Relieving eye rolling tics

[ilovedogs]

My son just started eye rolling and it's really bothering him, more so than the others he has going on these days. Gives him headaches and makes him really tired by the end of the day. What can I do to help relieve the side effects of the tics, other than something for the headache obviously? He also has a head turning tic right now so when you throw in the eye rolling, he's just miserable!

 

I have some essential oils that I might try and we're doing epsom salts nightly, too. He's just hoping this is one of those tics that doesn't stick around too long!

[rissakaye]

I don't know if you're dairy free or not, but that is the trigger for my son's eye-rolling tic. Taking dairy out of his diet made a huge difference.

 

Marissa

[ilovedogs]

No, we're not dairy free at this point. He doesn't eat a lot of dairy so I may have to look into that. Thanks

[my2sons]

Removing dairy and gluten, artificial dyes, flavors and preservatives has made a huge difference for us.

[Chemar]

Hi Bonnie

when my son started eye rolling we did not know he had TS yet (he was 4)

 

we took him to an opthalmologist and he did in fact need corrective lenses which had a beneficial result.

He still had mild eye tics, but greatly improved after the glasses.

 

I do agree with others though on the impact of diet and especially getting rid of all artificial anything!(that includes Splenda/sucralose, and other artificial sweeteners like aspartame etc, all artificial food dyes etc etc etc)

 

So many people have also noted the benefit of removing especially dairy on eye tics.

Getting rid of all allergens, including possible gluten and other foods he may be sensitive to, as well as making sure his environment doesn't have some allergen too, is really worthwhile.

 

My son has dustmite allergy and hepa filters and making sure his room was as well dusted as possible did help a lot

 

Also, many kids with tics also have chemical sensitivity (MCS=multiple chemical sensitivity) so pure natural household cleaners, nothing artificially fragranced (including no Febreeze type stuff!!) can be helpful.

[rissakaye]

No, we're not dairy free at this point. He doesn't eat a lot of dairy so I may have to look into that. Thanks

 

My son had never eaten a lot of dairy. He refused milk as a young child and detested childhood standards like mac-n-cheese. Pretty much the only dairy he ate was the occasional ice cream, pizza, or cheese on burritos. Also those things where milk was a hidden ingredient. He never liked much of anything else with dairy in it. Something else is that ds is the 5th generation in my family to not be able to handle dairy.

 

My ds's tics are probably the some of the mildest possible. He has the eye roll tic which we can literally watch come and go with dairy. (We kept a food journal and tried alternating elimination and letting him have dairy.) He also has a super mild vocal tic which ds can mask with gum. My dh and his brother also have a few mild tics. It appears that for us, the tendency towards very mild tics is genetic from dh's family and the tendency towards dairy issues is genetic from my family and ds was the unfortunate recipient of both of those tendencies.

 

Marissa

[ilovedogs]

When we took ds for standard skin testing for allergies he tested positive for mostly outdoor allergens like certain trees, weeds, grasses, etc. He did not have any indoor or animal allergies. But, he himself will tell you that he can't digest lactose or fructose. He doesn't drink milk unless it's lactose free and he doesn't drink fruit juice, either. He has serious stomach issues with many juices and is also sensitive to spicy foods, as well.

 

I'm going to wait for the naturopath's results from the food sensitivity testing to come back and see if there is an issue with dairy or gluten. I think he'd do OK if I took him off dairy but gluten would send him running into the desert screaming and saying, "No way mom, I'm never coming home!" LOL, he loves his bread, pasta, snack crackers, etc. It's so hard when they're teens too, because many times he says he'll just live with the tics and doesn't want to make dietary changes because it's just not worth the effort. UGH!

[ilovedogs]

Oh, also, I told Chemar this in a private message: I have been taking ds to an acupuncturist. He's had 3 treatments in the past 2 weeks. He started a new jaw tic last night about 6 hours after his treatment yesterday. I have wondered if it was like a detox reaction to the acupuncture? My son is getting frustrated and is at the age where he can put two and two together and he said that if he feels that the acupuncture causes more tics, than he doesn't want to keep going. Our practitioner told me yesterday that the supplements he's being given are for liver detox and that he might be experiencing detox reaction. I didn't realize that could happen with Chinese herbs and practices but I guess it's possible with everything.

[Chemar]

With the number of people needing gluten free nowadays...you would be amazed at the great selection available!

Check out our longtime member Caryn's blog http://www.healthy-family.org

for lots of gluten free product tips and recipes

[ilovedogs]

Well, my son agreed to go dairy free for the month of October, LOL! Yep, he's giving me a month. We've been to 8 sessions of acupuncture and we're seeing minor relief of some tics but also seeing some new ones starting so I have no idea if the acupuncture is actually working or helping or not.

 

I do know that my ds is in the throes of puberty, he just broke out with terrible acne in the past 2 months or so but had clear skin up to this point. So, I'm wondering if taking out dairy will help that, too.

 

We did the Alcat testing for him and got the results back. He tested highly reactive to onions, go figure and moderately reactive to gluten and casein but no reaction to lactose. Anyway, he didn't want to cut out dairy and gluten at the same time so I told him we'd choose one and try that first. Dairy free is going to be hard for him, but not as hard as taking out gluten. It just means no more pizza, cream of tomato soup, ice cream, or yogurt(as he knows it). I'll have him try the coconut milk ice cream and some other alternatives but I'm confident he can survive without milk for a month.....I think, LOL!

[Cj60]

That's good news!

 

See if you can distract him when it gets close to a month. Maybe change the calendar, something like that. (Dairy takes a long time to clear from the system--we were told to eliminate it for a minimum of 6 months. And it was definitely over a month before we started seeing some lasting improvements, some of which I'm certain were a result of removing dairy.)

 

Hoping you all get positive results.

 

 

- Chris

[Chemar]

Bonnie

be sure to check out Caryn's blog for gluten free and other great recipe ideas http://healthy-family.org/

You may remember her? she was an active member here a while back. really nice lady whose son's tics resolved when he went gluten free.

 

hoping for improvement to follow

[rissakaye]

My son likes the So Delicious coconut milk ice cream better than the real stuff. We were just at the store getting more of their fudgsicles. We really like it. I also use the So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk beverage for baking and cooking in place of milk. The whole family agrees that it makes the food better. I use it mainly in biscuits and muffins.

 

The hardest thing for my son has been no pizza and no cheese on his burritoes. Everything else we've found a good substitute or ds really just wasn't that attached too anyway.

 

For a little hope, my ds has been dairy free for a few months now. We did cheat a bit over the summer because we weren't in school. Now that school's in, we've clamped down and ds has been fairly strict on the dairy free for over a month. The differences are really amazing. It was honestly affecting him in ways we didn't realize. I'm not sure my ds would go back on dairy if you gave him a choice. We've discovered it was the cause of the mysterious stomachaches. When he's been allowed to cheat, he gets a stomachache. He's nicer and less frustrated. I have writing samples from last year that I can compare to this year. It doesn't even look like the same kid's writing. The art teacher commented how much better ds's art is. I saw his locker art he did in art class. I re-checked to make sure it was the right locker because it was neat, well-done art that in no way resembled the chicken scratch I saw last year. He loves reading and doesn't get near so many headaches. I can't wait to see how well he does in school this year. He's always been considered advanced, but now I think we'll really see what he can do.

 

And on the tic front, I haven't seen the eye roll in a long time. As far as I know, we haven't had a vocal tic in a few weeks. Ds chews gum to mask it and we haven't been using any gum lately.

 

All that was from getting rid of dairy. I don't know that ds ever wants dairy again in his life.

 

Marissa

[ilovedogs]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. My biggest issue is that ds likes creamy soups, pizza, mac and cheese, and ice cream. I'm really hoping he'll take well to this and I'm planning on doing it with him because I've been having some digestive issues too. I've gone GFCF myself for a few months and it was a huge improvement to my IBS and other issues.

 

Anyway, I already bought the coconut milk ice cream products and I'm having him try the coconut milk yogurt, too. Honestly, I think he has issues with sugar because we've determined that he can't break down fructose very well, either, so I would like to cut back on his sugar consumption too. Eventually, I'd like to do the gluten free stuff with him, too, but I knew he couldn't do both at the same time, LOL!

 

I'll update once we're in the throes of it, haha!

[Emik]

^{I just posted in the other post our status as we started elimination diet in July. We first eliminated milk & milk products and then we eliminated gluten and many other according to IGG results. For us is really too early to say or draw any conclusions. As of now her eye roll and hard blink tic did decrease. It was present since last December and was extremely frequent. It lessened now, however some other tics showed up or intensified. Luckily these are not as bothersome as the eye ones.}

 

 

^{On another note, I really wanted to try CBIT. From what I read and heard about it, to me it sounds really promising. However my daughter refuses at this point of time, she has her own reasons, and I need to be patient until she is ready.}

 

 

 

^{I did go through the website below though, over and over, but I never wanted to try ourselves - I really believe is should be a trained professional to guide us through. Finally I had a long talk about it, and I explained what the professionals suggest as a Competing Response for an eye tics (it's there in one of the documents). She tried it for a couple of days, and that also may have contributed to its decrease. I am not sure. Please note I am not sugesting anything as I myself am still inquiring. I am just sharing what we've done so far and for us is really too early to say.}

^{I will keep you posted as we go through the diet journey.}

^{Good luck to you and your son!}

^{http://www.cpri.ca/content/page.aspx?section=162&lpage=26}

Edited September 20, 2013 by Emik