Anyone in the Atlanta area?

[Lamb]

Hello all -

 

I am new to the discussion of tics as a mother. I have worked with dozens of children with tic disorders in my work as a School Psychologist; even published a paper on habit reversal while in grad school. Here I am ten years later, and my 4 year old son is having frequent vocal tics. Irony at it's best, huh?

 

I believe my son's tics are the result of an allergy and am about to take him to see Dr. Tanner in Atlanta. Has anyone ever worked with her? Do you have any suggestions for specific tests to request?

 

Also, are there any mothers in the area who would like to meet for coffee? I'd love to hear your experiences and share some of mine. What I'm about to do for my son goes against all the training and research I've conducted professionally. If all this works, I will become a very different psychologist. Even if it doesn't, I will still approach neurologically based childhood disorders in a more multi-tiered fashion.

 

Nancy

[Chemar]

Hi and welcome

 

I am not sure who here is in Atlanta.

 

I am not sure what you meant by

What I'm about to do for my son goes against all the training and research I've conducted professionally

 

??

do you mean considering allergy as a possible cause for the tics? or something else

 

I do know that things like habit reversal are negative for kids with TS as TS tics are not habits, they are involuntary vocal and motor tics that have a neurological cause, not a psychological one.

 

I look forward to following your progress.

[Lamb]

Prior to 5 months ago, my understanding was that tics were a neurological condition that required medication. The information I'm reading about here are helpful and inspirational, but are single case studies. And I'm sure you're aware that nothing is considered "true" unless it is proven in a large scale study. I often read up on this type of information in my practice, but dismissed so much of it because it was a single experience and may not translate to my client's experience.

 

And so in true karma fashion... here I am! Hoping that the information I read here can be true for MY child.

 

I always knew that if I had a child on the spectrum, I would do the restrictive diet to help alleviate the symptoms. But I didn't know that the same could be done for children with tics. I went to grad school over 10 years ago and did a lot of research for my paper and it was published by a scholarly journal!

 

My point in sharing that is I have some crow to eat and I'm humbling seeking as much information and experiences as possible

Edited June 28, 2011 by Lamb

[Chemar]

thanks for clarifying

 

I studied, and worked, in medical research many years ago, so I tend to be rather skeptical on the value of "true" results from scientific studies versus the value of the many anecdotal reports that I have seen verified over the years! I witnessed how many scientists "skew" and "extrapolate" and frequently make their data fit their hypothesis

nevermind that so many studies are done by Big Pharma to validate their own products ....

 

I do not need a research study to prove to me that my son, diagnosed with TS when he was 10, has shown remarkable improvements from nutritional treatments over the past 11 years! Every day is proof positive of how much better he is!!!

Yet at the time that we decided to take him off the psychiatric drugs that were clearly doing him more harm than help, we had dire warnings from the conventional physicians treating him that things would go severely downhill if we followed these "unproven quack ideas"..............hah!

 

lol as you can tell, it's a subject I feel strongly about.

 

You may be interested in reading Sheila's book

http://www.latitudes.org/book.html

[Lamb]

Yes, I have her book and have read most of it

 

So when did your son start showing tics? What kind were they? When did you start him on traditional meds and when did you take him off? What kind of supplements were successful? How is he now?

 

I just got word back from our allergist and they're saying cheese and cow milk allergy. I'm really surprised because he's a HUGE milk drinker and cheese makes up a large chunk of his diet. So, I'm wondering how/if they could cause tics after consistent, frequent, exposure for 3 years. We meet with the doctor in a week and I'll learn more.

 

My son's vocal tics have become more a "part" of him lately. They don't seem to take over as much, but quietly occur here and there. It could be that maybe I don't notice it as much, too. His cousins were here and were curious about them. Its a pretty stark breathing in/throat clearing sound that started right at the onset of Atlanta's fine allergy season. I figured that surely it would be related to that.

[Chemar]

Hi

if you go to the link in my signature below, you will find a thread I have about my son's tic journey

 

dairy is the most common allergy associated with tics it seems

[Cj60]

One of the anecdotal things that can be heard from people who have had success dealing with tics by eliminating offending foods is that a good place to start with elimination is with foods that are most common to a child's diet. After allergy testing, the allergist confirmed this to be the case with our son, who ate lots of dairy and had built up an intolerance over time.

 

Introducing a probiotic of some type might assist with the process of clearing the digestive track.

 

Chris

[kimwal]

Hi , my name is Kim. I saw you post about others living in Atlanta tht have children with TS. I do not live in Atlanta but we see a doctor that lives there. His name is Dr. Jorge Juncos and he is at Emory. He is over the Parkinson and Movement disorders( ts). We live in Auburn, ALa, (abt 2 hrs away). My son is 17. was dx at age 5. We have seen MANY doctors. psy. you name it. My favorite neurologist is in Texas at Baylor. We were flying out to see him a couple of times a year for him to treat our son since his TS is so bad. He is a world renown neuro. But it got way too expensive as we were needing to go more than 2x a year. Anyway. If you have any questions I feel your pain for you and your child. I hope he is doing better!

Kim

[kimwal]

Hi , my name is Kim. I saw you post about others living in Atlanta tht have children with TS. I do not live in Atlanta but we see a doctor that lives there. His name is Dr. Jorge Juncos and he is at Emory. He is over the Parkinson and Movement disorders( ts). We live in Auburn, ALa, (abt 2 hrs away). My son is 17. was dx at age 5. We have seen MANY doctors. psy. you name it. My favorite neurologist is in Texas at Baylor. We were flying out to see him a couple of times a year for him to treat our son since his TS is so bad. He is a world renown neuro. But it got way too expensive as we were needing to go more than 2x a year. Anyway. If you have any questions I feel your pain for you and your child. I hope he is doing better!

Kim

[kimwal]

Nancy, just read all of the post u had. We did try all the allergy things, removal of foods, milk, dairy, wheat, sugar, you name it we did it. Bought all the nutritional shakes that were supposed to 'help", Removal of things with chemicals in the home, candles, detergents, but in the end and THOUSANDS of dollars later it did not work for my son. Would I do it again,, yes. Because The ones tht I see on here that it has helped, I would never tell anyone not to in case their child fell into the ones that it did work for. However, you do have to be very careful. All doctors always say milk, dairy out of the diet first. Always. Learn as much as you can about this. We did so many nutritional supplements that my child was taking so many pills a day from this. Also, I think we must consider our childrens quality of life. We had to go back to reg. meds but my son and I were spinning our wheels trying to go the other route. And it was starting to damage his self-esteem which can be hard to get back. Be open about it all-both ways, natural or traditional. )