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We are just going by what we read in the journals we kept the past several years. Every big tic was prefaced by a hot dog. This dates back 3-4 years. We spoke with some people locally as well as my neurologist friend and everyone agreed hot dogs contain so much junk that any of that junk could trigger the neuro system and hence the tic. I'm sure everyone is different but for our daughter that is what we found every time. I would suggest to everyone to keep some kind of journal so that you can always go back and see what happened the last time a tic came about whether it was related to food, environment, etc.. Thanks to everyone who posted comments and suggestions! So far she's still doing great, hardly any tics at all!

We really wanted to try a scientific approach and try each one individually to see if one worked better than the other. The only time we combined anything, which was twice, was the Gaba and Magnesium. It seemed to help calm her down temporarily but also slowed down her brain. But the vocal tics never stopped. We did the Flora-Essence detox tea by itself and it has been doing well. We've only used it for six days so far and we just give her one ounce of it mixed with a little over an ounce of hot, filtered water. She takes it right before bedtime. As I said, right after her first dose last week, it was night and day. She is doing so well now. Today she came home and told us she didn't tic once at school. Even throughout the 3 day weekend we hardly noticed it. She probably only ticked 3 or 4 times each day and none of them were as loud as they were last week.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in. Here's an update, and thankfully a very happy update. We tried Acetyl-L-Carnitine, L-Carnitine, Gaba, and Magnesium, all at different times trying to use a scientific approach to see which one would work. None of them worked. An employee at our local health food store suggested a detox tea called Flora-Essence. At this point we were ready to try anything. Well the difference was night and day. She took one dose before she went to bed and the next day she hardly ticked at all. She went from ticking up to 9 times per minute to maybe 3 or 4 times PER DAY. We don't even notice it anymore and when she does we realize how much better it is because we don't hear it hardly at all now. This detox tea was a blessing. I drink it myself. We basically decided, instead of 'masking' the problem w/ these other supplements, why not just take the detox tea and let it do what it's supposed to do, which is basically flush the body of all the bad toxins. We truly believe this all started from the hot dogs. My wife kept a journal for the past few years and reading the past entries, all her major tics were set off after eating a hot dog. Besides all the junk that is in a hot dog, we also found out that most hot dogs have nonfat milk inside. My daughter is allergic to dairy so we believe the combination of milk and junk sets off her tics. Anyway I just wanted to let you all know of our experience and what has helped our daughter to almost get rid of her vocal tic. Like I said, we hear it a few times a day but hardly. It's much better than the few times A MINUTE we were previously hearing!

Thanks Sarah. She is allergic to both dairy and tomatoes. She's exhibited tics for the past four years but in different formats (pulling fingers, saying 'Sorry' all the time, light humming, washing hands all the time). We looked at a journal my wife has kept over the years and it seems that whenever she eats a hot dog, a major tic is launched. We try to stay away with all the junk and artificial stuff but it's tough when she's at a friend's party and all they have are hot dogs. We are going to make sure we pack her a lunch when she goes to a party and explain her allergies to the parents. Anyway we just read the L-Carnitine that was prescribed has some traces of dairy so that could have made matters worse. I just bought a dairy-free version from the health store so hopefully that will help. I also bought Gaba which is a calming supplement. I may try it in conjunction with Magnesium to see how that works.

I've been reading threads for assistance with my 8 yr old daughter who has Tourettes. She can't stop yelling. She can somewhat control it during school but after that it is almost nonstop at home and it is to the point where we can't take her out anymore because it is just too loud. We've had her on Magnesium and that is no longer helping. We read about Acetyl L-Carnitine and L-Carnitine and we tried both but it seems that when we give it to her, it gets even worse. My wife and I are so frustrated and we are trying to stay calm because we know she is not doing it on purpose. She even asks us why she is born this way and that just tears us up inside but we are trying to stay strong so she knows that we are there for her and not punishing her for this. I myself has slight tics but I am able to control easily throughout the day and night. If anyone can provide us with any insight as to what else may help control her tic I would greatly appreciate it. PLEASE!