Tourettes/ticks

[Guest Guest_Julie]

HI,

I'm new to this website.

I have a 7 year old son that has vocal ticks accompanied with eye blinking. The vocal tick sounds like "hm,hm,hm" with eye blinking and the tick occurs every few seconds. He hadn't had any out of the ordinary health issues as a baby or child.

 

Last summer during his swimming lessons he started a vocal tick. The tick started after he had a minor cough or clearing of his throat sound. The tick was mild at first then it increased during the school year. It has increased to a constant vocal tick with the eye blinking. Basically, 3-5 sounds every 10 seconds.

His diet was mainly tofu cooked with Miso soup, rice, french fries. He didn't like a lot of foods and never drank milk and didn't like cheese. We use calcium OJ since he was around 3 for his calcium.

About 2-3 months ago, we decided to try and change his diet because we thought maybe he didn't get enough fats or balance of meats and I had read somewhere about the use of tofu as a main source of protein in vegetarian women can cause ADD symptoms. We cut out his tofu (which he was eating every day) and replaced it with steak, chicken nuggets and cut back on the starches. His tick weined off substantially to maybe one vocal sound an hour or more apart. We noticed an increase in his ticks when we let him have tofu again and if we cut back on the meats and allowed him to just have the starches.

We noticed that his ticks would also increase if he was tired or stressed.

 

Suddenly, his tick came back these 2 weeks. It is a constant "hm,hm,hm" with eye blinking and it's getting louder every few seconds. Allergies is really bad these days and he has been waking with puffy eyes and we have been outside for little league baseball. He also had a Karate belt test over the past weekend which was stressful. The only other new thing I could think of is that we introduced a new brand of Oj and a new multi vitamin.

Should I go back to his old OJ brand and stop this new mulit vitamin and see if the tick subsides? Also, could allergies trigger the ticking again?

 

The vocal tick sounds like "hm,hm,hm" with eye blinking and the tick occurs every few seconds. He says that when he tries to stop it, it feels awful like he is dying. My heart goes out to him.

He has told me his classmates are asking him why he is making that sound. I have spoken to his teachers about the tick and they know that he can't help it but we have not talked about Tourettes because he has not been formerly diagnosed with it.

I can see that this is bothering him.

 

We had spoken to his pediatrician in December and he thinks it's Tourettes. We have a referral to see a neurologist nurse practictioner in Mid May. We don't want to put him on medication - it scares me to read about the side affects of these drugs.

Does anyone have recomendations for me? Does anyone have children around the same age with the same sound/symptom and what have you done?

 

I just feel so overwhelmed and I don't know where to begin.

[Guest Jean]

Hi Julie,

 

Welcome to the right place! Sorry to hear about your son's situation. My son is 8- years old and he started his motor tics 7 month ago (a little over 7). In the begining, we didn't understand these're tics. We constantly reminded him stopping it, and it made his tics worse. After we understand his tics, we put him on Feingold diet (mainly to avoid food with artifical ingrediants, etc.). We also found out that TV/E-games/Computer are triggers for his eye rolling tic. He's been on no TV/E-games/computer (except once a week school computer lab) for 5 months already. During one time period, he had very frequent sniffing. After stopping dairy, his sniffing was gone. My son has allergy and asthma. We also run the stool analysis and heavy metal test for him. He doesn't have heavy metal, but his stool test showed he lacks of "good bacterias" (due to his frequently intake of antibiotics). He's under a naturopath care with remedies and HMF about 2 months. Meanwhile, he still has no TV/E-games. His tics are very mild (or barely noticeable) these days. I suspect your son may allergic to soy bean (or soy bean products). You may want to start from avoiding artifical flavored/colored food (and possible soy bean products). Also, you may try to let him avoid TV for a week (to see if it will help his eye blink). Meanwhile, you may want to find an alternative med. Dr. or naturopath to help run some tests for your son to find out if there is any underline issue. There are many information from this forum.

 

I recommand your to read the thread that "the7rose" started couple days ago. Chemar and others gave many suggestions on where to start from. Here is the link: http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...p?showtopic=567

 

Hanging on there...and please keep us updated.

 

Take care!

[Guest Guest_Julie]

Since I posted my note, my son's vocal tick has subsided somewhat after we removed the 3 new food items.

We introduced a kangavites vitamin from Whole foods and purchased their orange juice and some seaweed crackers from Trader Joes. He had been consuming these new food items daily and his vocal tick increase to a constant "hm hm hmmm" along with eye blinking.

We removed the food items on Saturday and over the past 2 days we notice his vocal tick subsiding.

 

I started to look at the ingredients in these foods and see if we can find anything in common. I notice from reading other postings that it is a trial and error kind of thing.

 

His teacher has told me that he seems to increase his ticks after lunch recess. He is a picky eater and I give him ham every day because that is what he is willing to eat. Has anyone had any problems with ham increasing the ticks?

 

I also see other postings talk about an increase in ticks these past weeks. Could it just be coincidence that my son's ticks increased with the new foods or maybe it is because of the allergies? We live in California.

 

I see postings on different types of tests. Where do you get these tests done? Is it thru your pediatrician or your neurologist?

[Claire]

Hi Julie,

 

Sheila Rogers, the editor of this site, has posted links to types of doctors at the top. On these lists are MD's and Naturopaths, and other.

 

These aren't the only lists, but a good starting point.

 

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...st=0entry3404

 

Claire

[Chemar]

Julie

 

is their coloring in the Kangavites?

Also, sometimes their are additives even in "healthy" food so it is a great idea to read labels...I have been quite shocked sometimes to discover artificial sweeteners, coloring and even high fructose corn syrup in things i would not have expected to find it......and even things like Campbells soup has MSG added

 

As a rule, if tics increase with a foodstuff..and then decrease when you remove it....something in it is a tic trigger!

 

Your pediatrician may be willing to run tests for you....especially the ones to detect Candida (yeast) ....preferably blood or urine test (not stool, as that doesnt always show the correct results) and also blood and hair tests for mercury, lead and other heavy metals. PANDAs tests for stealth viruses, especially strep etc

 

Sadly,some conventional doctors dont take these tests seriously and then you can try on those lists Sheila posted

 

HTH

[Guest Guest_Julie]

Thank you all for your responses. I will continue to look on this site and keep you posted as to my son's progress.

This is all so new and I'm trying to understand as much as possible so please bear with me as I try to digest it all.

[Jennifer]

Julie,

 

Your story sounds just like mine. Our son started with those exact same tics when he was 6 1/2 years old.

 

You have come to the right place, there are so many awesome parents on this forum with very valuable imput!

 

We first started by eliminating all artificial ingredients and ended up doing mostly organic, many things I make from scratch..it is a job though and a process. You can't make such drastic changes over night. So don't get disouraged.

 

We found a lot of relief from his symptoms through supplements, but the real break came when we decided to take him to a DAN doctor who is a naturopath. We found out that he has a wheat/spelt allergy and was suffering from malapsorption.....because of that all his vit/mineral and amino acid levels were way low. He also has yeast and fungal issues as well as elevated lead and mercury.

 

Just taking him off the wheat has made an enormous difference. I think of the path we've been down and I am so glad we chose it instead of medicating him as was recommended to us by his pediatrician. The prescription was called in and ready for us to pick up, but I just couldn't do it.

 

A great book to read is "Children with Starving Brains" by Dr. Jaqueline McCandless. She lists her current protocol...I owe a lot to her! She writes the causes and protocol in a very organized fashion. The book targets Autism Spectrum Disorder's in general, Tourett's is on the spectrum as well.

 

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Jennifer

[Claire]

Julie,

 

I just don't see the need for medication at this point! He is years from being teased if that is a concern for you, and you have plenty of time to explore the options on this board. Though my disclaimer is that I think that drugs are rarely a solution anyway.

 

I think everyone of the ongoing members here (meaning 6 months or more) has seen substantial improvement since they started this process--and none through drugs. Many of us have learned so much from eachother. For example, I would never have known to have tests for mercury/metals, yeast, food sensitivities done had I not come here. Like Jennifer, my son had issues with all of these, and we are seeing improvements now.

 

It takes a ton of research and/or the RIGHT specialist to guide you, but it is 100% worth it. It does take time, but you have lots of time.

 

Claire

 

ps Can you please post the data on tofu (soy?) and ADD. THis is basically my son's only protein source since he tested sensitive to milk, eggs and wheat (no more breaded chicken).