clariton

[mmazz]

Hi All;

 

Well since we were exposed to strep a couple of times last week and the throat clearing tic is worsening, I made my way to get my little one swabbed. The test came back negative, but the doc told me that children with chronic tics are sensitive and that a small alergery that would bring with it say...itchy eyes or post nasal drip would not be bothersome for many, but would attribute to tics in these sensitive people. She suggested the use of clariton to see what may come of it. Has anyone heard of this?

 

Marie

[ad_ccl]

Hi Marie,

 

Only have a second...but as I have posted in the past when my son has "eye tics" his eyes are red and get better with antihistimine eye drops - indicating it was an allergy causing the "tics" and "nose squinches" this summer cleared up with Aeries ( same thing as Claritan, different brand, he did not like the taste of Claritan) I would say it is worth a try, my son's nose twitch decreased dramatically within 24-48 hours and was gone 100% within a week of going on the Aeries - he is still on it daily - we will take him off it a few weeks into school. He is currently 100% tic free, fingers crossed he has a good start to the school year - it has almost been 1 year to the day that he woke up with the sudden onset of symptoms! How far we have come but what a journey.

 

Good Luck!!

[Evangelia]

Hello,

 

I haven't written in a long time..... it was actually 1 year ago that I started to write because my son's ticks were so crazy. His ticks eventually got better; all summer he had very mild tics almost tic free. He gained good weight, was healthy and happy - then suddenly as school starts the tics came back with a vengeance!

 

I am so discouraged.... so discouraged..... and I don't know where to begin again..... all over again. I noticed several parents mentioned that Fall was a bad time due to stress starting school, and possibly allergies. He doesn't appear to be stressed with school. He is enjoying himself. He was mentioning how his eyes bothered him a couple of weeks ago - no so much now - I gave my son his first teaspoon of Clariton ..... the only problem I have with this is that it contains artificial flavouring. Won't that make the tics worse? How long should I keep giving this if I don't see any improvement?

 

He is shaking his head from left to right so often and quickly that it is giving him head-aches. To make things worse, my mother-in-law just told him tonight that "God doesn't want him move his head that way and that he should pray for God to help him stop"! Can you imagine! As if he wasn't already under enough pressure at school with this terrible head shaking and now head aches.

 

If it isn't an allergy, why else would his tics spike so dramatically in the fall?

 

Here we go all over again.

Evangelia

[kim]

Just wanted to add that since my oldest son had the explosive reaction, to allergy testing, I have given him zyrtec, and have not wanted to rock the boat, by trying some of the more natural therapies for allergy relief. I have just recently been considering ordering Bonnie's grape seed extract, as allergist put him on 3 allergy meds, and I only give him one, the zyrtec. I could see the big red hivey looking reactions, especially compared to youngest, as they both had the testing done at the same time.

Last winter oldest went through this awful time with night time itching, and his mood was horrible. I truly believe that the overload of histimine, really affects tics and moods. The Pediatrician kept telling us it was winter dry skin and would get better in the spring. His skin didn't even look dry. I looked at my son and asked him in front of the Dr. if he could live like that until spring. He said, no. I then told Ped. that I thought we needed an appt. with an allergist.

 

Just today, my husband went and bought a bunch of stuff to better insulate our crawl space. He bought commercial plastic to put on the floor, and we are sealing the heating ducts. I'm worried about having the house closed and starting the furnace again, and any type of mold or mildew, also dust mites. My son's too, have been amazingly tic free, although youngest still has some subtle small movements.

 

Our Pharmacist told me zyrtec is the only allergy med that he allows his daughter to take. Should have asked him why. He said the evidence is light for zantac to aid in allergy relief, which is also a stomach acid reducer, and with my belief that ticcy kids have absorbtion problems, I had no desire to put him on that for a year. He said singular is usually used for ashma symptomes (singulair or allegra can't remember which) but he has no asthma. So we do the zyrtec and nothing else and I hope it's enough to keep the allergies under control. I was hoping the vits. would strengthen his immune system enough to lessen the allergies, but he has been having the familiar sneezes again.

 

There are many natural allergy remedies, and I'm hoping to address this at our next appt. with alternative Dr. but for now, I will definitley keep him on the zyrtec.

 

Marie, good to hear no strep. What your Dr. said, makes sense to me.

As with the rest of the alternatives, if you try it and see what results you get, you can always make changes later. Maybe google search clariton and see if any thing alarms you about it?

 

Alison, tic free...yes!

 

Evangelia, My kids get some artificial flavors. I guess you would have to weigh how sensitive you think he is to the flavoring as opposed to allergy symptoms.

Giselle just posted about a natural product that she has been seeing good reslts with for her son too.

I can't tell you not to be discouraged, but, it seems for a lot of kids, the flairs don't last as long and get farther apart, especially as they get older. I would take the fact that he had such a long stretch without any, to be a good sign. Will be praying that that's the case for your son. Let us know what results you see with the Clariton. Does your son take supplements, or do you do any alternative treatments. Chiropractor?

 

 

Kim

[Chemar]

just wanted to say Hi Marie and Evangelia...nice to see you both tho sorry you are in a waxing phase with tics at present.

 

somthing to think about..........when the kids return to school they are often exposed to other allergens and tic triggers...

 

like teachers wearing perfume or using "room fresheners" (was a biggie for my son and I now inform teachers, especially as these can make hyper kids megahyper too )

 

schools often have fluorescent lighting!

 

classrooms are maybe freshly painted and/or carpeted?

school buildings being pesticided?

 

dustmite, mold etc may be in the rooms

 

and something my son learned not to do the hard way.....

kids trade food at school and sometimes they get stuff with all the things we know they shouldnt have!

 

we havent ever dealt with allergies, so I dont really know of "natural" allergy stuff, but as Kim mentioned, Giselle has posted about a product that has been most helpful to them...hopefully she will pop in here today and give you the name.

 

Evangelia..........I just wanted to also mention that you do really need to talk to grandma about making remarks like that to your son...even if she takes offense, she needs to be told clearly that such remarks only add to his burdens especially as it is very unfair for her to leave him feeling like God isnt answering his prayers !! She needs to be educated about the involuntary nature of tics!!!!

 

for the pain he is in from the head shaking, I HIGHLY recommend achiropractor, especially a NUCCA one ( http://www.nucca.org ) and also Epsom salts tubs and those specialized ice packs that get cold when you shake them...they are very soothing on a neck area hurting from tics.

 

lots of love and (((hugs))) to all of you

[ad_ccl]

Just wanted to add our experience with Clariton - actually Aerius ( as he hated the taste of Clariton) but same thing. Several years ago when we thought my sons chronic cough my have been an environmental allergy we were told to try Clariton for a week or so and see if there was any change. There wasn't - so we stopped. Once we went off milk in January the cough was gone within the week - so it was an allergy, just a food one. With other allergy flare ups (nose twitching this summer) we have used Aerius and see a decrease within 24 hours and all tics gone within the week. Eye blinking also clears up within 24-48 hours on eye drops. So...if there is going to be a difference I think you should see it within the week. So it could be worth a trial. I do agree with Cheri - so many variables. The whole bucket theory again. His bucket may just overflow with one extra variable added in. Such a guessing game - but so good that you are noting a pattern and that in between he was doing so well.

Hang in there.

[susan0101]

Hi everyone, it's a been a while since I've written. My son (10 yrs. old) had a great summer, and like some of you, found his eye tic returning right before school began. We had wonderful results with acupuncture and will be returning for an appt. tomorrow for the first time since May. I'm curious about the eye drops and Aerius. We've used Patenol in the past for itchy eyes, but it did nothing for the eye tic. What type of eye drops are you finding success with? Also, did your ped put your child on the Aerius for seasonal allergies? I ask b/c currently we use Allegra and I'd be interested in trying something else if I thought it might help allergies and the eye tic.

Susan

[ad_ccl]

Hi Susan,

 

We were using Patanol as well which worked really well until September when his eyes did not clear up 100% as they usually did within a few days. After 10 days on the drops his eyes were still very red when pulled down and there were still minor eye tics. I actually decided to try some homeopathic eye drops - and within 24 hours the eye tics were gone and within a couple of days his eyes were nice and pink. We have not had to use them again since early September. My son said he really liked the homeopathic one's as they did not sting at all going in - he said the Patanol did.

Aerius - we tried on our own this summer after a week of nose twitching which we were trying to ignore - it was minor but getting worse. My husband asked him how his nose felt and he said itchy, my husband who has allergies that were getting bad at the same time wondered if the allergy was triggering the nose tic - so the next day we tried the Clariton - but he did not like the taste so went to Aerius - I think I chose that only because of the label - might have said bubble gum flavor. He stayed on it from mid July to early September - then when he went off it some minor tics came back so we went back on it and he is tic free again. We plan on taking him off it soon. We just took him off most of his vitamins so did not want make too many changes at once so we would be able to figure out how he is adjusting. The ped. does know that we are on the Aerius now.

 

With respect to natural remedies - my husband started taking Quercetin - which is supposed to be good for allergies. He has found it has been helping. He also started on some homeopathic allergy pills which he said have helped a lot as well. I could find out the name if you want - but if you have a good health store that sells homeopathic stuff you could always ask.

[kim]

Quercetin

Google search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-...G=Google+Search

 

D-Hist is the product the Giselle's son takes:

http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/showthread.php?t=100434

google search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-...G=Google+Search

 

Zyrec

Googel search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-...G=Google+Search

 

Aerius

Google search

http://www.google.com/search?q=aerius&hl=e...-8&start=0&sa=N

[Spring]

Hi Evangelia

 

My son started the zyertec when he was 3. It helped initially, but no longer seemed working after a while. Besides, he got hyper sometimes while he’s on it. Currently, he’s taking querceton from Thorn research and it helps. Querceton is the modified version of quercetin. Both our DAN and ND recommend “thorn reach”.

 

Here is the link

http://www.myvits.com/products/proddesc.as...%3D1%26page%3D1

 

As Chemar mentioned already, chiropractor should help the head shaking.

[Evangelia]

Hi Everyone,

 

Thank you for your insights and experiences. It is so easy to feel hopeless (I was in tears) but with you all by my side, I feel like I now have an action plan again and that gives me strength. Thank you.

 

I picked up my son from school yesterdary (remember I gave him Clariton the day before) and you are not going to believe this - not 1 head turning tic! He somehow looked more peaceful than I have seen him in a while. He still has his shrugging tics when he walks (like he wants to get his jacket on right) but the head-turning tic was most problematic for him. No headaches either! It is only the 1st day, I am crossing my fingers.

 

As far as other things that I have been giving him:

I juiced some carrot juice in the morning, made him take his primrose oil vitamin (he hates the taste of them since he can't swallow- he chews). Multi-vit, vit-C, Bio-K (friendly bacteria), Zinc. I had already been avoiding gluten, milk, eggs, corn for a few days. But Clariton is the only real change since the days prior.

 

If an anti-histamine is the answer, I would definitely like to go on something natural because I do believe that his other tics are affected by artificial ingredients. I will look into the links you have all offered.

 

After reading other posts, I have arranged to get my son a comprehensive blood test done on Monday and I will also be checking for Pandas and Pyroluria. (I hate to do this) but I think that I will stop Clariton until the blood test is done on Monday so that it won't affect the results. If my son has no head-turning tics when I pick him up from school today, then I will be convinced that an anti-histamine will play a big role for us.

 

Thank you again for all your insights. I am going to try the epsom salts. Chemar, I am definitely going to talk to my mother-in-law - I know she meant well, but that is quite a burden to put on a child.

 

I will let you all know if today shows the same results as yesterday.

Evangelia

[Giselle]

Oh my gosh! I feel terrible that I didn't see this post and reply sooner! Yes! Yes! We use a super duper natural anti-histamine product! Thanks Kim for shooting the link in. The product is called D-Hist and it even says it "won't cause drowsiness" a plus I think you'll all agree. It is made by Ortho Molecular Products - their tag line is "because efficacy matters" - can't you see them in tights a cape saying that? Anyway, the active ingredients are Vitamin C, Quercetin, Stinging Nettles Leaf Powder, Bromelain, and N-Acetyl Cysteine USP. It is totally free of gluten, corn, egg, dairy, peanuts, soy, yeast, artificial colors and flavors - yeah! What's super duper about it is that for maintenance you only take 1 capsule two to three times a day. But if its allergy time you can adjust up. It is a capsule but it most definitely could be added to a smoothy.

 

This leads me to a good question. How have all of you trained your children to take pills. I think if we could give people some tips on this it would really help. I'll include my method:

 

I had a horrible time taking pills as a youngster and my mother would crush things like aspirin in sugar water - still gag inducing! Blah! I finally came upon a solution for myself when I was overindulging in cherries (my absolutely most favorite fruit - eat 'til I poop kinda love for it! - sorry too much information ) Anyway, I accidently swallowed a pit, then another, then oops another - you see I would suck on the pits until there wasn't even color on them, let alone a morsel of cherry (gosh, I wonder where my son gets his OCD from ) I realized that they were the same size as a pill and if I could swallow a cherry pit I could swallow a pill - and voila I did the very next time I tried.

 

Well I decided to teach this to my son who hated chewing those darn children's vitamins (those were back in the days before he had tics and even the pink flavored ones didn't entice him - can you believe I gave him pink anything? Alas, so much wiser now). I loaded him up with cherries and naturally he accidentally swallowed some pits so I said "hey, those are about the size of pills - I bet you could try swallowing a pill - wanna try?" He agreed - it wasn't perfect at first but we made it fun and I intimated that if he did it he was a big boy. That sweetie, he can throw back about 6 at a time now!

 

Anyway sorry I didn't post about the D-Hist sooner- I'm feeling so guilty - Hoyt is doing SO well that I'm not glued to the web anymore but realize that as I recieved all the information here and at Brain Talk I must in turn give back.

 

Hope this helps!

Giselle

 

Oh yes, and before we discovered the D-Hist he took Zyrtec which really helped as well.