severe food allergies, asthema, now vocal tic

[prekteach]

could he be having vocal tics, he's constently clearing his throat. seems to happy after lunch=during nap time. he might have a cold, or just be is allergies or asthema, but how do i know if it's a tic? his mom says he does it at home too. should i be concerned enough to talk to his parents more?

[CarolynN]

How wonderful of you to be concerned for this boy. It very well could be that he has a tic. But the good news is most tics are what would be considered "transient". Meaning they don't stick around very long. I know a friend of mine told me her son had a throat clearing sound all summer and then it just disappeared. I think I read that 10%-20% of children experience some sort of tic at some point in their childhood. Obviously, with tourettes or chronic tics, these do not stay short lived like the transient ones.

 

You could gently mention to her, if you feel comfortable, that you are wondering if it could indeed be a tic. You could also mention to her that tics are generally caused by an allergy to a food or environment factor. As in my son's case, it is to artificial foods. It may be informative to her to pay attention to when he eats and when the "tic" emerges. I also have to mention, with tourettes, a lot of what I read is it starts with excessive eye blinking. However, this was not the case with my son. His started with vocal tics like the throat clearing. If I am wrong on the eye blinking information please someone correct me. I just seem to remember reading this somewhere.

 

Also I want to mention when my son goes to bed his tics increase right before falling asleep. So if you notice the sound increasing right before following asleep it probably is a tic.

 

If you are noticing an increase in tics right after eating, say within 30-40 minutes, you can pretty much guess it is a food allergy that the child is dealing with. The good news is there are answers for that and that is what this forum is all about.

 

God Bless and keep up the good work in teaching our young ones!

 

Carolyn N.

[faith]

prekteach,

I wanted to reply to your post, but was having trouble, but CarolynN. has done a good job.

 

Although, may I ask, since you are a teacher, could you give us an idea of your experience with children in tics? I am curious as to your feelings on this subject. Is this the first time you have noted a tic in a child? Or would you say it is not that uncommon? Are you familiar with tic disorders?

 

The only advice I would like to give, being the parent of a child who has had some tics since about 3 1/2 yrs old, is that if the throat clearing tic is not disruptive to the class, I would just wait and see, as this can be very upsetting to the parents, especially with this happening at such a young age. If it continues for a time, you could mention that you still note it, but if it is not interfering with anything in the classroom, or the child's social interaction, then be sure to tell the mom that part too, for that will at least put her at some ease. I can assure you this can be quite alarming and frightening to a parent, so any support and encouragement you could give will go a long way.

 

Faith