Increase in tics the first few days on Amoxicillin?

[nemom]

Hello. My son (7) has not been officially diagnosed with anything at this point. We are just starting our journey.

 

My pediatrician did prescribe 3 weeks of Amoxicillin on Wednesday afternoon. A head/neck tic that he is currently dealing with has gotten worse again today. It was pretty severe last weekend, better during the week, but worse again today. Could this be associated with the antibiotic? He's just taken 4 doses so far.

 

I spoke to a friend today who suffers from Lyme (so do her husband and daughter). After describing some of my son's symptoms she feels strongly that it could be Lyme. We will start down that road next week. Does anyone else experience tics with Lyme? He has not had Strep (that we are aware of) and a Strep titer came back normal. He's been very healthy until a few months ago.

 

Thanks for reading!

[philamom]

Yes, Lyme can cause a herxmeirer reaction (increase of symptoms), but I believe other things can as well. Before we knew my daughter had lyme she was put on azithromycin for PANDAS and did horribly - after 10 days I stopped it. We eventually went on to find lyme and she was put on zith again. We worked through the herx which wasn't as bad the 2nd time around.

 

I suggest you post on the lyme forum. Most of us there don't recommend testing by Elisa standards and can give you suggestions if needed. My daughter mostly deals with anxiety, ocd, and behavorial issues - not tics (just an eye blink), but there are many on the lyme forum who do.

 

Unfortunately, you also can't rule out PANDAS with a normal strep titer. You may also want to check for Mycoplasma, which is causing issues in some children as well.

Edited March 26, 2012 by philamom