Tics trigger by TV

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Just wanted to add my experience again...we thought going into the store to "test" out the screens would work - it was very ineffective - way too many variables at play - tons of screens all over, the lights in the store, the excitement of whatever is playing on the tvs ( spiderman in our case) so we ended up buying it and bringing it home - and the store he was ticcing like crazy - probably from a number of triggers. Too bad it didn't work, as it would be an easy answer, always worth a try yourself though.

 

The other things I thought of was you saying her stuffy nose is causing facial tics - a few weeks ago my son got very chapped lips and skin around his lips - he came out of school with this mouth widening tic - never has he done this before - I asked about it and Chemar answered me in my thread New Here - she was right, the physical ailment brought on this tic - and when his lips got better the tic went away, so, maybe it is not just the actual illness but the feeling of having the stuffed nose that is causing this facial tic (just an idea)- my son would open his mouth really wide and quickly - looked very odd. He has not done this since his lips/face healed, I now make sure he has preventative cream on in the winter - another lesson I have learned along the way!

 

 

Good Luck,

[Helen]

Alison,

 

I agree with what you said about the feeling of the stuffy nose makes her tic more. When my daughter started her tics last year, it was triggered by allergy followed by very itching eyes, then followed by eye blinking. She had stuffy nose then as she tried to breathe hard, she started to develop shoulder shrugging tics. I'm glad you mentioned the chapped lips. My daughter has chapped lips all the time during winter. Maybe this is causing her to move her mouth around recently & even sticking her tongue out sometimes! (That one really bothers me a lot )

I normally put vaseline on her lips before she goes to bed. She tends to drink very little during day time, especially at school. Most of the time, she doesn't go the bathroom until she comes home after school! I have thought about that could be a problem since the toxic might stay in her little body for too long.

 

Claire,

 

As for the LCD TV, my husband is STRONGLY against getting a 15" one. It's just too small to be put in the living room. It'll be good for the bedroom, but I don't want her to be hiding in her room and watching TV all the time. I have to go to the store this week and see for myself. I know LCD TVs are very expensive. We have to replace our TV in the living room anyway so I just thought we should go for the LCD TV. May be we'll find a quiet time (thansk Alison for your letting us know your experience) to bring her to the store and test it there first.

 

I have made an appoinment with her pediatrician this wk-end. I'm planning to ask her to do a swab culture and also order for the IgG test. I'm afraid my daughter is not going to be very cooperative in opening her mouth and the result may not be accurate. I can't blame her on that. I've never done a culture myself. I tend to get very sore throat (may be it's strep!) a few times every year. Last time when I asked my my doctor about strep, he actually told me it doesn't make any difference whether I have strep or not because Amoxicillin will treat that anyway. Is this true? On the other hand, I have also read that too much antibiotic is actually bad for your body because while it's killing the strep cells, it may destroy your B-6 cells also.

 

I guess we'll just keep trying to do what we think it's right for our children.

 

May God bless us all!

[Claire]

Helen,

 

You are right that putting it in her room is not good...too tempting! Your husband would laugh at our house. My husband gets our old huge TV (CRT) in his private office, and we have the dinky 15" in the family room. He still prefers to come down to the family room though. Maybe bring a tape measure and check out the LCD vs CRT actual screen size. I don't know why they claim the LCD screen is effectively a bigger screen for the same size, and I have never checked it out. Good luck with your test. I would 'test' the 15" first, because if she starts reacting to the 20", I doubt it would settle for the 15". I hope you can find a quiet time when the sales guy will let you turn off the others--Alison raised a good point.

 

I used to get sore throats a lot. My ENT said that strep is not the only bacterial infection, and that other sore throats need antibiotics. I found this to be true. Of course too much can cause issues. Always the balancing act. One of the times my son had a reaction with a sore throat (fear), the strep result was negative, but the antibiotic still made a difference in both the sore throat and the symptoms.

 

Anyway, my ENT used to wonder if I was a strep carrier. However, when I found out I was deficient in zinc, my doctor immediately asked if I got sore throats a lot. This has indeed changed since I started taking 25 mg of zinc at bedtime.

 

If you get sore throats a lot, it is worth testing both of you for strep. Your doctor may be right about the antibiotics working no matter what, but if she may have PANDAS that changes the common thinking. And maybe amoxicylin (sp) ISN'T working, which is why you keep getting sore throats. I don't know, I never thought of my own sore throats until I knew about PANDAS and my son's risk.

 

Claire

[susan0101]

Helen,

 

My son is 9 and within the last few months developed the eye blinking/rolling problem. Thanks to this site, we realized the the TV was a major cause. The pediatric neurologist we took him to see mentioned nothing about screen/photo sensitivity - even after we mentioned how bad the tic gets when he watches TV! Around the same time he started with the eye tic he began piano lessons. We haven't noticed any problems with the tic during or after playing piano. In fact, when he's focused on anything other than a TV/computer/Gameboy screen, like reading or playing piano, the tic seems much better. As for stopping and limited TV and video games, my son's been very receptive because he has seen for himself the difference it's made with his tic. We are meeting with an acupuncturist/herbalist to discuss what alternative methods are out there that may help with this sensitivity. I'm sure diet restrictions will come into play as well. It would be nice to know that he could watch TV again without having to suffer so badly. Try piano lessons for your daughter. You'll know pretty quickly if the lessons are making things worse. Good luck!

[Guest Jean]

Alison & Helen,

 

You're right. Kids sometimes have odd "actions" repeatedly because there is a discomfort. For dry/chapped lips, you may want to try mint flavor "softlips" (with SPF 20). It works very well for us. My son and I have tried different brands, it ends up this is the most effective one. I used to get it from Longs but I no longer see the mint flavor one. You may purchase from on-line, or drugstore.com:

 

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp...BUY-PLST-0-SRCH

 

Jean