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Twitching and Restless Legs


kallik

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My son has small muscle twitches I can feel when he's asleep or sitting beside me. He also has to move his legs while in bed at night, trying to get to sleep. I always thought this was a common part of tics/tourettes, but I've heard few mention it here on the forum. Is this common with others besides my son? He also has to urinate alot when sitting for long periods, or at night while trying to get to sleep. We thought the frequent urination was another tic. A lot of times he's actually urinating, sometimes just a few drops come out. Sometimes, even though he's peed within the last twenty minutes, I'll tell him, "You've just peed" and he'll say,

"but it hurts." He got a full battery of tests and his urinary is fine. Also blood test said he didn't have diabetes. Just wondering if anyone else experiences these things and knows what to do about them.

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My son has small muscle twitches I can feel when he's asleep or sitting beside me. He also has to move his legs while in bed at night, trying to get to sleep. I always thought this was a common part of tics/tourettes, but I've heard few mention it here on the forum. Is this common with others besides my son? He also has to urinate alot when sitting for long periods, or at night while trying to get to sleep. We thought the frequent urination was another tic. A lot of times he's actually urinating, sometimes just a few drops come out. Sometimes, even though he's peed within the last twenty minutes, I'll tell him, "You've just peed" and he'll say,

"but it hurts." He got a full battery of tests and his urinary is fine. Also blood test said he didn't have diabetes. Just wondering if anyone else experiences these things and knows what to do about them.

 

Did the tests include kidneys and all as well?

have you tried any specialists?

 

Is his tic causing him to push as if he were trying to pee? Maybe that could be why he feels it all the time?

Not sure. Sorry I am not much help.

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I am sorry that I am not familiar with your sons history. Does he have TS, PANDAS, what is his background. It is not at all unusual for children with PANDAS to have issues with urination. Dr. Murphy told us there is a unknown component in PANDAS children that affects the bladder. They aren't sure if it is a direct affect on the bladder itself or an affect on the portion of the brain that interprets messages from the bladder. Anyway, many children feel the urge to urinate even though they really do not need to and make frequent trips. This is an issue that comes and goes and often correlates with strep flare ups, exposures, or illness. My son has had this problem in the past but it has been many years. I occasionally notice him making more trips but rarely for more than a day.

 

In regards to the RLS, we also have issues with that but not with my PANDAS son. My other son had that at one point but it seemed to get better when I started giving him calcium and mag. I have also read that B vitamins are a treatment as well. I also have a 4 year old daughter who recently told me one night that she could not go to sleep because her legs would not stop moving. Of course, she is to young to take calcium supplements, so I am at a bit of a loss at how to help her. There are many nights that she tosses around and throws those little legs all over the place. I have tried to get her to drink the kids calm and so forth but she will have none of that. She is very particular and can usually tell if I have added anything to her food or drink. I can't even get her to take a multi vitamin yet. I wish I knew what to do to help her. I am sure it is a pediatric form of RLS, and since I suffer from RLS as well I know how miserable it can be. I hope you get some help for your son soon. Take care.

 

Dedee

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Not sure but think I have mentioned before that dairy, especially milk seems to flair up my restless legs if I have consumed it that day. (also wine). I was skeptical about the milk, but have had a repeat occurrence last week where I had a couple of glasses of milk two days in a row and it was pretty bad that night and even went into the next day, I had to rub alchohol on my calves and even tried ben-gay. I am pretty sure it is from that. I also think chinese food (msg?) affects it too. So perhaps you could do some sleuthing and see when your kids complain, try to see what food group they could have consumed that day that may cause it to flair.

 

Dedee, the regular natural calm does not really have much of a flavor if you mix it in orange or orange/mango juice, perhaps she will drink that?

 

 

Faith

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There are a lot of posted studies in the last couple of days about inflammation, the immune system, and neuro issues. A friend recently sent me an email about her teenage PANDAS son being involved in a study looking at inflammation too. I thought this Parkinsons article was interesting on quite a few points, but the stuff about minocycline caught my eye in particular as I know there has been some thought that this drug may have benefit for PANDAS. Like the autism research, it seems Parkinsons and even alzheimers studies are good things to keep an eye on

 

 

 

http://www.nature.com/bjp/journal/v150/n8/pdf/0707167a.pdf

 

British Journal of Pharmacology (2007)

 

It was shown that minocycline, a tetracycline derivative,

decreased the production of inflammatory cytokines, such as

IL-1b, as well as iNOS and NADPH oxidase, compared with

levels in untreated animals (Wu et al., 2002). Similarly,

minocycline was shown to have neuroprotective effects on

dopaminergic neurons in MPTP, LPS and 6-OHDA models of

PD (Du et al., 2001; He et al., 2001; Wu et al., 2002; Tomas-

Camardiel et al., 2004). Collectively, this would seem to lend

strong support to the potential use of anti-inflammatory

drugs in PD. However, such drugs could only be given once

the symptoms present and their effects would be to restrict

further neurodegeneration and both steroids and NSAIDs

have unpleasant and potentially dangerous side effects

when given over a long period of time. It may indeed be

the case that patients who are on long-term treatment with

NSAIDs for conditions such as cardiovascular disease will be

protected, but in these individuals the assessment of an anti-

PD-like effect is fortuitous and not planned. Although

arresting disease progression in PD would be a laudable

achievement, reversing the severity of the lesion would

clearly be the desired goal.

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Kalicat,

Sorry I missed your post. My son has urination problems where he has to repetively run to the bathroom. Only a few drops come out. He thinks he has to go though and will do it over and over. Dr. Murphy said this is common with PANDAS kids and it is almost like a sign that they are having an episode. When this happens they possibly have been exposed to strep. If other symptoms appear have their throat cultured along with those of others in the home. If anyone has strep treat them with an antibiotic. She was right because we went for throat cultures when my son started cracking and urinating all the time, and one of us had strep with no symptoms. My daughter was treated and I upped his antibiotic also. She wanted him on a three week dose of a stronger antibiotic like omniseph or augmentin during flare ups. We have done all the labs for urine infections also and they were negative. I wonder if the urination could be from yeast overgrowth. Have you tested for yeast? My son did have yeast in his lab work. We have been giving him Nystatin. It seems to help take away the urge. Also the Omniseph helps him too. I think of it as a compulsive behavior. Let me know if you have other questions.

Michele

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My son started urinating frequently at around age 8. On his 8th birthday, he had a strong reaction to posion ivy and we rushed to the doctor who gave him a steroid shot because he was having trouble breathing, had hives, his lip swelled up huge...That seemed to be the start of it all. As far as I know he's never had strep. He started the urinating during the hurricane evacuation. He had to keep peeing in a plastic bottle because we couldn't stop of course. Few weeks, months, its all a blur but he started rolling his eyes. The urinating has gone on for two and a half years, but it seemed to be a little better the past four months or so, until recently. Not much has changed, he did have a cold recently, nothing major. Wouldn't it be something if it was Pandas all this time? I give mag taurate. I haven't given calcium. I give around 350 mag taurate a day. He had a blood test for yeast, which was negative. I've heard it's not neccesarily accurate, so I'm saving to do a urine test for yeast. His B vitamins tested okay, iron okay, some kind of strep, something, in same blood test, also was negative. I've asked them to send me a copy of his paperwork, but they've yet to do it. Sometimes, he hardly has any urine when he goes, but he feels the need to go. Guess, I'm back at square one, and need to get these tests done. I did have a throat swap, culture?, done recently, for strep, but they never got back to me with the results. Felt so foolish asking for a strep test when all he had was a runny nose, and not much else. We've never got ourselves tested. Both my husband and I had a bad cold recently, but I don't think to ask for a strep test. Thanks everyone. Sorry so long.

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  • 10 years later...

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