Restless - Natural calming agents tips please

[Guest kpd]

Hi claire and efgh,

He has some OCD behaviors and recently he said" you know how I have to touch things I need to do it like 10 times now" my heart broke. Wtih natural remedies he could only take certain tastes for so long and cannot swallow pills. The Tenex is a prescription drug which is tiny and he takes half a pill. He is 11 in one week so I just think his hormones might be starting to kick in so we might be in for a worsening of symptoms for a while. He started off very mild around 8 years old.

This sleeping habit has gotten worse within the past month or so. If I give him an Epsom salt bath or Chamomile tea that sometimes helps.

We are visiting a psychologist tomorrow so he will have someone else to talk to . She is also in to Eastern medicine and watching the diet like we try to I am hoping this will give him extra support. Though he gets alot from us and his friends.

 

Sorry for rambling but there are no support groups around here so I love this forum

[Guest Guest_efgh]

KPD

 

Do you give tenex for his motor and vocal tics or for his OCD? "touching things" can be motor tics too or compulsions - hard to distinguish.

[Guest kpd]

Hi efgh

 

We give Tenex for his TS. He has repetative behavior but in my experience it does not seem like OCD, I do not know. I do not know quite yet if the Tenex is helping or not. Before the Tenex I gave him Rescue Remedy which he said made him stop his tics quicker also. How old is your child?

 

Karen

[Guest Guest_efgh]

hi KPD

 

My son is 9.5 years old.

 

What is rescue remedy and since it was helping your son's tics any particular reason why you stopped it? Is your son able to manage his school with the tics without problem? have you informed the school authorities about that yet?

We know its a passing phase but since no one else in the family has it, its a lot of emotional stress on the parents.

 

[Guest Guest]

Hey efgh,

 

My son told his class. The people in school who need to know do. REscue Remedy is a homeopathic remedy. I believe it is a blend of flowers. I used to take it. It just relaxes you. Because my son is taking Tenex I am afraid to give the rescue remedy in fear of relaxing his system to much.

We got the ts diagnosis about 2 years ago, about a year ago we started becoming more open about it. Peoples attitude's were great. They would say " i understand now"or I am more patient with him now. I think with my son and his teacher and the nurse and the school psychologist explaining how it is a neurological disease with a medical background helped the kids who did not know or the ones who picked on him. They understood him better. It seemed to take a great deal of pressure off his shoulders.

[Guest kpd]

Hi again efgh,

 

Also no one in our family has it either. Do you know of any extended family members that might have it. I do not.

Some days it is very frustrating.Kpd

[Guest Guest_efgh]

Hi kpd

 

None of our extended family members have it either. What are the motor and vocal tics that your son has? At what age was it at its peak severity? Does he tic a lot in the school too? Heard many kids try to suppress the tics in school.

[Guest Guest_efgh]

Hi again KPD

 

Does any one else in your son's school has TS/tics?? That way I guess our TS kids will feel that they are not alone (in the school).

Is it very common in the school children as such?

[Guest kpd]

Hi efgh,

No one in his school has it. I have tried to make calls to try to make a match for us with other kids ,but nothing has panned out. We recently went to a family's house for dinner they had twins who both had it. They are grown now and doing fine. They are also on a cocktail of drugs because of their other symptoms like severe OCD and anxiety.

There is not much for support in my area but I keep talking to people and hear of more kids who have it I just have to make a connection. That would make the biggest difference for my son to meet someone who has it.

I would say around 10.5 is when it started to get a little worse. He will be 11 next week. I also read between 3rd and 5th grade tends to be worse, I think because of the hormones starting.

We try to watch his diet to . He likes soy chips with peanut butter on them. I also make fruit smoothies with protein powder in it.

 

I also find interesting that most of his friends have some type of disability also, be it adhd or other psychological disabilities. In 1993 something was in the water.

[Guest kpd]

Hi efgh

Cross out third to fifth. I read 3rd to 8th grade.

Kpd

[Claire]

Not sure what thread to put this in. I got my son down to 1/3 mg of melatonin, and guess what, he stopped sleeping on the floor with melatonin--it has been 2 weeks.

 

Then this weekend I tried no melatonin last night and tonight, and by tonight he had to sleep on the floor again. As expected, he had delayed sleep also.

 

I tried no melatonin just to see what happens. I do this here and there and the result is the same with back to delayed sleep.

 

However, I read that melatonin can aggravate asthma/allergies (search melatonin + allergies) and though he doesn't have asthma he does have allergies. Since he has been taking Melatonin, he has phlemm (sp) in his chest. I thought it was coincidence from have a leftover junk from a chest cold, but after 3 weeks I wondered.

 

Anyway, that's why I am testing to see what happens with no melatonin. His lungs did seem clearer today. I will reintroduce it tomorrow night. If it gets worse again I will have my answer--I hope not. I just love the better night's sleep for him and he was so rested in the mornings!

 

efgh--how is the mag. taurate working for sleep? How long does it take him to get to sleep now?

 

Claire

[Chemar]

Hi Claire

what an interesting observation!

Perhaps keeping your son on a very minimal dose of Melatonin may be the way to go.

 

Have you ever tried Linden Flower tea as a sleep aid. It is supposed to have no side effects.My son likes it sweetened with honey.

 

Also Passiflora(Passion Flower=Grenadella).comes in a capsule made by Solaray.

We used it for a while and it worked great but then seemed to start leaving him a little groggy for school.

 

Since we moved to our new home(been here 2 weeks now) I have noticed my son (and all of us) are physically and emotionally in far better shape than in the older, woodframe house. We had found evidence of mold and also suspected the thick pile carpeting etc of problems. Also the house was in a very wooded area with lots of overgrowth and with spanish moss and lichens etc on the trees.

 

The new home was built in 1997, is stucco and the the area is mainly palm and pine trees....

 

my son has a large, bright and airy room and is sleeping wonderfully plus loving the new school. They had to do a report for LifeSkills on dealing with challenges, and he wrote on living with TS/OCD....well, the teacher was so impressed that it was read out to all the students and my son has been nominated for something called Local Heroes!!!! You can imagine how delighted he was for the recognition, and many of the kids have come to him and said how much they admire his ability to overcome his challenge etc. This is our first ever venture into the public school system and I am just so very pleased that we seem to have struck gold. i was so nervous at first, but he is finding it easy academically... and making friends, especially as it is a short walk from our neighborhood so he is getting to know the other kids too as they all walk or bike there.

 

All in all...a very good move!

[Guest Jean]

Chemar,

 

Thanks for sharing the good news! I'm very happy for you and your son!!! It's hard to keep positive always, but this kind of news helps a lot. Thanks!

[Claire]

Hi Chemar,

 

Your situation is simply marvelous to hear! What a great thought to be in an airy house--I hope we can get to that point. I am going to start being a hypochondriac and bringing a small airfilter to places we stay with carpeting after our last experience. I am really interested to see if the improvement is sustained--I bet it will be!

 

And your son is such a model to other kids, really! You must be so proud of him. More than anything, going to a new school and fitting in is a big challenge to teens.

 

 

More input on the Melatonin--his throat still has 'phlemm' (sp) today, so I don't think that melatonin is causing the problem after all. So we will go back to the Melatonin tonight. It is remarkable to me the dramatic contrast between no melatonin and .33 mg at night! I think I mentioned once that at 1 mg he was drowsy the next day.

 

He used to have this phlemm and it went away when he stopped eating peanuts and wheat, so I assumed it was a food allergy. Now with its return, I think it is either because he has wheat sometimes still (not much and not everyday) or because he still occasionally has peanuts--he just did this again Friday (he doesn't think about the peanut allergy, and if offered candy, he just takes it!)

 

Thanks for the other suggestions (e.g. Passiflora). What I will do is to try these other approaches (that aren't hormones!) on weekends. The good night's sleep makes such a difference in him waking up refreshed and focused for school that I would like this to stay stable during the week for now.

 

Claire

[Guest Guest_efgh]

Chemar

 

What a great news. I am so happy for you and your son. Feels good to read such positive stuff! Convey our congrats to your son, the local hero!! Hardwork really pays. They say "If God closes one door, he opens the other!!".

 

Claire

 

Magnesium taurate seems to really help my son's sleep. He used to take hours to sleep all along and now its 20 minutes maximum. This improvement has been consistent for the past two weeks ever since I started him on magnesium taurate.

Chemar, I did try passion flower and Linden tea etc for my son but unfortunately it made him more restless, wired etc and so I had to give up. As of now, mag taurate seems to really help him ...