ssonheim

Very interesting! thank you for sharing! I hope things get better

Thanks so much for your input! It's all very interesting to read about this. Especially the maternal link to Pandas. I don't think I had Pandas as a child, just scarlet fever. I dont have OCD and I only developed anxiety after her birth, with a health scare at the hospital (only me, she was fine.) She was breastfed for 14 months. Really healthy and normal except she seems to get quite ill all the time, whereas other kids seem to get over it in a day or two. She's not ASD, so it seems like it would be very strange for her to have such a persistent tic? She was talking very early, forming sentences and is high IQ, and one of the best students in her class. She has some Aspie symptoms but the early language would rule that out. My son is 14 and never had any of these symptoms. Im going to get a second opinion w/ Friedmeyer next week. My husband was on board with that. Money is tight and we don't have thousands to throw at Murphy and Berger (out of network, don't accept insurance) unless it is a true emergency. I hope it doesn't come to this but I am curious of taking a natural approach and having someone specifically tell me what to do as opposed to guessing! I really hope antibiotics will help her!

Hi! Thanks so much for the reply! I did have scarlet fever at age 10, after a negative strep test and my mom was really angry about it because she was convinced I had strep and the doctor said I didnt and it didnt show and then I got scarlet fever- in a very dramatic way on my 10th birthday. I woke up and couldnt move my neck it was so stiff and my mom panicked and called 911. I had to wear a neck brace for a few days. I appreciate your input. Friedmeyer is pandas friendly and I searched here and it seems like he is well respected. I also ordered the natural treatments book from amazon. I think you are probably right. I hate giving antibiotics, especially if this will just go away. So hard to tell but not bad to seek a second opinion. She has been more fearful lately, concerned about ghosts and thunderstorms. I wouldnt say it's super present, just kind of normal 5 year old stuff... She does have her first loose tooth, since the symptoms started appearing as well. This is all extremely confusing.

P.S. we are in Tampa. So we could see Dr. Friedmeyer (in network) Dr. Berger or Dr. Murphy. Murphy is really $$$ and I don't know if I am overreacting. I'd love to see if Dr Berger could fix it holistically but I am skeptical. Dr. Friedmeyer sounds like a good place to start. Of course my husband is Not on board. He's worried but thinks it will disappear on it's own.

Thanks for bumping! I noticed about 1/3-1/2 fewer tics yesterday. They did not persist all day long. She stayed home from school with me and I did 2 doses of ibuprofen, 7 hours apart. So, it could be the ibuprofen (but I did give it to her last weekend and saw no improvement), relaxing at home (she was home all last weekend and we didnt see improvement) or just a natural waning. Can anyone shed light if ticcing all day every day is ever "normal" for a five year old? My pediatrician seems to think so. From everything I have been able to read in the last month, it seems like kids tic in periods where they are stressed or bored but barely do it otherwise. Not just a gradual increase from waking up to nighttime. Handwriting is good, possibly better than a few months ago. She's quite an artist and draws beautifully for her age. Movement is normal. Could this be PANDAS? Or is this normal five year old behavior? Or just the beginning of transient tic/ tourettes? Both my husband and I and my son all pick our nails, scabs but never have had tics. I used to pick the foam at my carseat as an infant apparently. Obviously I have a lot of anxiety. However, tics do not run in our family as far as we know. Nothing in our immediate family or first cousins for sure. I am just absolutely lost and I don't know whether to just closely watch her and hope it disappears? I guess my concern is the frequency of the tic falling into "normal" parameters?

I wanted to add that when shes concentrating, when shes playing, when she's happy as a child can be, there is no pattern to the tic. It doesn't seem to disappear with concentration or relaxation. It just increases in frequency as the day goes on. By 11 AM it's every 5 seconds without any breaks. Also, We may have been allergic to our Christmas tree too (possible mold) which is when this all started with the sniffing. I was down with bronchitis for the month of December. It's hard to say exactly when it was genuine stuffy nose vs. tic. We removed the christmas tree and I got better (I was on a z pack too). I'm just so confused and don't know if I should pursue PANDAS because there have been no behavior changes. Clearly I'm not going to get anywhere with my pediatrician. But money is tight and I can't really see specialists out of pocket that don't take insurance unless we start getting really severe. It doesn't seem to bother her. And the tics started again (11 AM) every 20 seconds. UGH!!!

Hi! My daughter had strep throat the day before halloween and finished a 10 day course of antibiotics (penicillin?). She only had a high fever and vomiting, never a sore throat. We went to the pediatrician within 48 hours of the high fever. She became sick with a virus and some form of wet cough bronchitis the week before Thanksgiving. She had a lingering runny nose, so we thought. By mid december we noticed that she was sniffing with every breath through one nostril. Never when she slept. she would twist her nose sideways to get a breath. I figured it was allergies but did read that it could be a tic. Ignored it. By early January it was still there (and driving me crazy) so I tried magnesium. I also tried distracting her and noticed that it would go away when she was concentrating. We replaced her pillow and treated with zyrtec but the magnesium seemed to make it disappear. Well the pillow was apparently too big. Because as her sniffing phased out, she started rolling her shoulders/neck. She told me it "felt good to do it" (same response as the sniffs. ) I switched to a smaller pillow and the rolling the shoulders went away. Then the hard blinking started. We assumed allergies (and got a work up with a pediatric optometrist). The zyrtec and benadryl made it disappear within 5 days. We had 3 glorious tic free days. Then she started up the hard blinking again. She blinks reallly hard- like she is squeezing them shut. I noticed a tiny teensy stye on one eye but it is since disappeared. She wakes up every morning without tics but they increase (starting after an hour or so) to every 5 seconds. Before bedtime it's practically every second. That's been for the last 6 days. I have been using natural calm since early January. Cut out wheat and gluten and didnt see any results. Supplementing with B vitamins, D, taurine, etc and I am seeing no results. Basically she's like the princess and the pea, if something is uncomfortable, she turns it into a tic. This has never happened before December! I took her to the pediatrician yesterday. She had thrown up at school. No fever. She has a tiny cold and tends to throw up when the post nasal drip fills her stomach I guess, thats what he told us. He said it couldnt be PANDAS as she took antibiotics. We didn't miss any doses. We did have a complete throat culture (lab culture) a few weeks ago. It was negative. He said she was just letting stress go and the sooner I ignored it the sooner it would go away. She hasnt had behavior changes. Maybe subtle ones, but nothing really big- I mean, she's always been a Type A personality. Schoolwork is going well and she loves her school and teacher. She's in half day K. Would you pursue PANDAS with this one? I hate seeing her blink all day so hard. Some of the squeezes last a whole second. She says it "feels good"- she can stop for a minute or two and then it returns. I am trying ibuprofen this morning and it is going pretty well. Too soon to tell though. I really need some advice. Does this disappear? Since we don't have behavior/schoolwork issues, is this just a normal tic? Pediatrician said 25% of kids get them, its just a stress relief thing.