airbucket

Yes i have thought of homeschooling but my sons yearns so much to have friends and he is easily bored and needs lots of activities and mental stimulation. The reason i am asking how i find a good private school is because i do not want him in the classroom with other kids who all have behavior problems, but i do not want to remove him from school because in order for us in Florida to receive a scholarship for private school, he must currently be enrolled in public school. Thank you bmom!

Forgive me in advance if this is not an appropriate topic - I literally do not know where else to ask such a question. For our kids with their tics and impulse issues and other related issues, i am wondering how many of you send you kids to private school and more specifically, does anyone know how i find out where the very best schools (public or private) are in Florida? My son is being removed from his 2 nd grade today and will be transfered to another public school for kids with emotional and behavior problems. This is happeing, briefly, only because in the last 2 weeks my son suddenly and unexplainably is being randomly violent at school to teachers or peers. anyhow, i really dont know how to go about finding out about the best schools (i know some really good ones are out there) for kids with emotional/behavioral etc problems that would incorporate some inclusion and typical things? I am in Florida and we are ready and willing ot move anywhere in the state for my son. Thank you everyone, this board is a literal life saver!

Interesting. then how do we know what our child has? maybe its not TS but something like bi polar WITH tics? I suppose this is why i am making an appointment with Dr Murphy because sometmes i feel like i dont even know what is wrong with my son due to the fact that his other issues are SO much more a problem than the actual TICS. He rarely tics now actually. We havent had a bout of tics lasting more than 2 days in a long time. But again, doctors have told me that the essence of TS, that it waxes and wanes so much its impossible to say that this or that treatment or medication is helping because it could just be waxing or waning. I dont know! But the rages are a huge problem, bigger than the tics for us. The worst part is there is no warning. Something that normally would not upset him causes a violent outburst at other times. But i agree with bmom, it is confusing!

I am in Lee county, Fort Myers. Im not sure where Pasco co. is. ?

TsMommy, I do live in Sw FL. Its interesting what you say because the aggression the past few months is new for us. he is reacting violently to somethng that normally he has learned to just express frusturation through talking and huffing and puffing. I wonder if it is a kind of "tic"? My son is not autistic either although he has social impairments, and i have no idea if he may be bi polar. It is the randomness and the unpredictability of the latest problem that has me really worried. Its like we cant find a real cause for it to justify such intense emotion. At this point I believe that some of our kids may have some complex neurological/biological problem that is more undefinable than we have presumed. I am trying to focus on the symptoms to try and put this puzzle together. So many parents report changes when diet or deficiencies have been addressed. Id be happy to talk to you more about this and anyone who has similar issues. Thanks.

hello Tsmommy - my son is the same in that you can do or say something to him one day and he has no rreaction but on another day he freaks out. Dooes your son act "strangely" when he is being violent or in a rage? My son seems to go in another world, i cant talk to him, he wont answer me, he just seems like he has no idea what is happening and he goes plays with his toys. We have already in his life done SO much behavior therapy, but thats not what this is. Its not a conscious decision he is making to be in a rage, so i dont know what to do. Maybe we can find some answers and help each other out. Amy1 - may i ask is your child in school? How does the school deal with this? Our school system wants to put my son in a class for kids with these explosive issues for safety reasons. I think its a real lousy idea to put a bunch of unpredictable aggressive or explosive kids in one room! I do wonder if the pressure all day gets to him, and if so what can i do other than homeschool him? School is pressure, it just is. I am curious what kind of classroom your child is in and how they handle the rages? thanks.

I was just coming on here to post something about rages, so instead i will speak to your posting. I do not understand the anger and rages my son has. He is 8, he was diagnosed with TS recently but he has always had severe behavior problems his whole life, including aggression. However, a couple years ago after doing a alot of work with him he really got himself together and stopped being aggressive. The past few months tho it is back, and it is a mystery. He will become violent almost out of nowhere. He is about to be, if not already, kicked out of his school because he is exploding at teachers. Today he socked one in the eye hard! I recently took him off his med, Abilify, but that was a few weeks ago now and the aggression was present while he was on it too. The only other thing he is on is Inversine, does anyone know if that could cause violence? Our psychiatrist told us that TS kid just have rages, it just is, nothing you can do. He also said there is no way the Inversine would cause it. Do any others here have this issue?? I dont know how i will keep him in any school this way. He will also say horrible things to me that are so bad they are haunting. Otherwise he is the most loveable, sweetest boy. Do any of you worry that something else might be wrong, like bi polar or something? I am trying to get on the natural track, got him off the medication and we are looking to see Dr Murphy and a DAN doctor, but at this moment i am tempted to take our current psychiatrists advice and start Risperodol. I really dont want to do that! thank you everyone on this board who takes their time to help others.

Good point! I myself often wonder in my osn what is a tic and what is a compulsion. Although my son is not officially diagnosed with OCD he has it in every sense of the word. His tics actually first manifested as a compusion, the need to touch certain things a certain way, had to be done. I still dont know if its a tic or not. His other tics are more conventional. I replied tho because my son also has the kissing thing!! It drives me nuts! One thing ive done that im not sure is good is that ive talked to him about asking me before he kisses. I though this sounds counter intuitive as tics are something that largely cant be controlled (?), but is has worked a little. He agreed kind of in a we made a contract-way, to ask first, and most of the time he remembers to do so. This has helped because i feel less controlled by him and it also gives him a second to become aware of this need and the feeling, so sometimes it decreases the amount of times he kisses. Ive also introduced the idea of sometimes blowing a kiss instead of a touch kiss just because it does get so aggravating when you are part of a tic! this has worked a little. and my son is only 8 so you might have better luck getting an 11 year old to change it up a little bit. for my son i do not if this kissing is a tic or an OCD thing, but it is limited really just to me. I wonder how much it even matters, other than for purposes of choosing appropriate supps, if it is a tic or a compulsion. Maybe how easy it is to manipulate will reveal the answer? dont feel awful! It is perfectly reasonable to be irritated by this behavior! Maybe you will come up with something that could lessen it or change it a little!

how ironic to see this post as my son had begun a spitting tic as of 2 days ago. I dont know about yours, but mine makes lots of spit and then sucks in it and out and then spits. What i did which did work was causally, like it was not a big deal, reminded him that it "we cant be spitting in public" and he understood this in the same way he understands when we teach basic manners, so he agreed to try and remember, and we helped remind him, to use a tissue cover his mouth when he does this or go to the bathroom when he needs to do it. Yesterday at the park he was doing it but realized that he didnt want to stop playing in order to visit the bathroom to spit, so he controlled it mostly the rest of the time at the park. Another thing that seems to always help is never making a big deal of it, and i still ignore most tics as commenting on them usually deosnt help, but in this case it helped to have a little plan to deal with it more appropriately. As always good luck.

Another question I have is this, my girl loves her candy!!! I have been trying to find her some with no artificial colors or flavors and it is hard as heck. Does anyone know where I can find some that she might like? This place is a wealth of info and peace of mind, I am so glad I found it. Thanks to EVERYONE who has helped me helped my daughter. Have a nice night!!! Im having a hard time following this but i do have some good news for candy lovers. I knew candy had to be the first thing to do from my son's diet when i tried to clean it up with all that sugar, Fd and C red and blue and all that junk. I went to the health food store and they had a wide variety of candy! They of course have all kinds of cookies which are all natural and i have bought dark chocolate bars and different gummy candies which are sweetend with fruit juice and naturally colored. They are a brand called "Lets Do Organic". I hope this helps. When we first took his candy away we kept the old wrappers and candy bags and filled them with the all natural candies - yes it was a trick but my son is only 8 and very emotional and easily upset so this was a way we transitioned him with candy. I really hate Halloween by the way!!! Good luck!

Interesting question posed here. When my sons tics started a few yars ago it was a vocal grunt, non stop at that. I had no clue what it was. It was then accompanied by what i really did NOT think was a tic - compulsive touching of everything so that it was even. In other words, if my son were walking through a hallway he had to touch both egdes of the wall and if he did not do it "right" he had to go back and touch again. He also had ot do this with his elbows in particular. I thought it was an OCD as he has always been OCD-like. That tic lasted a long time. Then i think the tic went to what we see mostly recently, a shoulder shrug, or rather bringing his chin to his shoulder, one side then the other. Throughout all this he has had the wierdest "tic", which is the non stop need to have things touch his ears and eyes. He needs us to put our mouth on his ear, sometimes blow on it sometimes not, or put our mouth on his eyes, one at a time. Sometimes that is not satisfying enough it seems and he needs to rub his ears on our face or rub his nose on our face. I have no idea if this is a tic, he asks for it all the time. The other tic we see here and there is the head-bob. Now its mild, like he is saying yes, but a month ago it was so violent he was causing injury to his neck. Occassionally we see a jumping tic, where he has ot kind of skip a step when he walks, look like he is doing a jig. My son was removed from abilify 2+ weeks ago and now is only on Inversine, a multivit with minerals, mag with calcium and fish oil. The tics have all but dissapeared, occassionally when he is relaxed at the TV he will do his nod tic or shouldler to ear tic, but its so mild. What has gotten exponentially worse is his behavior and mood, he acts like someone with a major mental disorder like bipolar or something. I have no diagnosis for him other than TS though, but he is out of control and getting kicked out of one class after another. I cant wait to try more diet restrictions and other supplements. Ironic though that the tics are the least of our worries now! I would not say my son has had any totally new tics over the years. They seems to be the same or variations of the same, so i dont think that is wierd. Best of luck as always to everyone!

I will definitely check out Dr. Robbins. I am looking for the kind of doctor who will take the TIME to listen! Does Dr Murphy diagnose pandas? or do you need to do the testing of it before you see her? i really appreciate your recommendations! thank you

hello everyone - having learned so much here i am now looking for a "DAN" doctor for my son in Florida. I am willing to travel to any part of Florida for a good one. Can anyone make an suggestions please? I got the list of DAN doctor off the autism ARI web site but it always helps to have a first hand recommendation. I am also looking into seeing Dr Murphy at U of F and also was looking into Dr Aronson-Ramos - her web site is impressive, does anyone have any experience with her? She was on the DAN doc list, dont know how "alternative" she is in her choices of treatments. ok thank you. Happy to say my son is off Abilify as of today! Hopefully that will be a good thing! Thank you.

thank you so much for your replies, they are so helpful. I am now searching for a DAN doctor in florida, however my concern is that my son may have no root causes because he has had all kinds of symptoms since birth, as an infant he was similar to how he is now even. Does that possibly mean that what my son has is purely genetic and will nt respond to treatments because the root cause is chemical? I am very intersted in Dr Murphy - i think because my son has so many varied issues that it would be good ot see both a psychiatrist and a DAN doctor. Do other people do this kind of thing? I am wondering why i cant just tell the pediatrician to order the blood test for the titers. He usually will do as i ask even if he doesnt understand! alright thank you all so very much!

my 2 cents on this - my son is 8. he has been tested for celiac/gluten intolerance 2x and both time the gastro said the results were inconclusive, whatever that means? she said he showed some evidence but not all evidence. my son had has tics for a few years now along with plenty other problems. I am very concerned about the gluten factor as he may be allergic. my goal is to try gluten free diet and see what happens. I also need to get those celiac results interpreted better. my son often has stomach pain and reflux and has wierd red splotches behind his ears and sometimes on his face. Hope that helps.

hello everyone - just trying to gather all this info little by little and i am wondering how you find out if your child is pandas? Is it a simple test that a pediatrician could perform? Also, ive seen a few of you mention a doctor (neurologist?) that you see at U of Florida, i believe. Is this doctor a DAN doctor or just a medical doctor and what did you go see them to accomplish? also, the lab corp UPPA test we are having re-done because they exposed the container. We are doing it today and i hope to be able to post the results by friday. thanks!

wow thank you all for the replies. the information has been great and i appreciate it! i have been giving him the multi vit which i do recommend based on the ingredients and quality. it's callesd Kids and Us food based minis by Mega Food. It is gluten free as well. hard to say the effect that and the magnesium may be having as i believe these meds have him so up and down everyday. he had a good, tic free, mood free day today and was happy but at night he got up from bed and was hysterically angry, he trashed his room, was saying horrible things - when i got him back into bed i noticed a spotty red rash around his eyes and mouth and nose. i had given him the smallest dosage of benadryl as i was told by a parent it was good for occassional sleeplessness and couldnt hurt if he had any food allergies. Normally he is never freaking out like this. In bed his tics were crazy he couldnt even lay down. After a while it slowed enough and i left the room. at this point i thnk i am going to tell the psychiatrist that i want him off one or both of these meds. This nighttime manic epsidoe happened once before 2 nights ago along with the wierd rash. I thank you all again and i will post the results of the labcorp UPPA test, we have to retake it because they exposed the container.

I apologize that this is long and it is about medication and i know that this is not a medication forum but rather an alternative treatments forum and i understand and respect that, however the reason i am going into all the below detail about meds is that i am hoping someone who USED to be in my shoes (giving their child meds and no longer doing so) will read this and understand. Thank you - I am still fairly new here but i am compelled to post this and see if anyone has any comments pls. Briefly, my son is 8. Diagnosed with TS last march 2007. Not knowing better, placed him on Abilify at that time. I will say that the tics (which at the time were bad) dissapeared and overall my son was like a different child with the improvements we saw. I thought, oh these meds are not bad! They help! I think i was wrong. I have joined this forum because i am slowly planning on moving away from this synthetic garbage to alernative, natural treatments and diet, etc. So far just having read this forum, i learned a lot and bought my son an excellent multivitamin plus a magnesium with calcium supplement and removed all major food offenders like candy and artificial colorings. Of course, as finances alllow, we have a long way to go, there are many things i have read about on these forums that i wish to try including GF/CF. However here is my current issue - about 2 months ago out of nowhere my son started "slipping" - symptoms were coming back slowly. A fw tics, a few moods, more anxiety (the anxiety was possibly my sons biggest issue) until finally we realized the Abilify was not "working" at all any more. not only were we back to square one, but there were even some new symptoms that were worse. These symtpoms the psychiatirst said were mental tics. Anyway, immediately i thought lets take him off this junk, but frankly i chickened out because my son was having troubles in school and i didnt want ot make it worse by jerking him off this medication, i thought maybe things might be even worse and i dont want to disrupt school any more than it is already. Anyway, describing what was happening to the psychiatrist, he told us to add a new med Inversine to the mix. He explained that inversine was harmless, a blood pressure medication that worked to just calm his system down. i thought, ok that doesnt sound evil, might as well try. He has been on that about a week, i have no idea if its doing anything because of all the ups and downs we've had over the last month. The psychiatrist was literally stumpted by the abilify not working any more, though he insisted it wasnt that it wasnt working! anyhow, he increased the dose, things stayed the same and some days were worse. Finally my son had a day that was horrible i called and he said to stop the abilify for one or two days because "too much dopamine had built up" in his brain. I did that the next morning, no abilify and lo and behold he had a really good day with minial to no problems. The 2 nd day of no abilify however was bad again!!!! I was/am baffled! I called again and the doc said that he has "bottomed out" and to give him a tiny bit, about 1mg in the eveing from now on. I did that last night and lo and behold again, he had a great day today, albeit with tics. I wish of course i had bitten the bullet and taken him off the abilify at the first sign of things going wrong. Now he is on two meds! albeit a very low dose of abilify. My plan WAS to keep things status quo and over his long christmas break, wean him off this meds and get him to a holositic/DAN type doctor and begin non medicine interventions. Now i am wondering if i am a fool for waiting. One of the issues of course is that i do not at this moment have the money to see a DAN doc and buy all manner of expensive supplements etc. I didnt feel it was right to take him off the meds without having another plan ready to go and try. I am so confused and it is killing me ot see my son on this rollercoaster ride! it is a crapshoot how he will "be" tomorrow and if i will even be able to know what the problem is. I worry that i will be being a bad mother taking off the abilify as the psychiatrist likes to remind me how much it used to help....also, i have a read where meds with TS stink because there is more ups and downs than any other condition being treated with meds. again, i am sorry this is so long but i am desperate. Im not just going to go from neurologist top psychiatrist to neurologist to have them all tell me the same thing - "he has TS. He needs meds. Just because there's a backslide doesnt mean the meds arent working" etc. ANYONE with any advice?? Thank you so very much.

hi bmom: Let's see if i have anything to share on this....when your daughter shrugged, did you have any sense that she was conscously shrugging? Like if im answering someone by shrugging my shoulder you can tell i am doing it on purpose....also, when she shrugged going into preschool that day, did she have on a shirt that bothered her?? how often does she do this shrug? does she have any other possible symptoms? is there a time when you put the shirt that bothers her on and she doesnt shrug or complain? those are questions i would ask myself. with my son, although he is 8, i can always tell when its a tic and when its a voluntary movement because maybe he is stretching or something. when he was around 3, he had so many other symptoms that i didnt notice tics, although he always had sensitivites which may have been tics, like didnt like to be touched in certain spots, rolled his eyes all the way to one side or the other, licked things and pushed up on this for pressure stimulation. i wouldnt be comfortable saying "oh dont worry its nothing" and i wouldnt say "oh yes something is wrong" - i dont know, but i would think about the occurence and see what you feel may be going on. are the occurences so isolated that its hard to tell why she is shrugging? i wouldnt panic, definitely, chances are it is not tics, but these may be some good questions to ask.

and on another note, i bought today a vitamin supplement and magnesium as I read those are 2 good things to start with (my son is on meds and we have not tried any alternative treatments yet). The vitamin is "Kids and Us Food based minis" by Essentials Mega Food. It looks good, whole food based. The magnesium is Blue Bonnet Chelated with Calcium in250mg. I dont know how much of the magnesium to give him.....? Does anyone know? the bottle says 2 pills a day but he is not an adult. Thank you for any input.

Wow, very interesting! Isnt it odd Faith to never be ill? My son had RSV at about 2-3 months old, and a few ear infections, then we found out he was allergic to amoxicillan, but since infancy he has not been sick. When my husband and i are barely able to get out of bed with the flu, he is bouncing around and never gets it too. With his stomach problems he does sometimes have vomiting and looks pale now and then. this convo has me thinking though because a few days ago he started complaining he is dizzy, i dont even know if he knows what that means, and that he is tired, and he is NEVER tired. But no cold/flu symptoms, now i am wondering if he is sick and doesnt show it? This child has not missed one day of school due to illness!

Quick question please: in light of the emphasis on natural methods, natural foods, etc, i have always been told by DAN followers and read that antibiotics are awful for the system's of kids who have issues that our kids seem to have. Does anyone know what im talking about? I was always told that antibiotics were bad in the way that vaccines (minues the mercury issue) are bad for your body - just an unnatural intrusion. What do you think?? Thank you.

In reading your post, i have a few questions - you talk about treating our kids "the way they treat the usual OCD and Tourettes - but our kids do not have this same illness, that would only be treating the symptom" - does that mean that a child can have TS or another disorder either because his body has a malfunctioning immune system and reacts negatively to environmental forces, OR because it is just a neurochemical problem? What is the difference between the illnesses? I am wondering because i am debating right now what is wrong with my son, if it is even TS, WHAT TS even is, and so on. What you said in your post is intriguing - if the biomedical/alternative approach does not work for some children, what conclusion does this draw? Thanks for any ideas.

hi pesosmom: i just had to respond to your post - my son is 8 and was diagnosed with Tourrette recently, he has been having tics for 2.5 years. I am also new to this forum. What you describe sounds just like my son! He has the same head tic, like he is saying yes but trying to crack his neck in the process, he will also do it side to side, and i also fear he will hurt himself. He also does the clearing throat and grunting and becomes mad when you approach him etc. My son is on Abilify which i look forward to stopping, but it is a scary venture when you have school going on and i am afraid he will be in a worse state off the meds. However, from everything i have read here and elsewhere, at least trying these approaches is a logical move. You can request on the school level, an evaluation to determine any special needs she may have and any services she is entitled to by law, and if you do get a diagnosis you can bring that to the school system for services and extra help and understanding from them. If you need any help with that please let me know. I too am going to purchase the supplements suggested in the posts below, i just wonder if i wont see their real affect because he is on serious meds?? this is a great forum and i have been reading as much as i can get away with in a day!

hello everyone, As i am learning more about alternative or biomed approaches to neuro disorders i find myself with more questions. I am seeking some clarification, some explanation of what it means that the body affects the brain/neurological systems - perhaps there is a good general book out there? It was only since i joined this forum that some one said it is not having too much or too little dopamine that is the problem in TS, but rather how the body is REACTING to its own dopamine. I want to understand this better, everything from enzymes to nervous system to immune system, the gut-brain relationship, allergies. I used to think that the issue was people who believed in brain chemicals like dopamine and those who did not believe those chemicals exist. As i read over this forum and wonder if my son is one of those who would be positively affected by alternative interventions and treatment, i wonder if what he "has" will respond to these approaches. He has some other physical red flags such an an ulcer and all kinds of gastro problems, tested possible but not definite for gluten intolerance, has dark circles under his eyes, and so on - however he does not have others, such as jaundice and strep or other illnesses (he is actually never sick). also his moods and emotional problems and anxiety problems lead me to believe maybe he does not even have TS, but just happens to have some tics? its as though the psychiatrist refuses to see any other disorder other than TS, even though these anxiety problems are much worse than tic problems. i've been printing out posts from here on all different treatments in order to start to compile a comprehensive list of them - this forum has so much wonderful info! As i posted elsewhere, we got our pediatrician to write an order for the LabCorp UPPA urine test, i will post how it goes etc. Thank you!