6 year old son newly diagnosed help!

[flipflop]

Hi, i have been reading this forum for some months but this is my first post, please somebody answer!!

 

My son started with an eye blinking tic on his 2nd birthday triggered by the bright lights at Blackpool illuminations (we are in England)i thought he had eye probs so took him for tests, they said he was fine and it would go away. It did after a while but soon after he got a nail biting habbit that seemed to last for months and months and i could do nothing to stop him (i had no idea it was a tic.)At age 5 and a half we found out from testing at school that he needed glasses. Literally from the day he started wearing his glasses his behaviour went downhill, hyper, oppositional etc Suddenly last summer (aged 5&8 months) 2 weeks before school finished for summer overnight the nail biting stopped but was instantly replaced with bizarre finger licking, then arm licking, leg licking, even the floor, windows, anything he had to lick it. At the same time he started the eye blinking again, this time much more severe with face scrunching. The eye blinking and licking were constantly and never let up. Along side this he started squeeking, sniffing, grunting, shouting out poo, making bird noises, gulping, so many tics i couldnt possibly mention them all here. He suddenly was not able to be still, squirming all the time, up and down. his teacher said he was a different boy and said it was like he had ants in his pants. I was distraught and took him to have his food intollerances tested. (Not medically, dont seem to be able to get this in the UK, this was a machine that sent an electronic impulse through his hand - very strange but it was all i had (asyra test?). The practitioner said he had intollerance to sugar, yeast, mushrooms which indicated a candida problem. For 6 weeks i had him on a STRICT candida diet, he was amazing and completely went along with it all, bless him. She also said he was defficiant in b vitamins and omega 3 so i supplemented these along with magnesium which i had read about and multi vit. NO RESULTS AT ALL. until we went on holiday to the carribean and gave him whatever food he wanted and by the second week his tics were much less but still there. When we returned to england he went back to school and remained without the licking and blinking completely (he just had a few mild noises etc.) We saw the paediatrician 3 days after we returned to england and she suggested that it seemed that his tics had gone severe when school had begun their wind down for the long summer holidays and that he needed more stimulation. (My son is extremly bright and has been tested by educational psychologist who said his IQ is 3 years above his real age, he also has a reading age of 9 but is actually 6.) Dr thought he had been bad because he had been off school. He stayed mild until 2 weeks before he finished school for the christmas holidays and has ticked like mad all over the christmas break, licking is back with a vengence, more noises, movements etc but no blinking. Consultant has now diagnosed with tourettes and OCD (I havent mentioned but he has lots of "little ways" as well.)

 

I am so sad for him. i dont think the intollerance test was accurate as food makes no difference at all to him. he does seem worse when watching tv too. i have no idea what to do next?? sorry this is long but i have noone to talk to about this and i so want to help him.

 

thank you in advance.

[Chemar]

Hi and welcome

sorry it took a while for your post to show. We have new anti-spam filters and they can sometimes hold back legit posts.

 

First, let me try to encourage you by saying that in the vast majority of cases, tics and "habits" in very young children often resolve on their own, and even a TS/OCD diagnosis may not always be accurate.

 

Does your child have any history of strep infections?

Do you think there may be any correlation between the tics starting and any vaccinations? other illnesses? dental work?

 

We have a (non scientific) article here on triggers for tics that may be of interest to you

http://www.latitudes.org/articles/finding_triggers.htm

 

also a very helpful book

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

[flipflop]

hi, thank you for the reply,

 

I really hope it does resolve on its own, the consultant said his hunch is that bcause it all started vey early at age 2 that he is peaking now and that it will settle in a few years but i havent read of this happeing anywhere so im not sure.

 

no, he has no history of infections, he has always been very healthy and before now has had very litle need to visit the GP. He has had no dental work or recent vaccinations.

 

we dont have any history of tourettes in our family either, although i did have a few habbits as a kid which just went away. i was quite bad with ocd as a teenager but manage it well now. my husband had all the symptoms of adhd as a kid but was never diagnosed and his mum controlled his behaviour by having him on a very strict diet(feingold??)as he was intollerant to many artificial flavourings etc. i really hoped this would be the cause for my son but it seems not.

 

thanks, i will check those links out. i have also read "natural treatments for tics and tourettes" but am still none the wiser.

 

could his eyesight / getting glasses have anything to do with it? and have you ever heard of someones tics being more severe in school holidays due to lack of stimulation? it usually seems that people say they are worse at school. my son is coping with it really well at school but tics like mad in the hols??? im a teacher and i always feel i keep my boys quite stimulated when they are off!

 

thanks for answering, even just getting it off my chest helps.

[blakes_mom]

I would really look into the diagnosis of Pandas.You can find some good information at pandasnetwork.org.My son had the same exact symptoms especially the blinking tic.I wound not rule this out just because you dont think he has any history of strep.My son never had a fever or sorethroat with his strep infections.My son was treated with antibiotics and the tics went away almost immediately.

[WorriedDADNMOM]

I would concur with Blakes mom as my dds 6 developed eye tic and amoxicillin did nothing to fix tic but penicillin did. Then tics came back with latest fever. I would strongly suggest complete bloodwork for strep and mycoplasma to start with and aggressively treat with abx if infection is found. Strep from previous infection can lead to this even with neg strep culture, but elevated aso titer can confirm previous strep. De-bulk the infection then the b vitamins, omega and vitamin d is also on the right track as this is what our doc has done.

[flipflop]

Thanks for the replies, i will look into the strep. to be honest i hadnt even heard of it until i started looking into this. What kind of symptoms would he have had if he had had this kind of infection?

Thanks again.

[blakes_mom]

My son never had any symptoms when he had strep.Please check out pandasnetwork.org for good info.In my opinion your son has a lot of symtoms of pandas.My son was treated with penicillin and improved in 1 week.

[Chemar]

I do agree that it is always worth investigating possible PANDAS or PITAND (where symptoms are triggered by other infections than strep)

BUT

it is important to note that other triggers can also cause symptoms to manifest this way, not just strep/infection!

We have had many parents pass through these forums whose children's tics have completely resolved without any antibiotics or IVIG or other procedures for PANDAS

Just because symptoms overlap, it does not mean there is a definite diagnosis.