flightgoddess

I still haven't figured out my son's triggers. Possibly too much dairy...he seems to handle some dairy about every other day fine. We figured that out after an elimination diet. After the cough went away on the elimination, he would go back to coughing with any dairy. But after about 6 months, we saw he could tolerate occasional dairy. Possible supplements help. I was more regimented about the supplemets during his elimination diet, but then that fell off during the holiday season. His cough (his main tic) crept back over a couple months. So this spring I got him back on supplements and the cough has seemed to go away again. He takes omega/fish oil, a zinc/c gummy, probiotics, digestive enzymes, and branch chain ammino acids a few times a week. I wish I could get him to take magnesium, but I haven't found one he likes yet. Anyway, since before he was diagnosed with a transient tic, it was always 'waxing and waning' so all of this could be purely coincidence.

My son started coughing/clearing his throat when he was 3, after a cold. It took two years and a slew of alternative ideas, and a new eye tic to appear, before we were told it was tics. So at least you might be ahead of the game. We tried homeopathy, and it did help sometimes. There would be periods of no cough, but it always came back eventually. Also tried accupressure (he was afraid of the needles, so no accupuncture) It maybe helped lessen the cough, but it never went away fully during that time. At least rule out allergies, go to a regular allergist to test for dust, mold, pollen, foods, etc. For a while we wondered if it was our cat or dust mites that cause the cough. Thankfully, negative on that. Shortly after finally getting diagnosed with tics, we tried IgG testing for food sensativities, to get a starting place for an elimination diet. Those tests are not 100% , but should be read as a possible indicator. My son's results came back with elevated numbers for most protiens (dairy, beef, eggs, beans, few others) so that gave us a starting point to plan menus. The chiro also reccomended gut/digestion support with L-glutamine, probiotics, fish oil, digestive enzymes, and also branch chain ammino acids. The changes seemed to help. Eventually the cough went away, and we rotated most foods back into our diet, but dairy seemed to be his trigger. After more time, he was able to better tolerate occasional dairy (like pizza at a birthday). Then about 6 months later, he ate something I told him not to and he had an anaphylactic reaction to a cashew cookie (which we already knew about) and that totally knocked his system out of balance. The cough came back. Though, looking back, he wasn't on the extra supplements for a while. I finally got around to getting more supplements earlier this summer, and the cough has subsided greatly again, and he's about 90% dairy free. So it's all just a guess, Did those things really help, or is it just another waxing and waning cycle? His tic is so mild and I haven't seen any visible specific reaction to anything specific. Other than milk. (I think it makes him phlegmy, which aggrivates the cough) It was nice reading the book, but it's main point is you have to investigate and experiment, and find what works. No quick answers. And the answers you do find now, might change over time. Since the tic is a cough, it is really hard to just ignore it, so we do coach him to cover his mouth or cough in his elbow, so other people in public don't think we don't teach our kids to spread germs all over. And I told the school nurse and teacher about the tic/cough, so that they know I am not sending my child to school contagious. When your child does get sick for real, the cough will be of a different caliber and timing, you'll notice it is different.