Central Nervous System

[Guest Lulu]

Hello All!

 

I have an appointment for my son with a chiropractor. I asked her if she had any experience treating tic disorders and she said "Yes. We need to address his central nervous system and get that working correctly."

 

Does this sound right to you? Is there a link? On the flip side, do you think there's anything she could do to make the tics worse????

 

Thanks for your input. I always do appreciate it!

 

Lulu

[Ronnas]

We have had good success with seeing a chiropractor along with reflexology. My son really likes both of them. They have a very calming effect on him. We did cranialsacral therapy with the chiropractor.

Ronna

[Chemar]

Hi Lulu

 

we feel that regularly seeing a chiropracter is an essential for anyone who has tics as the tics frequently cause a misalignment of the spine which can in turn aggravate the tics.

 

We personally prefer the NUCCA chiropracters http://www.nucca.org

 

I agree with Ronna on the reflexology too. My son has always found it to have a wonderfully calming effect and a general boost to his health.

[Helen]

I happened to be in a Physical Medicine and Rehab doctor today for myself and I asked the doctor's opinion about my daughter's tics disorder. My daughter was ticcing a lot for the past couple of weeks, mainly facial grimaces. However, she was not that bad while we were in the doctor's office. He said a lot of little children have this problem with severity differs from one to another because their brains are not fully developed yet and when they are exposed to over excitement (I guess like certain cartoon like Yu-Gi_Oh) or under tremendous stress, their brains simply cannot handle the pressure. He said I should remind her to try to control the tics to prevent them from becoming habitual. However, it is important not to over emphasize the child's condition or say anything negative to affect her self-esteem. As for my daughter's facial tics, he suggested gentle massage to ease her pain from the frequent tics. A massage therapist will be the best person to teach a mother how to apply the correct massage at home. I agree that a mother's hand is far more comforting than a stranger's. He also suggested to minimize the child's activities over the wk-ends as rest is very important for children with tics. A happy and relax environment will definitely help. Come to think about it, kids nowadays do have a very business schedule (computer, ballet, piano, baseball....) comparing to when I was a kid.

 

After my daughter finished her swimming class today, I praised her on how well she did in class and to my surprise, she said to me, "Did you notice that I'm not doing it (& she showed me what she was talking about - snapping her jaw tic) now because you just said you're very proud of me?" All I said to her was, "Mommy is always very proud of you!" I do think it's necessary for parents to reassure their kids by saying positive and encouraging words to them all the time.

 

One more thing, my doctor also mentioned that boys tend to develope tics more often than girls because somehow they are eager to get the parents' attention.

[Helen]

I happened to be in a Physical Medicine and Rehab doctor today for myself and I asked the doctor's opinion about my daughter's tics disorder. My daughter was ticcing a lot for the past couple of weeks, mainly facial grimaces. However, she was not that bad while we were in the doctor's office. He said tics is actually a common thing in growing up but severity differs from one to another. He said the main reason is their brains are not fully developed yet and when they are exposed to over excitement (I guess like certain cartoon like Yu-Gi_Oh) or under tremendous stress, their brains simply cannot handle the pressure. He said I should remind her to try to control the tics to prevent them from becoming habitual. However, it is important not to over emphasize the child's condition or say anything negative to affect her self-esteem. As for my daughter's facial tics, he suggested gentle massage to ease her pain from the frequent tics. A massage therapist will be the best person to teach a mother how to apply the correct massage at home. He said a mother's hand is far more comforting than a stranger's. He also suggested to minimize the child's activities over the wk-ends as rest is very important for children with tics. A happy and relax environment will definitely help. Come to think about it, kids nowadays do have a very business schedule (computer, ballet, piano, baseball....) comparing to when I was a kid.

 

After my daughter finished her swimming class today, I praised her on how well she did in class and to my surprise, she said to me, "Did you notice that I'm not doing it (& she showed me what she was talking about - snapping her jaw tic) now because you just said you're very proud of me?" All I said to her was, "Mommy is always very proud of you!" I do think it's necessary for parents to reassure their kids by saying positive and encouraging words to them all the time.

 

One more thing, my doctor also mentioned that boys tend to develope tics more often than girls because somehow they are eager to get the parents' attention.

[Chemar]

Dear Helen

 

 

where your doctor has a point about always praising and providing positive reinforcement, and that kids should be well rested and not too stressed or over excited all the time.......

 

yet

 

 

the rest of it, ESPECIALLY the bit about boys ticcing more to get attention is quite the most innacurate thing that I think I have ever heard about TS or tics.

I am sure your doctor has knowledge in certain areas, but clearly tics are not one of them.

Forgive me for sounding harsh, but I have just about had enough of doctors who make those kind of statements!

 

I think you are doing a great job with your daughter and fully agree about massage and other positive things to help her. You are on the right track, but sadly that doctor isnt!

 

As many of us here know full well, there is more often a physiological cause for tics, whether tic disorders or TS, and there is enough crystal clear evidence for this just on this forum alone, never mind a wealth of research evidence

 

I am just astounded that a doctor would try to suggest that tics are psycological!

 

and

 

to suggest that your daughter "try to control" them is just BAD medical advice. research and anecdotal evidence shows that when one tries to control the tics, they can frequently become far worse and sometimes result in OCD etc.

Dr McKinley at Life's a Twitch has done many seminars on the dangers of tic suppression.

 

Sorry to vent off like this, but I have seen first hand the problems caused for kids when ignorant doctors or psychologists try to get them to "stop those habits"....it is a serious thing!

 

Again, I fully commend you (and the doctor) for promoting positive reinforcement and moderation in stress, excitement etc...these are good things.

 

I am so glad you saw the positive effect on your daughter.

[Helen]

Cheri,

 

While I'm still trying to find out what causes tics, I do believe that how a child feels psychologically can cause increments of tics. I personally have seen that in my daughter. Just by talking to one of my girlfriends one time, she had told me that her son had tics last year at one point but fortunately, he stopped in two to three months. She told me that she was yelling at her son a lot during that time (I know she's pushing her son to continue his piano class & other classes which her son had no interest in) & her son was ticcing crazy. After seeing a pediatric neurologist, she stopped being so harsh on him & his son's tics suppressed.

 

As for telling your child not to tic any more - it's a very tricky thing. You definitely don't want to scold your child every time she tics. However, I don't think we can avoid the fact that ultimately they will be very aware of their tics & at some point they will want to suppress them themselves. I have tried not to pay attention to my 6 1/2 y.o. daughter's tics in front of her, and yet, she came home last week telling me a lot of people in school were asking her why she's doing all these movements. Even though her teacher is aware of her problem, there's no way you can stop other kids from talking about it in front of her. Therefore, I do believe we should prepare our children for this - afterall, the outside world could be cruel! It is important that they understand that if this is beyond their control, then that's OK. Once they lose their self-esteem, that's when all other problems kick in.

 

Again, my point here is while we are still searching for solutions to our children's problems, we, the parents, have to remain positive. It is important to let your kids know that you accept them 100% the way they are so that they can accept themselves too.

[Andy]

My boy is six years old and in kindergarten. I tell every teacher that works with him that he has reactions to foods due to allergies. No point on having the teacher label the kid and not see the kid as a kid was always my point of view and I am a special education teacher myself. I also make it a point that even when he is ticing that no one should make it an issue and treat him as if nothing is happening. With the only exception being PE for they would have to make discreet modifications to protect him from getting hurt trying to do an activity while ticing. Maybe it is because I work in the school that so far everything is smooth, maybe it is because I work with great people, or maybe it is because everyone knows that I was an advocate before my kid attended who knows the law and always preached it in a second hand way at meetings.

As for doctors, I have met some who would have been punched in my younger and less mellower days for the way they talked about my kid.. Doctors are not gods they are sometimes limited in their eductation due to the focus of the limited yet standard medical curriculum and sales agents who constantly visit their office with goodies. One of my best friends is in medical sales in New York and takes home a half a million a year working for a blood lab that specalizes in AIDS testing. The stories he tells me on how he gets doctor's business is unbelieveable. It ranges from everything to redoing a doctors office to season tickets to knick games. Of course there are also great doctors, however finding one is the trick. Oh by the way did you know that doctors could get a commission for every prescription filled.

[Andy]

"He said the main reason is their brains are not fully developed yet and when they are exposed to over excitement (I guess like certain cartoon like Yu-Gi_Oh) or under tremendous stress, their brains simply cannot handle the pressure."

 

Helen a neurologist said the same thing to us when my son was two. This a few weeks after my son got very sick after a vaccination shot and was in the emergency room. I had posted this remark under the quote section for TV screens a week ago. I do believe that stress and visual stimulation with the unclear pattern of screens can set off tics, it is nonsense to say that a child is ticing just because he or she is happy, etc, the real issue is the damage to the body itself.

[LuluGirl]

Hi Cheri,

 

Thank you for sharing your opinion that tics aren't caused by boys wanting attention. When I read that first statement about it my heart just broke and the guilt was flooding over me. My son is the one who unfortunately gets attention the negative way sometimes and to think that I'M the cause of those tics is enough to send a mother off the edge. So thank you for your quick rebuttal!

 

Lulu