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My 9 year old son who has suffered on and off with various tics for years now shows a marked increase in tic frequency during his sports activities. He plays quite a bit of organized baseball and basketball. Maybe he's nervous or anxious or feels pressure. If so, would that cause his tics to wax?

 

I notice the tics start to increase in the day or two leading up to a game or practice. Than the frequency peaks during the event itself. Its usually in the form of an eye blink or eye roll, or sometimes a stomach or abdominal type crunch. Its tough to watch. I get so sad and quiet.

 

Has anyone experienced this with there child during sports activities? If so does anyone have any thoughts on how to ease his angst which I'm assuming is the culprit.

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We had the same thing with my son's BMX racing. Only when he had his helmet on would he do a continual head turn to the right and during the race, I always knew where he was on the track due to his yelping sounds. How he ever managed to finish 3rd overall in his age group was beyond me. I'm proud that he kept going and never lets his embarrassment or tics get in the way of what he loves to do.

Apparently some kids have the opposite effect and are so focused on their activity that their tics reduce.

 

Now that his tics are minimal, I'll be interested to see if the tics return in intensity once the race season starts again.

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Hi Pilbara - do you attribute it to him being nervous? My sons tics really start waxing when he's being addressed by his coaches. Especially if its negative. It must be nerves at that point. I have tried giving him Natural Calm mixed with some water before activities. It seems to help a bit. My wife doesn't buy into any of the supplementation I have tried. That in and of itself is a whole other issue. Anyway, I keep looking for answers but always seem to come up empty. However I will never give up trying to help him.

 

Chemar - I have always thought about the pesticides and fertilizers on sports fields in addition to the grass and allergy issues being triggers. That may indeed be the case. However it also happens when he's indoors playing basketball. Maybe the cleaners they use on the floors?

 

 

Thanks for the responses.

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Yes have definitely seen this in ds at that age during basketball and baseball. I think it was nerves and anxiety for him and ds was so excited to play and if really broke my heart to see him like that. I truelly felt that it held him back. The good news is after been on diet and watching gut that he got way better as he got older, he is now 11 and does not tic during basketball and doing great in baseball. From what I know earlier on if was garden he was going through so many changes with diet and tics were there but if you stick with diet and we limited sugars and dyes he got better over the years. He still gets stresses and hyped before a game bug does not react like he did when he wax 9. Maybe he knows how to handle the adrenalin now. If does get better!

Mar

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Mar - What type of dietary changes have you implemented? Also what have you done to help with gut issues? Do you supplement at all? Was your son diagnosed at all? We are waiting on blood work results. Hopefully that will give us some direction. Right now I feel like we are just grasping at straws. His behavior really goes down hill when he's waxing. I would assume its all related.

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I implemented dietary changes to what he was reacting to his igg blood work and skin pricks. I basically put this kid though boot camp! Also eliminating all sugars and dyes. High yeast and an actual allergy to yeast at the time. I put him on a probiotic and also at the time drinking raw coconut and salt baths. Pasquale61 I feel you and I had that feeling of I will never give up!!!! My son had the eye blink and eye roll which I don't see much of now and am very greatful. My son has had the the stomach or abdominal crunch which lasted a while and broke my heart at the time but it will pass! My son always did baseball and basketball and you are truly reminding of what he went through at that age. I think nerves did not help. At that age him doing the stomach crunch during basketball gave me so much anxiety. My son got better and I assured you it will get better. I addressed the allergies not saying it was the cause of the tics but everything got better. Just cleaning everything . He is now 11 and there are no stomach crunches or eye rolling things have improved. Keep going and don't give up!

Mar

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Thanks Mar - yes the stomach roll is painfull to watch. I get so quiet when he does it trying to hold back my tears. I'm one of his coaches so its hard for me to deal with it and also continue to pay attention to rest of team. We have a phone consult with Dr today to go over blood results. What type of probiotic have you tried? Do you supplement with magnesium. I'm so grateful for your replies. It gives me hope,

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Blood work results show high Strep Anti-DNAaseB 1190, high IgG 819 and high IgM 1722. Doctor suggests round of ABX. Should I move this thread to PANDAS forum at this point? Also high BUN/Creatinine 47. We will try ABX and see what happens. I also want to add Probiotic. Has anyone used Culterelle? Doctor recommended it.

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We do culterelle with him when we rember. My son would get a lot of strep throat also throughout his childhood. I do think and know that strep was the evil thing. But I never did the blood work for him shame on me but this was because he was also showing so many allergy symptoms and I consitrated on that and just cleaning out his system. In the past two or three years he only got it once and he has been sick free for several years. Yes I did natural calm magnesium in th beginning and he liked it but then didn't. This was the powder form. I can't recall why but stopped it. I did Epsom salt baths which he liked a lot and help calm him along with the tics. I also would put it in the foot soakers like those girlie pedicure foot massages in water and he said it helped him to destress. The magnesium salt helped a lot to relaxe him. I beleive we started at 1 cup melted in microwave with water and put into bath and have them sit in if for 15-20 minutes. Drink water with lemon if okay during this but it is supposed to be a great detox. He loved those times. He would always say it helps and he would actually ask for those bathes. He would come home and tics and anxiety I would see are up and he would ask for the bath. This is totally out there but will never forget my ds coming home from school at 7-8 years old and his lips would be all red and all around and I took a camomile tea bag warmed to his lips that I learned from chamar on this site that would help the pain . He looked at me with these bright blue eyes and was so happy that it helped the pain and said mom can you stop my mouth from opening. He would constantly open his mouth bc of red and painful lips. That is when I looked at him and my world changed with I will try everything and anything to help you. The road is difficult in the beginning but it will get better!!!

Mar

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Just a note on supplements, there are good and bad ones out there. Same with probiotics, you should look for a high grade with around 30 billion strains. I've tried several brands before finding one that totally dissolves in water, so I can put it in anything.

Great to see some results from the blood work, our members in PANDAS section will be so useful for guiding you through this. I'm glad your not giving up, supplements in my experience have been very useful and I've worked with a Naturopath to tailor a regime for my son which is working. It may be a giant puzzle, but so worth the journey. Good luck and your in the right place to help find answers.

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Blood work results show high Strep Anti-DNAaseB 1190, high IgG 819 and high IgM 1722. Doctor suggests round of ABX. Should I move this thread to PANDAS forum at this point? Also high BUN/Creatinine 47. We will try ABX and see what happens. I also want to add Probiotic. Has anyone used Culterelle? Doctor recommended it.

 

Yes, I would definitely suggest you post on our PANDAS forum now that you have those results.

 

Be careful in the choice of probiotics as some kids do not tolerate all of them equally...again the PANDAS members can hopefully offer some guidance on this.

 

(my son cannot take supplement type probiotics so gets his from foods like Kefir and saurkraut etc....but he is TS not PANDAS)

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