Brenda

Morning All, Recently I had to take my 11 year daughter to the hospital after experiencing shortness of breath, rapid heart beat, muscle cramping and dizziness. After many tests, the only thing they could find was that she is extremely low in phosphorus. She has grown alot in the past year, and the doctors thought the deficiency may be due to her growth spurt, she gets alot of growing pains in her legs. They are recommending putting her on phosphorus, phosphate and vitamin D supplements. I have read about the supplements and just wondered if anyone experienced an increase of ticcing after taking these supplements. She has done so well with minimal ticcing, she has more issues with OCD than tics. She seems to be hungry all the time, yet does not each much at any one time. Since she has always been like this, a grazer, I have not really thought she might be missing something in her diet. Your input would be welcome, Thanks, Brenda

Giselle, I just wanted to congratulate Hoyt on for being so brave to audition for a solo part in the Christmas musical, and I do hope that the music teacher looks at his talent, not at his TS. My daughter is wonderful at playing piano and has competed in various music festivals over the past 4 years. When I told her piano teacher about her TS, she simply said, that if anything happens regarding tics, she will deal with it then. At the festivals I have seen other children with disabilities - blind, in wheel chairs and their talent is recognized as talent! Best of luck to Hoyt, I know that whatever role he plays in the musical he will be fantastic! Brenda

Goodmorning everyone, Just thought I'd share an update on my daughter. After the first round of antibiotics she became very sick again with sore throat, fever and nausea. I took her to her doctor who did a throat swab and ordered blood work for strep. He also gave her amoxicillin for a week. Her throat swab came back positive for strep. I don't have the blood work results yet. She has been put on a daily dose of 250 mg amoxicillin for a month to clear her of strep. However, she has been having diarrhea and stomach aches which I am think are from the antibiotics. Should I continue with the anitbiotics or are there any natural ways of getting rid of strep? Since her positive test for strep, I have made a deal with her to not have any junk food (candies, chips, colored drinks) for a month. We are into our second week and what a change in her. She is so much easier to get along with, much less argumentative. Even my husband and her older sister have noticed that she is much happier. I think that her OCD seems to be less, but I'm not sure if it is because she is being treated for strep or cleaning up the diet. Either way, I'm glad to see her doing better. Take care, Brenda

Chemar and Ronnas, Thanks for the info, I will contact her doctor and ask to have the throat swab done. Is there any benefit to having blood work done when testing for strep? I can't say that there was any real improvement to her throat or cough while on the antibiotic. She has taken both colorless motrin and Buckleys cough syrup before with no side-effects. Also, when we were waiting at the walk-in clinic, there was a young man who had a pair of tweezers and was constantly picking at his lip area with them, not pulling out any hair, just picking at his skin. My daughter saw this and questioned what he was doing. Could seeing this behavior trigger OCD? Thanks for your help, Brenda

My daughter who has a mild case of TS, has displayed OCD signs in the past. Recently, she developed a very sore throat and cough. She was put on Keflex antibiotic for it, but wasn't tested for strep, we were travelling at the time and I had to take her to a walk-in-clinic. I had to stop the Keflex because she had terrible stomach cramps from it. She stil complains of her throat hurting and coughs a fair bit, but we have just been treating it with motrin (uncolored) and cough syrup. Since she got sick and started the antibiotics, her OCD has started up again. Has anyone else had this happen. I was thinking of having her tested for strep. Does a strep infection start OCD like it can start tics? Thanks, Brenda

Thanks Chemar for the info. So far there hasn't been any violent outbreaks, but a constant bad mood. It seems that no matter what I say or how I try to say it, it is done in the wrong way. I know that only I am not giving her the full regime of Bonnie's vitamins, but I have been hesitant to give her more. During an earlier episode of more intense ticcing, when I gave her higher dosage of Bonnie's vitamins, she seemed to tic more. I will check into the amount of zinc again on Bonnie's vitamins, perhaps I need to add extra zinc in a second or different type of supplement. My daughter has shown earlier OCD, thanks for pointing out the detailed conversations related to OCD. Somedays, it seems that we can discuss something to the point that I can't remember what the originial thought was! I will check again into inositol. I have tried to maintain a healthy diet for my family, but have let it slide recently with a family holiday, hopefully cleaning our diet again will help to ease the moods for my daughter and myself! Thanks for letting me sound off! Brenda

Is being moody a part of TS or just bad behavior? I have an eight year old daughter who has TS. Although her tics have been very minimal for several months now, I find that her continued moodiness is nearly unbearable. I have had blood work done via mainstream testing and they found her low in zinc. I have been giving her 2 Bonnies vitamins a day and trying to avoid as much junk food as possible, but maybe this isn't working. Along with the moodiness, any discussions with her have to be lo-o-ong drawn out discussions, to the point of frustration. She has to know every last detail! I feel like a bad mother - but I'm just really tired of the bad attitude. Thanks, Brenda

Thank you for your replies! I checked with the dentist, and it is a stainless steel crown. I questioned about using a procelin crown but it was very expensive. They did say, that they could do a white amalgam filling, but if it falls out it would have to be replaced. After talking with my husband, this is the route we will go. We both feel better about not putting any extra metals into her body. The dentists' office also wants to put a sealant on her molars. I feel better about this as there is no color or metals in the sealant, although I will ask them for a detailed list of ingredients of the sealant before we proceed. Thanks again for your input, I really appreciate your advice. Wishing you all the best. Brenda

I'm curious if anyone has had an increase in tics after having dental work involving laughing gas and stainless steel crowns. My daughter is to have a crown put on and the dentist suggested using gas to ease the process. I am hestitant about both - she is doing very well (very minimal tics) that I hate to subject her to something that may increase her tics. I questioned the dentist about only filling the tooth with white filling and they said that the tooth may break as the cavity is quite large. I'd appreciate any input. I continue to read this site daily and you are a wonderful support group! Thankyou, Brenda

Kim, Sorry I haven't replied sooner, but I have been away for a few days. I think that it is too soon to say whether the vitamins have been helping my daughter yet. When we first started them, she couldn't swallow pills, so we tried mixing the powder with a variety of foods. It took about a week of trying, but she finally mastered swallowing them and is always proud to tell me she did it in one try! I do think that her OCD of picking her eyelashes and eyebrows has diminished, as they are now growing back, but I'm not sure if this is a result of the vitamins or waning of the OCD. Her tics are mild right now, her head shaking is gone, but I see that her left hand is moving and she still has some eye movements. It will be interesting to see how she does when this phase of the moon has passed! Hopefully over the next few weeks of being home, with a regular diet, I will be able to watch more closely and see how she does on the vitamins. Take care, Brenda

Chemar, Kim Thanks very much for your responses on OCD, I guess I was so concerned with looking for and identifying tics, I completely overlooked any signs of OCD. I will definitely look up the sites you mentioned to learn more on OCD. This is probably a very elementary question, but could you tell me if OCD waxes and wanes the way tics do? Thanks again. Brenda

Although this is the first time posting here, I have been reading this board since my daughter (7) was diagnosed with TS last year. My daughter has had many tics over the past year, the most frequent is the head shaking (like saying no) and now the eye rolling has come back as well. Her tics remain mild but she started picking at her eye lashes - always saying she had a backwards eyelash. I didn't think much of this because she has very long lashes and wears glasses but the other week I noticed that she no longer has upper eye lashes and has gone to picking at her eyebrows. Is this a tic or OCD? The neurologist at the time of diagnosis, said that OCD often accompanied TS, but I always thought OCD was having to do something a certain number of times? My daughter has started Bonnie's vitamins, and we just finished two weeks of no milk or caffeine. She did really well, and her tics settled down alot over the trial period. Going back to drinking milk again after the two week trial, her tics have again started to be more frequent, she even commented on having more tics since drinking milk again. Thank you for your input, I have learned so much from this forum and have so much to learn. You are an incredible group of people! Brenda