juls

Let me see if I can address some questions. No we have never used any meds and no we have not done testing. I have used the internet to figure out supplements for my son and have been playing around with them for over a year. We do have a DAN doctor, but he is pretty green at being a DAN and only added B12 shots for us. I tried these for 2 months and saw no results so I stopped. Recently, I have read a book called "The Edge Effect" by Bravermen and according to the self administered tests in that book I have a child deficient in all 4 of the major neurotransmitter. I am using some of the suggestions in that book. Has anyone else read it? I'd love opinions. My son was taking a bunch of supplements (most of what you see in my original list except the Gaba) when I added the L carnitine and vitamin C. The verbal tics, which are his worst tics, decreased significantly overnight, as in the next day. Within a few more days the verbal tics were gone and his motor tics had also vanished. Actually, his "stuckness" issue really got better too. It was unbelievable! When he went back on vitamins after his three day self-imposed break, it took longer to get better again but adding the vitamin C back seemed to do the trick. I haven't seen any tics for about three days now- although his "stuckness" is at a major high right now. I would say that my guy has a relatively mild case of Tourettes but through the fall it was getting worse and worse, especially the verbal through clearing, coughing and little singing that was happening all the time. His motor tics have never been as bad. Now the tics are rare and only occur for super short durations (one or two noises in a row at most then stop)... for now. As for why I homeschool, this was a decision my husband and I made before we had kids, but at this point I think my middle son would not do well in a school environment and he's happy to be at home right now. Chemar, thanks for the specifics. The Gaba Plus that I give him actually has both Inositol and Niacin in it, quite a bit in fact. He's getting: 800mg of niacin, 400mg of Gaba and 2400mg of Inositol from these. But I did go back and look at the B6. I recently switched multivitamins and now realize that I have decreased his B6 to only 6mg- maybe this is accounting for his stuckness levels right now... We have tried 5htp and not seen much differences. I'm going to increase the B6 and I'll take any more ideas. I've taken so much wisdom from this forum and now that I'm seeing some results- at least with tics- I wanted to share them in hopes that someone else might benefit. Juls

First let me introduce myself, call me Juls. I'm a homeschooling mom of three. My middle child began with verbal tics when he was 5 years old. He is now 8 and suffers from verbal tics, motor tics, ADHD, mild SID and what I call "stuckness" (probably some form of OCD but it is awful!). I've been lurking on this forum for a few months and I wanted to thank everyone, especially Chemar, for such fabulous information. I learned of L-Carnitine from a post here and tried it with my son back in January. Overnight we saw a huge reduction in his verbal tics and in a few days all of his tics had disappeared. It was unbelievable! In mid-March my dear son decided to ditch all his suppliments down the heating vents for a few days and low and behold the tics came back and I discovered the problem. He's learned that lesson fortunately. I had hoped that starting his supplements back up would stop the tics and when it didn't I began thinking about what had changed between the first time he took L-carnitine and the second. All I could pinpoint was that in Jan I also began giving him 1000mg of vitamin C and I had run out of the vitamin C around the time he hid his supplements. I hadn't bothered to buy more. After two weeks of increased tics I added vitamin C back to his daily regiment and the tics have just about disappeared again. My son is currently taking: a multi-vitamin (I look for one with no copper) fish oil (2 capsuls) Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc (all in one but 3 caplets for the full dose) Chewable Vitamin C 500 mg (1-3 a day, he takes this like candy) Taurine 1000mg (1 capsule) Acetyl-L Carnitine 500mg (1 capsule) Gaba-plus (4 capsules) Super B-complex (1 capsule) Sam-e (1 tablet) Melatonin 1mg (1 tablet before bed for sleeping- it's made a big difference for him to sleep well) Now that the tics are almost gone again, I am back to focusing on his "stuckness." This really rules him at times. He is often stuck wanting a toy that is impossible to obtain or something that I can't change. Nothing can get his mind off of the thing he wants or doesn't want. Today he could not do his Vision therapy because he didn't like a woman that was in the room (he hadn't even met her he just decided he didn't want her to be there). He was so stuck he wouldn't comply with anything and we had to reschedule. But then he got stuck about leaving. He wouldn't leave the office and he wouldn't do the therapy! I can't carry a 90lb 8 yr old so I'm stuck trying to persuade him to do something. He cried all the way home because he hates being a "bad boy" and hates being stuck on things all the time. It breaks my heart and frustrates us both and tremendously! Is this OCD? Any ideas on how to combat it? Thank you all so much, Juls