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[WriterGenevieve]

Hi Everyone. So glad I found this forum. My son's first tic started when he was around 5 - he is 9 now. There are many contributing factors that could have triggered the onset. We suffered from longterm exposure to carbon monoxide and after 7 mos. of the exposure - right before we found out we were being poisoned - his tic started. He also had swine flu and tamiflu months before...so who knows..it was all too much on him. We've both suffered lifelong damages from the exposure - but it's too much to explain here. His tics used to happen every 6 mos. in the beginning after the first one - last a couple weeks and be gone for about 6 mos. I had no idea what they were - involved blinking eyes and making a face with the eyes involved, then breathing, inhaling noises, coughing, throat clearing, squeezing his hands and flinging his head back (the worst one he's had) - or a combination of that and some other upper body movements were his worst. He has also had Strep and I often wonder about PANDAS. I have tried a lot of different things.

 

I've been writing down everything as things change with him - to keep an eye on what's working or not - and what's triggering if possible. A few months ago my friend told me about Elderberry syrup. I bought some - take a teaspoon with a couple tablespoons of grape juice (tastes great if you make it yourself) supposed to be extremely strong immune system booster - used in other countries as a replacement for antibiotics and to treat illness, chronic fatigue, fibromayalgia, etc. I could go on and on. There have been studies on it also - you can look it up. We have been taking a teaspoon or two (or three if getting sick) every day for the last couple of months. I noticed his tics waned down to almost nothing - just a little hand tic when reading or stressed out, etc. Then I had us stop taking the elderberry syrup for a week as we had stomach problems and for some reason I thought it might be linked to it (I had just made my first batch of elderberry syrup from dried elderberries and it was around the same time we got stomach problems which developed). During that week with no elderberry, a new tic developed with him making a strange face and sometimes licking his lips and doing something with his nose. After that week I started giving him (and myself) the elderberry syrup again as usual as we started having some other issues with a cold developing. I realized the elderberry syrup did not cause us any stomach problems. Since I started him up again the tic is completely gone and has stayed gone - he has had no tics that I've seen for the past few weeks or a month maybe. This is a huge huge deal as I have tried all the vitamins, magnesium, supplements, etc. and they haven't done anything noticeable. I will update if anything changes...OH by the way - the tics that he has had over the past 8 months or so have been consistent and nonstop everyday - something happening with them. It has been the LONGEST stretch of nonstop tics as when he first started having tics they would only last a couple weeks and go away for about 6 months.

If anyone else tries this - please let us know the results..I would love to know if it helps others!!!!! If you want a recipe to make it yourself, I can give you a link to the recipe. Or else you can buy it from a natural health store, organic store, but some brands have a lot of alcohol in them to preserve them and the taste isn't the best. Depends on the brand anyway. ...So far - the past month to two months - nearly no tics - lately I just give him 1 teaspoon a day. All the normal triggers for him are not triggering them as of now. I am really happy for that.

 

Take care everyone! (Also - since doing this with the elderberry syrup - I haven't been giving him anything more than a regular vitamin and sometimes forget also)

Edited January 27, 2014 by writergenevieve

[Mom]

Hi Writergenevieve, I'm so happy your son is doing so well. I love to hear successful stories. My son has had tics since probably around the age of 3 but I didn't realized what they were back then. He is now 11 years old and has had tics that have come and gone some worse than others. He is currently having a bad one where he moves his head around so much that his eyeglasses have flown out of his face couple times. He has an appointment with a neurologist in about 3 weeks but I would like to try something natural. This past week I have been trying to go organic in my home in hopes that he will get better. I would like to know how long after you started giving him the syrup did the tics stop? I would also love to have the link for the recipe of the elderberry syrup . Thank you so much in advance.

[WriterGenevieve]

Hi there! I know what you mean about not knowing your son was having tics back when they first started. I took my son to so many drs for different things only to later find out the things he was dealing with were all tics. One dr. diagnosed my son with asthma because of my son's breathing tic - even though there was no evidence of it..but oh well. My son still claims to have asthma at times! I'm sorry your son is dealing with this right now - it's so horrible at times. The head/neck one my son had was the WORST one - flinging his head back - sounds like your sons. It killed me to watch it happening...that one in particular. I pray this will work and help your son. This is my recipe: for elderberry syrup. But if you make it you would probably have to buy the dried elderberries online - I did that on amazon from the brand,"Frontier" - organic whole dried elderberries. Otherwise you can buy a small thing of it at an organic store in the "immune system" section for their natural products. Some taste good but one I bought was really strong in alcohol - that they use to preserve it. The NOW foods kind tastes fine though. If you find that it works - I would highly recommend making it as you go through a lot of it and you can make a ton of it for way less money. About how quickly it worked - maybe it took a couple days - it may have worked right away but I didn't notice at first. I actually wasn't giving it to him because of the tics. I was giving it to him because we usually get sick nonstop in the winter and I heard this stuff worked - and it really does. It's my first winter of not having nonstop sinus and ear infections.

 

So I started noticing a decrease but it took a good month for me to realize that they seemed to be almost all gone - maybe a little one here or there. So anyway I think it works quite quickly to be honest. Because I stopped him from taking it for a week as we ran out and had some stomach problems, etc. and I wanted to make more. Right away I stopped - immediately he developed a new tic. I don't know if that's a coincidence but it didn't seem like it as when we started on it again they stopped. Just recently my son got the flu - 102 fever and I gave him a teaspoon of elderberry syrup and had him sleep for one hour. I checked on him and he was drenched in sweat and the fever was gone and he was better so quickly! But he's still fighting a bad cough and some type of infection - so during this time when his body is run down from that and going to school (he gets stressed easily and that usually adds to things) his tics have been happening here and there (but not severe at all - very little minor ones) - but mostly only one day recently when he hadn't slept well the night before and still getting over not feeling well. Anyway, I really hope this will help your son. Please keep in touch.

[WriterGenevieve]

Also, I keep my son away from dairy - he used to love eating string cheese nonstop but I think there are a lot of chemicals in many dairy products and both he and I have become lactose intolerant. It's hard to get used to but I know this is helping him also. Also I think probiotics are very good and useful - not sure about stopping tics but overall they help with general health and balance in the stomach. I try not to buy too many sugary things - or things with MSG trigger problems with his tics and cause stomach problems....

[Chemar]

Hi there writergenevieve

could you post the receipe for the elderberry syrup here rather than with that website redirect please ....thanks!

[Mom]

Thank you for all the information and for praying for my son I also hope your son's cough gets better soon. Would you mine giving me the recipe for the elderberry syrup that you make for your son. I have looked and called different places for the dried elderberry but no seems carry it, so I will order it from Amazon today. So again if you don't mind posting the recipe so I know what else to get and how to make it. Thank you so much!

[Chemar]

Hoping writergenevieve will post her recipe here

 

imt this is one I have used https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/newsletter/10/november/elderberrysyrup.php