Breathing Tic?

[Jennifer_D]

Hi, I found this forum trying to find out more about this thing my son has been doing.

For the past few months my 7 year old son has been "deep breathing". It's like he can't catch a breath, he quickly sucks in a breath and lets it out. He does this all the time. I noticed it mostly after dinner, and that is what I told my doctor. But the more it has been a concern to me, I have noticed it more and more. He dosen't do it while hes sleeping.

I took him to the pediatrician and told him what I have been noticing. I thought it was asthma, he asked how he slept, he sleeps fine,no coughing etc. He said it could be either a tic or Gastric Reflux Disease. He scheduled a upper GI and we did that and it came out fine.

I then asked him what now? He wants to schedule an appointment with a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston.

Also, I felt like after I took him to the appointment he started doing the breathing more and more, l read that children might do the tic more if you bring attention to it.

I had tics when I was young, blinking, making a "hmm" noise and they passed. I don't know if this breathing is a psychological thing. He is the middle child of three and our life is hectic.

Please give me your thoughts.

Thanks,

Jennifer

[itsme]

Hi, I found this forum trying to find out more about this thing my son has been doing.

For the past few months my 7 year old son has been "deep breathing". It's like he can't catch a breath, he quickly sucks in a breath and lets it out. He does this all the time. I noticed it mostly after dinner, and that is what I told my doctor. But the more it has been a concern to me, I have noticed it more and more. He dosen't do it while hes sleeping.

I took him to the pediatrician and told him what I have been noticing. I thought it was asthma, he asked how he slept, he sleeps fine,no coughing etc. He said it could be either a tic or Gastric Reflux Disease. He scheduled a upper GI and we did that and it came out fine.

I then asked him what now? He wants to schedule an appointment with a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston.

Also, I felt like after I took him to the appointment he started doing the breathing more and more, l read that children might do the tic more if you bring attention to it.

I had tics when I was young, blinking, making a "hmm" noise and they passed. I don't know if this breathing is a psychological thing. He is the middle child of three and our life is hectic.

Please give me your thoughts.

Thanks,

Jennifer

 

Hi Jennifer,

 

Wecome to the forum. I have found it VERY helpful here since i joined about 2 weeks ago. The people here are very helpful and filled with knowledge and resources.

 

Our son has that tic very mildly now. He was doing it alot after it started on feb 9 07, but he doesn't do it much anymore now. We also took him to the dr. they thought it was asthma or allergy. We are still not sure exactly what it is/was but i believe it was either a tic or anxiety from ticcing alot.

 

 

Hi

[Chemar]

Hi Jennifer and welcome to Latitudes

 

It is very possible that this is what is known as a "transient tic" especially as it seems you had these kinds of tics yourself once.

 

and yes, the more one draws attention to any tic, the harder it is for the person not to do it!! Stress is by far the biggest tic trigger of all

 

it would surprise me if such a young child had reflux disease.

[mountaineer1966]

Hi, I found this forum trying to find out more about this thing my son has been doing.

For the past few months my 7 year old son has been "deep breathing". It's like he can't catch a breath, he quickly sucks in a breath and lets it out. He does this all the time. I noticed it mostly after dinner, and that is what I told my doctor. But the more it has been a concern to me, I have noticed it more and more. He dosen't do it while hes sleeping.

I took him to the pediatrician and told him what I have been noticing. I thought it was asthma, he asked how he slept, he sleeps fine,no coughing etc. He said it could be either a tic or Gastric Reflux Disease. He scheduled a upper GI and we did that and it came out fine.

I then asked him what now? He wants to schedule an appointment with a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston.

Also, I felt like after I took him to the appointment he started doing the breathing more and more, l read that children might do the tic more if you bring attention to it.

I had tics when I was young, blinking, making a "hmm" noise and they passed. I don't know if this breathing is a psychological thing. He is the middle child of three and our life is hectic.

Please give me your thoughts.

Thanks,

Jennifer

 

Hello Jennifer,

I just wanted to let you know that I have Tourette's, and I am actually dealing with that exact tic right now.

I get this one every so often, and it usually lasts several weeks.

I do alot of climbing and hiking, and sometimes I think the tic follows a strenuous climb, where I was doing alot of heavy breathing.

It's no fun, but thankfully it doesn't seem to hang around as long as some of the other tics.

I am currently using only holistic methods of treating my Tourette's.

I was on haliperidol for 15 years, and it nearly wrecked my life.

A few years ago, I went all natural, and it is making an incredible difference!

I believe that a solid, organic diet, and various positive ways of dealing with stress make a huge difference in TS.

I hope you and your son will do well.

God bless you and keep you.

- Joe

[faith]

Mountaineer,

hello and welcom,

Just out of curiousity, since you never posted before, how did you come to know and implement natural treatment for ts? Do you do this on your own knowledge or see a integrative doctor? Any things other than going organic and reducing stress that you could share with us would be helpful too.

 

Thanks

Faith

[Chemar]

welcome Mountaineer1966 and thanks so much for sharing your experience. I hope you will post more.

 

I know all too well what Haldol did to my son in just one year so I can only imagine what 15 years of it were like for you

 

so glad you began a natural approach and have reaped the positive benefits!

[tarabeara]

I have mild TS. I'm 24 and have had this tic for a very long time...so long that I can't remember when it started. Years and years.

 

Anyway, I have it mostly DURING eating and/or drinking. I have to be careful to suck the breaths over my food as not to inhale my food and choke.

 

It also is common when reading aloud. My guess is why it comes on more commonly during these two activities (it's not exclusively during these two activities, but it can happen at any time) is b/c our oxygen supply already drops during these times. I've theorized that I must have central wake apnea (and perhaps during my sleep, as my son did have this, as well as my dad) where I stop breathing at times during the day or at least don't breathe deeply enough....so then I'm sucking in deep breaths to make up for it. That is my theory.

 

Btw, apnea is much more common in people with TS than in the general population.

 

I just deal with the gasping/inhaling tics. I'm used to it, yk?

[JenWithKids]

I have a four year old who's started deep breathing very often just a couple of weeks ago. He tells me he can't help but do it, he can't change the way he does it, he can't stop it. This breathing seems worse when he isn't concentrating on something else. He also has asthma but has a regular breath count, oxygen levels, and his chest sounds perfect, so we really don't think asthma is a cause. We are seeing the pediatrician tomorrow to get an opinion on this, but I wonder how things have evolved for the people in this thread who had similar experiences? Hopefully between 2007 and 2015 there have been some answers/improvements?? Thank you in advance.

 

Jen

[Cj60]

Hi,

 

When my son's tics were at their peak (multiple tics, both simple and complex), the breathing tic (slow deep breaths kind of through his nose and mouth simultaneously) appeared. Breathing tics are classified as a vocal tic, so a pediatric neurologist diagnosed TS, with the caveat that the tics had not been present for a full year. (Even so, she prescribed some toxic meds we opted out of, so be wary of pediatric neurologists.)

 

Ultimately we found an environmental practice and ended up eliminating lots of foods and rotating lots of others in his diet. A long term consistently healthy diet based on his food intolerances (not easy but worth the effort!) and some good multivitamins took care of all of his tics over time. Today he has none that I am able to perceive.

 

Best of luck to you as you work your way through things!

 

Chris

[lbee]

Hi,

 

When my son's tics were at their peak (multiple tics, both simple and complex), the breathing tic (slow deep breaths kind of through his nose and mouth simultaneously) appeared. Breathing tics are classified as a vocal tic, so a pediatric neurologist diagnosed TS, with the caveat that the tics had not been present for a full year. (Even so, she prescribed some toxic meds we opted out of, so be wary of pediatric neurologists.)

 

Ultimately we found an environmental practice and ended up eliminating lots of foods and rotating lots of others in his diet. A long term consistently healthy diet based on his food intolerances (not easy but worth the effort!) and some good multivitamins took care of all of his tics over time. Today he has none that I am able to perceive.

 

Best of luck to you as you work your way through things!

 

Chris

Chris, It's comforting to hear stories like this. Can you share some more detail about your sons onset of tics? How old was he when they started? How long until they got really severe and how old was he when you noticed them disappearing?