of magnesium in the AM and PM. She gets a multivitamin each morning. For a month we gave her two teaspoons of Colloidal Silver (one in the AM and PM) to treat any low grade infections she might have had. And we removed all gluten and dairy from her diet, as well as excess processed sugars. The diet was hard at first but get's easier as you know what to buy and fix. Thankfully dd loves fruits and veggies. DD has multiple motor and vocal tics that started at age 6 and got bad last August, but they are reduced about 90% now. We hardly even notice them anymore. No learning or behavior problems. We have an appointment with an environmental doctor in 10 days and we are hoping for more answers then. We have been waiting 3 months to get in with this doctor. I am suspecting heavy metals may be an issue since she is from China. Once we started the supplements and diet the improvements started almost right away and continued to slowly improve. The magnesium did not trigger more tics for dd. Oh, one more thing. Our oldest daughter, who is an Occupational Therapist, has helped me set up an exercise program for dd using the book, "The Disconnected Child" Dr. Robert Melillo The theory here is that one side of the brain is weaker then the other causing an imbalance that can cause all sorts of problems for a growing child. Once you figure out what side of the brain is deficient then you do certain exercises to strengthen it. These same kind of exercises are used on stroke victims etc. with good results. My OT daughter read through the book and feels it makes sense and worth the try. We have been doing the program for about 3 weeks and so far, so good Kinda fun too.

Hi Kristy, We just started our journey with dd about 2 months ago. She's been ticcing for three years and is now nine. She has motor tics involving her from the neck up (blinking, head tossing, head shaking, a yawning thing, nose wrinkle) and vocal tics (throat clearing, blowing out her nose strongly, and a quiet little yelp sometimes). They wax and wane and not all at once of course.. Sometimes they're gone for months and we forget she even has this issue. They got more pronounced this late summer/fall and we decided she wasn't going to "grow out of them" like the pediatrician suggested so we're trying to figure out what helps. We found an environmental doctor and made an appointment so we can get the tests done for allergies etc. We are having to wait three months to get in though, so in the mean time this is what we're doing; We eliminated gluten, dairy and as much sugar as possible from her diet as well as the artificial stuff and try to go organic as much as possible. I added a mutivitamin, magnesium, and a half teaspoon of colloidal silver twice a day (for now). Since her tics seem to be the worst during fall allergy season we put a HEPA aircleaner in her room ($70) and run it all the time as well as changing the furnace filter and getting special shampoo for the cat to neutralize her dander. Her tics are 50 to 80 percent improved over how they where when we started, depending on the day. Not sure it's due to anything we're doing or just a natural waning period but she's better and it feels good to be doing something. I am really looking forward to her doctor appointment next month.

Alan-Please keep us posted on your experience with the BBC. I just read a bit about it and it sounds very interesting. Best wishes.

Is the sugar in fruit also a common trigger for tics or just processed sugars like white, brown and corn sugars? What about honey? I've done my best to eliminate all the junk sugars from dd's diet but she LOVES fruits and I've been letting her have some honey on her gluten free waffles. Do I need to reduce the intake of these sweet fruits and honey as well to check for sugar sensitivity? Thanks! And hope all your children are having a wonderful tic reduced/free day (or a great day regardless).

Hi Evemac, Thanks for your reply! It makes me feel a little vindicated in giving my poor cat her special baths. Oh boy she hates them, but she forgives me as soon as I'm done. We've had the cat for two years and I never made a connection to possible sensitivity to her dander till now. If I had to do it over there would be no cat but if I found a new home for her now, dd would be crushed... We've implemented diet restrictions, a couple of supplements, neutralized the cat, and reduced screen time and her tics are about 60 to 75 percent improved over two weeks ago. I've ordered a HEPA air purifier for her room and we'll see if that helps too, getting rid of more dander and helping with the seasonal stuff will be good I think.

Yep, tried to up dd dose to the serving suggestion on the bottle and she just came out of the bathroom and whispered to me; "Uh, Mom, I think you gave me too much of that stuff". So back to the reduced dose tomorrow.

Maybe you are already aware of this diagnosis,but my 10 year old also had tics and was diagnosed with pandas. You can get more information about this at pandas network.org or on the pandas forum. Hi Blakesmom, I haven't really considered pandas for my daughter.... I looked it up though and she really doesn't have any red flags for that. She hardly ever gets sick and when she does it does not result in any more tics or different behaviors or make tics appear if she's in a quiet phase. She is cognitively the same as my older three children at this age (they're all adults now) with no OCD or ADD and is seriously an always happy and compliant child (well, there are the occasional brief, 5 minute issues with anxiety that my oldest daughter, with the college degree in psychology, says is not cause for concern). Her only real problem is the tics. But this is all still really new to me and I welcome advice.

technodad- It looks like the same stuff but different bottle? Mine came in a green and white bottle....looks like they changed the packaging. Maybe check their web site... DD LOVES the taste of it. She says it tastes like orange sherbert. I give her a heaping teaspoon morning and evening. The package says one tablespoon a day (three teaspoons in a tablespoon) and I may up it to that soon now that I know it doesn't make her stomach hurt. When we made the appointment with the enviro doc my DH asked about our insurance and they told us the appointments and tests should be covered but probably not the allergy drops or supplements etc. We are having to travel about 3.5 hours to this clinic. Even though we live close to a major metro area, known for it's healthcare, there were none listed here. We are trying a practitioner listed on the AAEM referral site. We also have a chiropractor/naturolpath we plan to visit after we get started with the enviro doc if we feel the need.

DD,9 years, has been on it three times a day for about 10 days. For us, it's no silver bullet but maybe it's helped a little, but then maybe it's just a coincidence. I don't regret ordering it and dd doesn't mind taking it. I put 5 drops in a cup of water and she downs it. Her tics have improved from some quite aggressive head shaking, throat clearing and "chirping" to much milder head shaking and quieter, less frequent chirps and throat clearing. So she's better now than 10 days ago but we have also, in this time frame, removed gluten, sweets, dairy, added the Tropical Oasis magnesium supplement (this is the one thing I think has helped for sure), limited screen time (I know a computer screen really sets her off lately) and neutralized the cat. We are anxiously awaiting an appointment with an environmental doc at the end of the month, in the meantime we're just trying whatever might help that seems harmless. About dd; She's had tics since she's been 6. Sometimes they go away completely for months (at least we don't notice any) and seem to be worse in the fall. No OCD, or any of the other co-conditions often associated with tics.

******** Yes, thank you! We did and it was exhausting. But at least my house finally got clean all at once! It's amazing how much one little cat sheds...I know it takes awhile for the dander to be completely gone, supposedly the shampoo will help a lot.