Head itch

[abbe]

Hey

 

Has anyone had a problem with a head itching tic. I don't believe it's one but wanted to ask

[CandKRich]

.

Edited August 12, 2013 by CandKRich

[faith]

my son scratches his head at night. I don't think its a tic, but he has a vocal tic that he goes "owwww' , so sometimes I think he scratches his head to make it look like he's saying 'owww' for a reason. because sometimes I'll say "whats the matter?" and then he'll start scratching and saying "oww, my head itches", so don't know if he's masking the reason for his vocal, or it really does itch at that time, because I only see him do this at night when he's settling down in bed.

 

CandKrich, is your child on antibioitics? I wondered if it was that too, and someone else reported itching in their child while on abx.

 

 

Faith

[CandKRich]

.

Edited August 12, 2013 by CandKRich

[kim]

Candk/all,

 

I see you said that the tic started before the antibiotic, but did the head scratching start at the same time, or only after the start of the antibiotic?

 

I have a little personal experience with this. Im my case, I started an antibiotic for a skin infection. Maybe 7 days into the antibiotic my whole head broke out in what looked and felt like a horrendous case of dandruff (I've never had dandruff). I also had a head to toe skin rash (lovely picture isn't it?) This whole thing was related to a spot of psoriasis that I had on my elbow that appeared in my early 20's. From reading a psoriasis forum, I learned that strep is a suspect antigen in psoriasis. This head and rash outbreak are seen a fair amt. of people on that forum. Some said that a particular type of head and shoulders cleared their scalp and skin (tall narrow dark blue bottle, about $10). That was something that I used and it did help a lot. Now, that's NOT a natural type product. It's got a lot of ingredients that I wasn't wild about, but I didn't have a lot of time to really hunt down something else. When my skin and head returned to normal (probably 6 weeks and 2 rounds of keflex) I really started searching for what happened. I think the anti biotic (along with autoanitbodies) started an attack on a type of yeast that is commonly found on the head and any other parts of the body where you would find oil glands. That was an interesting concept, since it would seem that "yeast" might present a similar epitope as strep, that can be the target of antibodies gone wild.

 

I remembered something along the same lines happened about 10+ years ago. I took amox. for a respiratory infection (don't think I had a throat culture). I was itchy all over, but my head was the worst. Went back to Dr. He gave me zyrtec and said to assume I was allergic to penicillian. I remember I had finished the antibiotic probably 4 or 5 days earlier. Seemed strange. I don't think it was a reaction to the amox. I think it was a reaction to yeast/fungus. My head did not break out (or skin) that time, in fact I never really thought about it again.

 

This type of product is what is commonly prescribed for scalp reactions, you can see it's a broad spectrum antifungal http://www.flexyx.com/K/Ketozole.html.

It would be interesting to see if any of your kids would find relief from an antifungal.

 

Another possibility that you might want to keep an eye out for is a problem with wheat protein (gluten). I think itching is a common symptom in celiac.

 

Thought I would share, so someone doesn't dismiss this type of symptom as a "tic." That itching is AWFUL and I believe can be helped fairly easily in some cases. You might also want to give some healthy amts of vit C to help deal with histamine that can be elevated in these situations. Also, if you are supplementing with any fatty acids, you might want to back off (I think omega 3 is ok, but stay away from 6 and 9...need to double check that). Some type of fatty acids can feed some yeast/fungus.

[abbe]

Thanks for the replies. Not sure still what to make of this head itch. He has been taking evening primose which is new to our supps. I don't want to go crazy yet figuring it out. things are good so I will wait and see. Thanks for your replies.

 

abbe

[smartyjones]

i usually am on the pandas forum but thought this was interesting. my son does not have any pronounced tics. last year, i said he had no tics but now think there could have been some transient mild tics. last fall, just before pandas symptoms went wild, lice was going around his school. he began scratching his head often. his barber had warned me to watch him carefully b/c he has fine, blond hair which is more susceptible to lice whereas my older son has curly red hair and less likely to get lice. he never did get lice but scratched his head often, around the same time pandas was rearing.

 

i now believe it's somehow related to pandas. while we were trying to figure everything out, we went to a naturopath who ran a food test and he was highly reactive to many foods including all dairy and most grains. we were investigating if yeast was a problem. we started on some supplements and a 5 day course of zithromax which was horrible for behaviors. somewhere around this time, the head itching went away. a few weeks later we took him off the foods and with a 30 day course of keflex and nystatin, all behaviors resolved. he did have high titers and a positive culture, plus all sinus cavities infected per a CT scan. he did have a relapse after he got off the abx.

 

so - the head itching resolved before we took him off the foods and before he was on keflex and nystatin that was helpful with behaviors. maybe it was the zithromax? anyway, i don't think it was a tic, it was more like an itch. i do think it's somehow all related to the active strep infection.

[abbe]

ok all,

Dr. chung feels it will resolve when his mycoplasma infection is gone. He picked it up in his head through glands???not sure to weird but we will see.