marystro

My son has not had blinking eyes for a while ever since we banned video game. Last Thursday, he went to his friend's house and played some video game on his friend's XBOX, first video game since the ban. Immediately we noticed the return of his eye blinking. It was not very severe but we definitely noticed it. The last few days, blinking has subsided somewhat but still happens. I guess I should have told my friend's son's mom that he should not be playing video games... Another thing we noticed is if he's on whole milk, his eye blinking returns. We now only allow him to drink soy milk. I also wonder if sugar is also a trigger. He had a lot of sweet rolls the last 2 days. He typically does not eat much sugar but it was spring break and I thought it would be ok. Now I find myself constantly on the look out for triggers. Seeing his blinking eyes really stresses me out. Mary

My son had 4 fillings in his baby teeth almost a year ago. They are silver fillings. Should I be concerned about them since his blinking eyes are the only pronounced symptoms I have seen last week? He does have some minor throat clearing and some minor repeatied words but they are quite mild. And I cannot remember if he had them before or after the fillings. His blinking seems to have disappeared totally since TV/video games have been banned 5 days ago. I was appalled to find out today the warning in the SONY PS3 manual regarding Photosensitivity Epileptic Seisure!!! I did some research on the internet today and saw some alarming articles regarding almagan fillings. I called the dentist this afternoon who told me that it may be more harmful to remove them due to vapor emitted during removal. According to her, the white ones which are of different composites may also have cancer causing side effect! She said her daughter who had no fillings had blinking eyes for almost 2 years and they eventually went away. She said this could be part of childhood development and kids will grow out of it. She advised that I should go talk to his MD (pediatrician) first. I was kind of upset with her for not providing any information ahead of putting the fillings in. I also called my orthodontist friend who said that there is never any guarantee on anything but it is unlikely that his tics are caused by the fillings. She also said this may be part of development but did concur about the harmful effect of video games. She has young patients whose teeth grind so much during sleep after playing video games and even fall off the bed. She suggested that I should take the course of elimination to rule out the culprit. I am so confused about fillings now and not sure if we should do anything about them. My son seems to be back to the way he was before the PS3. I would like to hear from you your thoughts and experience in this area. Mary

Hi All, There is certainly a spectrum of opinions here regarding total removal to limitation to work-around. I appreciate everyone's candid posts. Personally, I favor sports over the "tube". I think it really depends on how each one of us feel about this issue. There is no right or wrong way. Your posts help me look at things from different perspectives and they are great insights. Today is Day 3 without TV/PS3. My boy has not shown any unusual blinking at all. Of course, I still could not observe him at school. He also started water polo tonight and is now sound asleep nicely. This situation really makes me appreciate things more and reminds me how blessed we are as a family. I think sometimes things happen for a reason. Mary

Hi Deavyin, This is such a heart warming post. I am very impressed with your experience and how you manage to handle your TS journey. I am the opposite of my husband who is always calm and calculated. I guess this is partly my Type A personality and that when it comes to my son, I get very emotional. Your story is giving me a lot of things to ponder. So far, his eye blinking seemed to have subsided to almost none the last 2 days. A little last night when he was going to bed and I attributed that to fatigue as he had a long day. This morning, I noticed only a very little when he was waking up but may be that was from just opening his eyes and trying to get out of bed. Or may be I am just over sensitive about watching and imagining everything. We will take a wait and see approach and see what the next few days bring. One day at a time is what my husband says. I wish I could be as mentally in control as he is. Working on it... Really appreciate you sharing your thoughts. Mary

Hi Lenny - It's quite a story about your 8-year old. Hope things are on the upside. I believe in nutrious food and if anything we are all on a healthy diet!! Today is Day 2 without PS3 / TV. I did not see any unusual blinking. It is still too early for any conclusion but I am keeping my fingers crossed. Threw away the fluoride pills. Sent husband to buy soy milk, green veggies, fish, brown rice, etc. He is now mumbling something about how to get rid of the PS3 now --- he does not want to get rid of it since he took a lot of effort to buy it and surprise him with the present. I feel bad about it but if it causes damage to my son, it's out of the door in my book!!! As for myself, I am pretty stressed out the last few days since this episode started. I have a benign brain tumor called acoustic neuroma, diagnosed and treated last summer with a totally non-invasive amazaing high tech radiosurgery called Cyberknife. Although the treatment and recovery were really uneventful, this is bringing on a bit of toll on me and I lost my appetide. Residual side effect or perhaps stressed induced symptoms is causing some minor discomfort. I think I will take your advice, Ronna, to go SSSSLLLLOOOOOOWWWW, real SSSSSLLLLOOOWWWW. Think positive thoughts... Just want to let you all know that your posts are giving me lots of comfort and support. You are the BEST!!! Thanks so much, Mary

I was not aware of the correlation of fluoride and neurological problems. I need to do more research on this. If anyone has some write up regarding this, I'd apprecite it. Yes, we decided that we need to get back to soy milk just to rule out any allergy. Today is Day 2 without PS3 and TV. Yesterday my son seemed to be doing much better regarding eye blinking. I noticed just a few times and not continuously anymore. But I couldn't observe him at school so can't really tell. We were all much calmer yesterday since the teacher's conference when we (parents and teacher) agreed to focus on positive reinforcement. Instead of TV or video game, he played with his lego and we played tennis. At dinner, I tried to explain to him perhaps even after 7 days of no PS3, he should not play with that anymore. I started to explain to him perhaps there may be some bad effects on eyes. He said, "oh, is that why I have been blinking so much..." but he still likes his PS3. So, my husband and I are trying to figure out the strategy to explain to him. I already made up my mind that PS3 is gone - still have to get my husband convinced but I think he is leaning towards the same conclusion. If anyone has any advice how best to handle this (explaining to my son and fully convince my husband), I would really appreciate it. I think it's so much healthier to play balls, do other 3 dimensional activities than sitting in front of the TV/computer anyway. Unfortunately not everyone sees that. This is such a great forum and I feel that I am not alone out here. Thanks so much. Sincerely, Mary

Hi Faith, Good advice to keep my conversation with the doctor private. We will probably see what happens without PS3 for 7 days before we make a decision about doctor visit. We just received an email from his teacher today and I emailed her over the weekend about what other improvements we can make to help Alex further. So she is suggesting reward system but also said that he is still distracted easily at class. She may even consider giving him a permanent location in the classroom which I don't think it's a good idea. His grade is a solid "B" and could be better if he is more focused according to the teacher. He goes to one of the top private schools with very high academic standards. I am dreading the thought that he has attention issues or just behavior related. However my husband seems to think that it's normal for an "active" boy and that he has improved substantially which is true. We will talk to the teacher today and strategize with her. On a related notes, I noticed there are lots of children nowadays with ADD and tics problems. One of my son's best friends is diagnosed with ADD and he grunts constantly. His other friend likes to jump up and down and claps his hands. His mom said that that is a way for him to "pleasure" himself and is not doing anything about it. In the old days, people talked about "nervous tics" and that kids would outgrow it. I wonder if it is just diagnosis bias or something to do with diet with so many cases... When my son was a baby, he took only soy milk since he was allergic to milk. He's been drinking milk after his baby stage. We are wondering if we should stop dairy products given his history. What kind of special diets should we be considerig to help improve the situation? He also takes fluoride pills from his doctor. Overall he eats healthy and of average size. I am just so worried about all these and am very glad to have found this forum!! Mary

Hi, I really appreciate both your replies. My son has some (not often) throat clearing and some (again not often) words that he repeats the first syllabus (e.g. "look", "so"). They are not frequent and very very mild and unnoticeable. Only I notice it because I am always a "worry" mom. My husband says he doesn't notice as much and thinks that it's normal. This morning, he did not do the eye blinking at all except a couple times in the car to school. He may have a "mild" case of TS or just tics. He does not seem to notice them himself. He is a happy 9 year old, very popular with his friends, lots of fun and lots of energy. His teachers love him and anyone who's around him is rubbed off with his "BIG" smile all the time! He is also a very smart boy, tested for "GATE" (gifted student category in CA) and has great memory. We notice his performance is excellent in almost everything he does. He plays piano, water polo, tae kwon do and soccer (not all in the same season except piano and tae kwon do). His teacher says he is very good in Math. We have probably overscheduled him in the past since he is so good in everything he does. This year we have reduced his commitments and he seems to be doing much better. When he was younger, he was active at times and we attributed that to his immaturity and the overscheduling. He appears to have grown up quite a bit this school year. According to his teacher, he now takes a lot of pride and more responsibilities in school. Regarding the PS3, my husband told him last night that he will have no PS3 for 7 days. It's for behavioral reason because he was whinning and complaining when we asked him to stop playing after 1 hour. Deep down, we want to see if this will reduce his eye blinking. We want to avoid medication as much as possible and take measures that can help (e.g. making sure he has enough sleep, not yelling at him when he does not listen - I am so impatient, etc.) We will be monitoring the situation and praying really hard that it improves overtime. I hope that he will "grow out of it" and try not to worry nor remind him of the issues. A question that I have been pondering the last few days - should we take him to the doctor to get checked out or should we wait till the next annual check up and observe for now? I worry that if we take him to the doctor he may become more conscious of the tics which may worsen. If there is no cure to this, what good is to go see the doctor since it is not affecting his daily activities (at least for now)? Mary

I am new to this forum. My 9 year old son just started frequent eye blinking last week. My husband got him a PS3 for his birthday 1 week ago and he has been playing lots of video games. I am wondering if video games could have triggered his eye blinking tics. Should we stop him from using the video games for a while and see if it improves? I hope he does not have TS... but I also read that TS improves over time as a child grows older, is that true? Really worrying mom, Mary