I've had tourettes since I was about 5. I've managed it on my own mostly, briefly on haldol when i was in high school with no result, and went on to have a good career and family of my own. But I have been holding my breath (literally due to tics and metaphorically) for my two daughters, wondering if they would have tics like I did.
My oldest dd, now almost 7, had at age 5 brief episodes of eye blinking that I wondered if strep was involved. Only got a rapid test which came back negative with our naturopath. We gave her Yin Chao for the viruses/cold. We mostly cut out wheat/dairy and upped her magnesium through dietary means (more chickpeas, bananas, nuts, seeds, etc...) We already eat clean organic diet due to my tourettes, so the family has been on a healthy diet since before the kids. We may have done epsom salt, garlic, acv, or gse briefly. But whatever we did or not, it passed and no more eye blinking, to my huge sigh of relief.
My youngest dd, who is now 5 (what is it with the age 5?!?)about a month ago started to exhibit these deep sighs, saying she can't get a full breath in. She does it every 1/2 min when we read. She also had a string of viruses and stomach bugs in the last 3 weeks, which has been going around in the whole town this winter. And her sighing has been getting worse. She had been complaining of stomach pains on and off before the sighing started. We had taken her to the ped and he thought we should start first to see if she was constipated. Her tummy is a bit distended even though she is regular. This week, I took her to the ped again for the breathing, and asked for a strep test. I also wanted to get the western blot for babesia, but she wanted to do one at a time. And after doing a 48hr strep test, she is positive. and ped has prescribed abx.
My big question is, at this stage when she's better physically from the viruses/bugs, and only having this sighing and periodic stomachaches, is abx the answer? Or am I better off trying to amp her system to ride it out and treat strep naturally w a naturopath? Older dd seems to have ridden it out (although I'm cautious to say it, since my tics turned into tourettes when i was 11/12 with much lifestyle change/stress) I was put on abx when i was young, and it didn't stop my tics from coming back. Strep is all around us. We will always be in contact with it. At an early stage, is abx the answer? At this young age, if they are healthy otherwise, should I try to help her own system to fight it off with natural means? Wondering if abx robs the opportunity for the body to fight it off, if the body is otherwise healthy? Or is there a crucial window of opportunity to use abx with strep before it snowballs? Really not knowing what to do. Would love to know people's experiences and thoughts. Since I've lived my whole life with tourettes, I would love to spare my dd's.