andreafrazer

Thanks so much. I have really enjoyed this site. You have updated it so much and it's so user friendly.

I have been there. We ARE there now. What I'm going to do, in addition to having him off gluten based on food allergy tests is listen to the test results and take him off dairy also. Have you had any food allergy tests done? There's a lot you can do to start there. In addition, you can get a hair test done to see if he's got heavy metal overload. We are doing this for our 12 year old now, too. I can get more info to you if you want. You are not alone!

No one here can answer this? That surprises me! Come out come out wherever you are!

It's me again! Curious what you all have found to be the best test for food allergies. I tested my son via blood testing and through Kinesiology. (Yes, those vials with itsy bit of food in them placed on body parts actually do an accurate job in discerning basic food allergies.) That said, what is the most up to date ways to determine what a child is allergic to? Saliva testing? Blood? Hair samples? Suggestions would be great. This is for me, as well as for a friend who is new to the whole ticking deal. Best - Andrea

Hi Chemar - Thanks for your response. It's great to see you here still. You've been so helpful. When you say "magnesium taurate" is that instead of citrate or in another word for Taurine? I know I can Google, but curious to hear from you. Thanks so much. Andrea

Hi all - Haven't been here in a while. Glad to be back. My son is 12 and he had a full year of constant quacky type ticking. He is/was not on meds. When I gave him magnesium citrate/NAC and Taurine, they dramatically reduced. Then a nutritionist friend said Taurine is awful for kids. Can really stunt their growth. I took him off and the tics are back. (Though could be due to running out of NAC and his system hasn't adjusted yet.) Any thoughts on dangers of Taurine? Thanks.

Chris - Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the vitamins. I, too, am about to purchase new vitamins for my 9 year old with mild TS. We had been using Progressive Vitamins with pretty good success. http://www.lifehappi...eat-for-ts.html But since this summer his tics have been soooooooo much higher. I wonder if that has to do with a change in Progressive vits? Anyone else notice that? Or could it be just the lack of schedule and more DS? We have recently taken away the DS for behavior issues in school and his tics are far less. I'm not sure now if it's electronic brain mush related or vitamin. I know this is a balance game and no one knows for sure what the trigger is. It's a case by case basis. But... MAIN QUESTION: If I were to start a new vitamin, you think the Spectrum II is a good start combined with the other supplement you mentioned? Just looking for some support here. I write about my journey a lot here. I'd welcome any of your feedback over there also for other moms struggling with this. Thanks!

Thanks for this update! I hear oranges and citrus in general are rough on some due to the salycites. But you likely know that already! Thanks for your detailed journey here. So helpful. Andrea

Hi Laurie - My son is 7 and has TS. He was diagnosed shortly after his vaccinations at 4ish/5. (don't remember exactly, never have been good with dates!) He is what I'd call mild, but being in first grade, kids notice now. He stretches his neck or clears his throat. He'll toungue click or squat. He'll roll his eyes or blink, or head nod. The thing is that he rarely does all at once except if he's super excited like a birthday or something. Even then, it's not as bad as one might think. Im his mom and am more conscious. I would say that as much as I have fought the diet, it had helped him. When we went off of it in September, after a few months, tics started worse. When we put him on magneisum, all vocals and eye roll went 90% away. What we are left with is movement. I am looking into Bonnie Grimaldi' s vitamins for that. I have only not ordered due to a slight soy allergy and, since many of the vits have that as a base, want to check with a homeopath. My biggest suggestions are 2: 1. Don't bring it up to him. Don't create a problem that isn't there. If he tics he can't help it. 2. This goes along with #1: Create the most positive, loving environment you can. It alleviates tics more than any meds could ever do. I can truly say that my son is one of the most confident, happy go lucky, laughing and kind 7 year olds I know. He is known for being Mister Funny and Mister Social. He likely will run for class president (wacky charter school... they do a lot of independent stuff. The TS is not an issue at all.) We don't have behavior issues, but some ADHD issues. He is not diagnosed with it, and due to the super healthy diet he is on, he most likely won't need that label for a while! I hope you'll consider an excellent homeopath before meds. My long journey toward feeling comfortable with our natural approach was that his tics were not interfering with him socially or physically. It only bothered ME. Not a good enough reason to do it. Everyone is different though - that's what is great about this forum. You will find support for whichever way you decide to go. Keep us posted! Andrea

Thank you everyone. I will look at all the links and write back if I have questions. THanks!

Patty - Thanks for your response on the other thread. How old is your son? And by OCD, do you mean treating his repetitive tics? My son, for example, does this 1-2-3 chest thrust when he's excited, or squats. To me, that is OCD related. Or are you talking more mental OCD like disturbing thoughts? Thanks! Also, congrats on the progress! Very encouraging. Andrea

Hi all - I can't thank this forum enough for all the help it has given. I wrote to Chemar privately about ordering Bonnie Grimaldi's vitamins, but I'd LOVE to hear some success stories with them. I could use a lift! I was wondeing, for those of you who do the clean diet, if you cheat at all? We try to stay away from offending foods, but the past 3 months we've been more lax with parties and stuff. I'm wondering if: 1. Dominic's tics are higher because of the cheating or... 2. If it's becuase he's 7 and they are being kicked up into high gear. I want to live a balanced life. I don't want to say "NO" forever to stuff. But... are any of you believers that cheating here and there can poison the good work you've done cleaning out the system? Finally, my son has started this super annoying squatting tic when he's excited. Looks like he is farting! So awful. I know it will pass (no pun intended!) but I'm wondering if any of you have experienced this. It seems very OCD to me... hoping that Bonnie's vitamins can help. Perhaps GABA or Inositol, but I'm not as good as Chemar and many of you when it comes to figuring out what pills when and how much. I'd love to do just a packaged deal, even if it costs more. Thanks for listening. Would really appreciate some feedback here. Andrea

Dalit - Does she wear the appliance all day? Can she eat with it? HOw old is your daughter? Thank you and sorry for all the questions!

Wow, you and I are on the same page with this! 100%! My son is not on a retainer, but for about 3 years we had a pretty strict diet with lots of supplements and all the battery of tests. (Well, not heavy metals) Bottom line: I hit this epiphany the other day when I thought, "I have to stop fixing him. He is beautiful the way he is. More than that. He is HAPPY." He's ticking a bit more today. Was it the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving? Was it the cafeteria food? Don't know. Am going to try and stop obsessing. He eats super healthy and we stay away as much as we can from "food allergy" triggers. But occasionally, he's going to eat like a normal kid. It's hard enough to be different without sitting alone at the end of the lunch table munching on tasteless muffins. For those of you who are adhering to the strict diet, I am not knocking you. I actually commend you. I, personally, have decided that since my son has "light TS" and it's not affecting him, I don't want to have him on the insane strict diet now. I'd love thoughts from both sides. In closing, I'm aware, too, that in trying to fix my son I was subconsciously trying to fix so much of myself that I didn't like. It was so buried in my subconscious that I didn't even realize it. Oh, sure, I said "I dont' want my son to be teased so I'm helping 'cure' the TS issue" but really... deep inside... I didn't like being teased as a kid and didn't want my son to go through it. But honestly, this is HIS life, not mine. I am working on my own self-esteem issues - weak areas I didn't even know existed - and in relaxing, my son is doing much better. God bless to all of you! Andrea

Hi all - I'm sorry for what you're going through with the Lyme issues. My son, from what I can see, has basic TS. How would I even test him for LYme?

Carolyn - How can I email you? I can't find my inbox anywhere. We spoke a few months ago via phone about me donig an article on TS featuring you. I'd like to chat with you about that again. Andrea Andrea.Paventi@gmail.com

Anyone in the L.A. area know of a good CS doc? THanks, Andrea (I read but don't post much. We're going thorugh a bad bout of vocal humming. God bless Sheila who tallked me down from the ledge a few days back, as well as Lurker.)

Thank you to everyone who has responded here! My husband is not a believer in the supplments, so we're off everything. My son's tics have decreased, but I am positive it's due to the natural wax and wane, not because he is not on supplements. My goal in April is to get him back on Magnesium as well as a good B6. Thank you all soooo much. I appreciate this forum more than I can say.

I've been reading everything lately and it's all been so helpful. As to the magnesium, my son won't take his Natural Calm anymore. Do you think Epsom salt baths and cream will adequately give him the magnesium he needs? Thank you.

Hi all - I wrote already to Carolyn and Cherie, and I thought I'd open this question up to all of you. My son has had an explosion of eye tics recently - really bad. He is doing this jaw thrusting thing with it. And then there's the coughing - I'm going nuts. He is on a strict diet - we had his IGG tested - but we cheated a bit last month. Here are my quetions for you: * How long does offending food stay in the system? Can it crop up weeks later and cause an explosion of tics? * Would you recommend taurine or nyastine for him? He's on: * Fish oil * Flax seed * Enzymes for digestion * Priobiotics * Magnesium with calcium (lemon flavored - he's not supposed to eat citrus... I wonder if this is an issue.) I have posted here in the past and you've all been so great. Thank you in advance. Thank you.

Can one use the L Carntine with Vitamin B Complex, fish oil, flaxseed and magnesium lactate? I don't want anything weird to mix. My concern, also, is that my son has not stopped coughing for a month. Normally a tic goes away after a week at the most. Not sure if it's the beginning of OCD (he's 5) or just from the strep, antibiotics and all the immunizations last month. I know, also, that you're not supposed to ask your child to stop. But when I have asked him to try, he can suppress it. Which i know is not fair, but I wonder how much of this is becoming habit. It's driving me CRAZY. I know I need to get over it and I rarely ask him, but curious. Okay, so advice with coughing tics PLEASE????? I'm loving these happy faces if you can't tell.

Thanks everyone for your help so far. This forum has been invaluable to me. My son is 5.5 and is seeing a kinsieologist/homeopath for his tics. He used to have severe eye rolls, grimaces, shoulder shrugging and minor vocals. Thanks to food allergy testing and eliminating chemicals, he only really tics noticeably when he is ill or on antibiotics. My questions are 3 fold: 1. What is the difference between a DAN doc vs. a homeopath? (I can also research, but any personal advice would be helpful) 2. Are any of your kids really tic free? If so, why the heck is the medical community so against homeopathic treatment? My HMO looks at me like I have 2 heads when I ask about nutrition. It really does seem to help my son. 3. Pandas? My son has this super annoying coughing tic now that came on very suddenly with his strep infection a few weeks ago. How do diagnose Pandas, and if it is Pandas, what to do? Thanks in advance! I'd really love to talk to someone about a direction I'm heading in. I'm driving my husband bonkers! Ha!