Tic Triggers

[abbe]

So I have said this before but I am new to this board after being on the tic forum for 4 years. My son's extensive blood work has been drawn and prior blood work points to mycoplasma already. My question today is do Pandas kids tics get exasperated by triggers such as food allergies, lights, video games, My son seems to have every single symptom of Pandas except OCD. He has been on Azithromycin for 7 days and I still see a stomach tic going on but no others. The main difference is my child. He is like an angel. Sooo pleasant, happy, cooperating, sleeping better. Wow ! I don't know if I even care about the tic. I realized he was "difficult" to say the least but it has been a joy lately to be around him. I feel like a different person also for the first time in a long while....

 

abbe

[eljomom]

TV makes my dd's tics nonstop. Has your son had tics for 4 years without ceasing? I am about to jump over to the tic board at this point for my dd...or the ocd board.....I feel like we are in the chronic state now

[rowingmom]

In the beginning I found that my DD10's tics decreased on Feingold and low salicylate diets. Her pain decreased on low oxalate diets. For a while she was eating only pears, lamb and white rice. Allergists could find nothing. I did not find any difference in ticcing with TV or computer watching. I was so excited. I printed pages on diets, took them to school, the teachers were impressed. Later on, her tics were exacerbated with strep infections and resolved with treatment, only to return several days after finishing Abx (pediatric psychologist suggested PANDAS but would only treat with IVIG if DD was incapacitaed, which she really wasn't, I'm Canadian and don't have the choice to pay for my own). Later her tics were exacerbated with viral infections as well. She has never had OCD, only an inability to concentrate and to handle frustration, first motor tics and then a year later, vocal tics, a reduction in handwriting skills, a reduction in social development. With treatment for strep all symptoms would disappear. She would be well mannered, able to engage with her peers, happy, helpful. But it would all return. She is now being treated for lyme/bart with biaxin/rifampin. After 3 months of this treatment she was again well mannered, interacting with peers, happy, helpful, and ....ticcs were all gone. 3 months off rifampin (bartonella treatment) but treated with biaxin/plaquenil (for lyme) all symptoms had returned. 3 weeks back on rifampin to address bartonella and all symptoms have resolved again. It is truly amazing to have a "normal" child (well except for all the abx and supplements). I hope we can get to a place where we can leave the abx behind. She said the other day that "she was so happy she could dance and that it was great to be alive". It can't get much better than that!

Edited February 25, 2012 by rowingmom