blinking and bontech

[zinto]

Well, we started my son on the bontech/bonnie supps a week or so ago now. Very small dose and we plan to build up very slowly . So far we have seen a slight worsening and definitely no improvement I would say. I know that could be unrelated and we need to give it time and see how we go.

my sons particular tic at the moment is blinking - literally every second (with short breaks here and there) - it is especially exacerbated when he is talking/excited etc.

 

It is a really obvious one and kids at school have been asking him about it. Its impossible not to notice and it is bothering him,

any idea of what might help this to calm down ? its been going for almost 3 months now - gradually worsening and I would love to think we are reaching the end of its 'run' or if there is something I can do to help him with this one....

at the moment we have cut out everything else other than the bonnie supps and a probiotic. ( in the past we have used a multi, glutathioane(sp??) and fish oil (DHA only) from the naturopath. )

he also has epsom salt baths every second day and a very clean diet - no dairy, no colours/flavours/preservatives. Next thing to conquer - as we build up to GAPS - is the gluten/grains, but that is a hard one, so its taking time.

thanks so much

[Chemar]

Eye blinking is one of the most common tics with TS.

 

Have you had his eyes tested? My son had intense eye blinking tics that actually did get a lot less when he was rx corrective lenses.

This was before we even realized that he had TS, and he was in KG

 

Fluorescent tube lighting can also intensify eye tics and sadly most schools have it

 

Some people have reported here that tics increased on BonTech. For most, it was just an initial thing and then subsided. But for others it intensified and it seems something in the formulation may not agree with some kids, as excellent and helpful as the overall ingredients are. That was one of the reasons we decided to stick with adding our own supps for my son, while basing his treatment plan on Bonnie's original plan.

[zinto]

thanks for your response

We have never had his eyes tested. Maybe I should do that to be sure.

I am sure his classroom has fluro lights. We dont have any at home.

Thats what I thought re bonnie supps - maybe it is an intial increase. not sure how long to try them before I cut them out. do you think if we cut them the increased tics would subside or do some people find they trigger a permanent increase ?? oh dear.

I have an appt with an enviro doc but we couldnt get in until end of October. I am hoping he has answers for us but also need to be realistic.

I am wondering if acupuncture would help with his eyes.

so many options - but none of them really present as any more 'amazing' than another and they all cost a fair bit to just try out.

its very overewhelming !!

[Chemar]

I seem to recall most people found that after a few weeks things leveled out and then began to improve on the BonTech...

 

Acupuncture has always been one of the best treatments for my son.It's important to use a reputable clinical acupuncture therapist tho...and an extra plus if they already have experience with tics/TS

 

Remember...one day at a time.....

October will be here soon....and hopefully the enviro doc will have good skills to be able to help

[cara615]

For us, we did not see true improvement until we removed gluten/dairy/corn and went low sugar. At first we got my son tested for food intolerences. It came back as severe for corn, moderate for gluten and mild for dairy. I removed the gluten and corn first and we saw a slight improvement. We also did a 6 week regimen of grapefruit seed extract (6-8 drops a day) to kill yeast. His labs came back showing all the markers for yeast. We saw more improvement after he was on the antifungal but then the tics wound up coming back again. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and get rid of the dairy. Within 24 hours his tics dropped to an incredibly low level and now have remained that way for almost a month! In fact, he just started Kindergarten at a brand new school and his tics keep getting less and less as the days go on.

 

So for us it was complete removal of gluten/corn and dairy that did the trick.

 

It think its wise to get your son tested for food intolerances (not allergies) to see what his are and then remove accordingly.

 

Let me know if you need help with gluten free foods, there is such a growing market out there for these types of products that its so easy to go gluten free. I found dairy free harder to do!! I now make all my own snacks homemade for my sons and they are all gluten/corn and dairy free ( low sugar too).

 

Good Luck!

[my2sons]

It was the same for us as it was with Cara. We went Gluten and casein (dairy) free, low sugar, no preservatives or colors. Has been almost 4 months and he has gradually improved every since. As a matter of fact, tonight was the first time he fell asleep without ticcing since his vocal tics started in January. Bed time has always been his highest tic time. And it's the night before the first day of school. Diet has ddfinetly brought the biggest improvement.

[cara615]

So happy to hear this!!! Thinking of you today!!

[logismum]

Same for us here to with DS 7 as Cara and my2sons

 

When i looked into bontech i did read that initial worsening can happen. I think bontech suggests not stopping for 3 months? Then evaluate how things are. Hopefully October appt brings lots of answers for your son.

 

My son hasn't had the blinking tic before which i thought was odd giving the list of ones he has had so i can't help with an answer for relief on that one sorry but sounds like you are already implementing some good things like the epsom baths .

 

Hope relief comes soon for him

[rosa1818]

It think its wise to get your son tested for food intolerances (not allergies) to see what his are and then remove accordingly.

 

Good Luck!

Hi, I had my daughter tested for allergies, not food intolerances, and they all came out negative! yet I can see the effect that milk, yoghurt, chocolate have on her ticks so I eliminated them. What are the differences between a food intolerance and a food allergy test? She had a test where her skin was pricked with 10 different types of food and waited 15 minutes to see an allergic reaction. What is a food intolerance test? How different is it?

 

Thank you

[Chemar]

An intolerance indicates a sensitivity to the product which can manifest in varied ways.... whereas an allergy produces the classic allergic reactions in addition to other symptoms.

 

Intolerances do not necessarily show on allergy tests as the allergy testing uses allergic reaction perameters.

[Wombat140]

To put it another way, an allergy is a reaction involving the immune system, whereas an intolerance can be any kind of bad reaction. (So allergies are one type of intolerance.) The skin prick test you described is specifically a test for allergies, I think - it wouldn't necessarily catch any other kind of intolerance, that didn't involve the immune system.

 

There are tests for a few specific types of intolerance (there's a urine test for a particular type of gluten and casein intolerance, for instance, in which a particular type of peptide gets into the bloodstream and comes out in the urine), but intolerances can work in so many ways that I think the only way to catch all of them is to do an elimination diet - systematically cutting out different foods and seeing what helps. (Here are a couple of threads where people advised me about how to do that when I did it myself: PLEASE, how do I do an elimination diet? and How long do milk and egg reactions last?)

 

I'm not including the more out-there tests in that - kinesiology (muscle testing) and so on - they may work for all types of intolerance for all I know, if they work at all, but I don't know anything about them first-hand.

 

Good luck to you and your son, anyway.

Wombat140