frustrating tics

[justgoaway]

My son was diagnosed with TS in 3rd grade. I had a real hard time accepting that it was Tourettes. I never even heard of it before. I sometimes go back and think about what could have happened. I still to this day wonder if by taking him to the dentist and him doing Pulpotomy's on some of his teeth caused this since shortly after he started with a wrist jerk. I read that the teeth have nerve pulp that feeds the dopamines in the the Basil Ganglia of the brain. By taking the nerves out I wonder if it could have caused this.

My son has gone through a lot of tics from wrist jerking, shoulder jerking, hopping and even the swearing vocal tic. He had a horrible breathing tic that was like an asthma attack. I didn't know what to do, but wait it out with him. Now he has this snorting tic that seems to be brought on with his congestion on one side of his nose and it automatically makes him snort. Npw I am wondering if he has a sinus problem causing this tic.

He doesn't have health insurance right now since my husbands employer stopped insuring them and they had to turn to private health insurance. Not one health insurance company will insure our child because he has tics. They are so ignorant to the fact that there is nothing you can do for Tourettes and so your not even taking them to see the Dr. anymore than most children see a Dr. in the first place.

I don't understand why there hasn't been some sort of breakthrough for Tourettes. Our children would be so happy if it would just stop! There is nothing that can be done from what I have read the medicines are for other disorders and are only a sort of ginny pig therapy to something they aren't even made for, but to see if they help. It's like giving you stomach ache medicine for your sore back. I just registered with latitudes hoping to find others out there who know what we have been going through. Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you are out there for support.

[faith]

just go away, welcome,

wow, sorry about the insurance situation, altho, how do they know he has tourettes? you don't have to disclose that, do you? we have insurance, altho of course, some of the docs who treat alternatively don't take insurance so we we've had to pay for stuff like that out of pocket. but just going to a doctor for anything else should not preclude him from being covered? we've been to a DAN (autism) doc who was also an allergist, so we paid thru insurance for that. Also regular pediatricians should just take insurance, what does his tics have to do with being treated for any other childhood illness? or is he an older child?

 

what you mention about the tooth has some merit, because many here have talked about teeth issues causing an upswing in tics. my son just lost another tooth a couple days ago, I can swear things have been getting worse actually since before tht, so maybe even the loosening of the teeth is an issue. don't know, I don't usually track that, but I know many here do., so you'll get some answers on that.

 

What do you or have you done to manage they tics? does he have any other issues?

 

regards,

Faith

[tryinmybest]

Hello and welcome, just go away,

 

You picked a great name! My son has snorting tics and I find them very challenging. He always gets them during allergy season, after a cold or when his nose is running. Also when he is anxious like at a piano performance or during State testing times and after swimming in chlorine. I do think upper respiratory symptoms get him going and are a major trigger. My son is 10 and isn't as bothered by his snorts as everyone around him. Its almost as if he isn't aware of them. We have started some comprehensive behavioral therapy which seems promising. His major obstacle is that he is not very motivated to lose them because they are not a problem to him. If your son is older and more motivated it might be helpful. The tourette syndrome association has a free training DVD for doctors and also will provide physican training. I just remembered insurance is a problem. There might be some studies going on. Anyway, I also wonder what causes my sons tics. Wish I could be more helpful.

[ruby23]

The following is a quote from this site http://www.tuberose.com/Vaccinations.html

(if your child has motor tics as my son did please check out this site). The CDC's (Center for Disease Control) study in 2003 confirms a link between vaccinations and motor tics. My son had severe seizures following a hep b and developed motor tics when he was five. I always suspected a link between vaccinations and motor tics. This site and CDC study basically confirmed that fear.

 

 

If you were informed that mercury in vaccines might double the risk of your son developing motor tics, increase his risk of "phonic tics" by nearly two-and-a-half times, and possibly cause speech, attention or behavioral problems in school, would you still allow him to be injected with the heavy metal -- which, by the way, is 100 times more neurotoxic than that lead coating on his Chinese toys?

 

 

And what if your government's most trusted public health agency, the CDC, announced it had funded a study that replicated the findings of a 2003 CDC analysis, which also detected an association between vaccine mercury and tics, and that researchers were now suggesting "the potential need for further studies" between thimerosal and the neurological disorder?

 

 

And what if the investigators also said they detected a small but statistically significant association between early thimerosal exposure and impaired "behavioral regulation" in boys?

 

 

Or what if they said that increased neonatal exposure (28 weeks or younger) was associated with "significantly lower scores in verbal IQ scores in girls," and "significantly poorer performance" in articulation tests among all children?

 

And what if the authors further noted that speech problems were also found in the 2003 CDC study, where they said thimerosal exposure was associated with "an increased risk of language delays" at one test site?

 

 

Finally, what if those same authors claimed that their findings "suggest a possible adverse association between neonatal exposure to mercury and language development?"

 

 

An 8 pound baby injected with the hepatitis B vaccine at birth is exposed to 35 times the EPA daily safety level for mercury, (calculated by bodyweight) while a 4 pound infant is slammed with 70 times the EPA level.

 

 

Boys who received the highest amounts of thimerosal in the first seven months of life are determined by evaluators to be 2.19 times more likely to have motor tics at age 7-10 years, and 2.44 times more likely to have phonic tics, than boys with the lowest exposures. Any relative risk between exposure and outcome that exceeds 2.0, incidentally, is considered to be proof of causation in US courts of law.

 

 

The Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders defines "simple" motor tics as "brief, meaningless movements like eye blinking, facial grimacing, head jerks or shoulder shrugs," that usually last less than a second. It says that "complex" motor tics cause slower, longer, more intense movements, "like sustained looks, facial gestures, biting, banging, whirling or twisting around, or copropraxia (obscene gestures)."

 

 

On the phonic side, "simple" tics are called, "meaningless sounds or noises like throat clearing, coughing, sniffling, barking, or hissing." Complex phonic tics include, "syllables, words, phrases, and such statements as 'Shut up!' or 'Now you've done it!' The child's speech may be abnormal, with unusual rhythms, tones, accents or intensities."

 

 

There is also the "echo phenomenon," (so familiar to autism parents) characterized by "the immediate repetition of one's own or another's words." Coprolalia, meanwhile, is a tic "made up of obscene, inappropriate or aggressive words and statements."

 

 

Severe behavioral problems are sometimes associated with tics, as well, and "there is some evidence that temper tantrums, aggressiveness, and explosive behavior appear in preadolescence and intensify in adolescence."

 

 

Finally, many children with both phonic and motor tics are diagnosed with Tourette's disorder, which frequently causes "aggressiveness, self-harming behaviors, emotional immaturity, social withdrawal, physical complaints, conduct disorders, affective disorders, anxiety, panic attacks, stuttering, sleep disorders, migraine headaches, and inappropriate sexual behaviors," the Encyclopedia says.

 

 

(Interestingly, Tourette's disorder is three-to-four times more common in males than females, the same ratio as autism, ADD and ADHD).

 

 

Now, if "simple" tics include head jerks and barking; and "complex" tics can entail biting, banging and screaming obscenities; and if thimerosal can more than double the chance of tics in boys; then Atlanta, we have a very big problem.

 

 

It's perplexing that the CDC can report replicating a doubled risk for tics in boys, and an increased risk for speech disorders and attention and behavior problems in other kids, and still insist that this is all "very reassuring news."

 

 

 

 

 

 

My son was diagnosed with TS in 3rd grade. I had a real hard time accepting that it was Tourettes. I never even heard of it before. I sometimes go back and think about what could have happened. I still to this day wonder if by taking him to the dentist and him doing Pulpotomy's on some of his teeth caused this since shortly after he started with a wrist jerk. I read that the teeth have nerve pulp that feeds the dopamines in the the Basil Ganglia of the brain. By taking the nerves out I wonder if it could have caused this.

My son has gone through a lot of tics from wrist jerking, shoulder jerking, hopping and even the swearing vocal tic. He had a horrible breathing tic that was like an asthma attack. I didn't know what to do, but wait it out with him. Now he has this snorting tic that seems to be brought on with his congestion on one side of his nose and it automatically makes him snort. Npw I am wondering if he has a sinus problem causing this tic.

He doesn't have health insurance right now since my husbands employer stopped insuring them and they had to turn to private health insurance. Not one health insurance company will insure our child because he has tics. They are so ignorant to the fact that there is nothing you can do for Tourettes and so your not even taking them to see the Dr. anymore than most children see a Dr. in the first place.

I don't understand why there hasn't been some sort of breakthrough for Tourettes. Our children would be so happy if it would just stop! There is nothing that can be done from what I have read the medicines are for other disorders and are only a sort of ginny pig therapy to something they aren't even made for, but to see if they help. It's like giving you stomach ache medicine for your sore back. I just registered with latitudes hoping to find others out there who know what we have been going through. Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you are out there for support.

[Fixit]

First, Amen Justgoaway....

 

 

He doesn't have health insurance right now since my husbands employer stopped insuring them and they had to turn to private health insurance. Not one health insurance company will insure our child because he has tics. They are so ignorant to the fact that there is nothing you can do for Tourettes and so your not even taking them to see the Dr. anymore than most children see a Dr. in the first place.

 

Is this true?....we were unemployed for a while and were on cobra so no real transition..but is this true??? what about our kids furture??? O K more worries!!!

 

 

on a note from ruby....just looking at my ds chart...he had 16 shots by the time he was 1........i could kick my self for that and 1 time ,,i told the doc he a had a feaver a couple of days ago and he asked if it wasn't the last 24 hrs then its ok....I AM SUCH AN *7^%&88! That bugs me all the time.....and when i asked about mercury when i got his 1st shots in 2000 they said they don't use that anymore!!???