airbucket Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Hello, I used to come to this forum all the time when my son's tics started and for the year or so after that while they persisted. Then his tics stopped completely. We went about one full year with nothing, and then a few tics came back, nothing major, for about 6 months, then faded. Last tics were last May 2009. 3 nights ago i noticed him sitting on the couch and breathing strangely I thought, what seems so familiar about that breathing? Well, its that it is a tic. the next day and today he has a breathing tic that is HORRENDOUS. He cant finish speaking one word because he is doing this hitching breath thing every 2 seconds. Accompanying this have been vocals, which have been his most common tic anyway, a throaty humming or grunting, non stop all day. Amazingly, with these tics come some other symptoms: puffy eyes, he is out of it, spacey, slurred speech, kind of emotional or crying (now he does have diagnoses of everything under the sun so who knows, such as ADD, Tourette's, Anxiety disorder, mood disorder NOS, PDD NOS). My questions is, have other seen this "breathing" tic? Wow its awful. He seems like he is going to convulse or something. My other question would be if anyone has found anything helpful specifically for vocals? I used to have him on a really clean diet and taking all his vitamins including magnesium, but over time we strayed and partly maybe because he woul have tics and other horrible behaviors no matter how clean he diet was. Since last summer he has been eating some junk again, not daily but every other day or so, an ice cream, mcdonalds (cringe), etc. We dont have a naturopathic doctor or a DAN or anything and no real testing done on him so i dont really know what is going on....we did do a pretty thorough set of general blood tests recently with his neuro. but nothing that a specialist would do. He did come back once with an IgG test for candida that was off the charts but his ped. told me that meant nothing because Igg means the reaction took place a long time ago and was nothing recent. Any info on vocals is appreciated. thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faith Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Airbucket! how the heck are ya! glad to see you here....well, you kinow what I mean... can't give you any advice, I'm still looking for some myself, Is it an abdominal in and out movement? or is he breathing fast like hyperventilating? or is it like he's trying to fill his lungs with a big breath? (the last one I recall doing as a kid for a bit). But it sounds good that his tics have been on the wayside for a while. Has he been sick lately? how are the other issues? Faith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurena82 Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 (((((((((hugs)))))))))to you...! ....I dont have any answers.......but the "puffy eyes" makes you wonder re: allergies to something involved?? ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samsmom Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 I would definitely check him for pollen allergies if you haven't already. Sam's vocals only tend to show up at this time of year when the cedar pollen starts to come out. The puffy eyes and mood change also might indicate that. We give him a Claritin Reditab every day and I also use a nasal gel to try to keep the pollen away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patty Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Sorry to hear about the return of your son's tics. How old is he? i am wondering if it has to do w/his hormonal changes. And how is his bite (teeth)? Bite misalignment in the jaw area can effect the trigeminal nerves which may have an effect on tics. We have had success using craniosacral for the breathing tic. Hope things settle. Perhaps epsom bath and magnesium may be helpful for now. Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airbucket Posted January 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Hi Faith! How are you doing?? Yes it is an abdominal, but its with his breathing. I dont know why his tics are so rare, I thought with Tourette's the tics were present more than not. He was sick a month or so ago with an unidentified rash on his face, we tested for 5th disease but came out negative. his issues are up and down - over the summer and fall he became so agitated and violent that we called the police and he was hospitalized for 3 days. As someone here mentioned, I too am wondering about hormones.... how is your son?? Airbucket! how the heck are ya! glad to see you here....well, you kinow what I mean... can't give you any advice, I'm still looking for some myself, Is it an abdominal in and out movement? or is he breathing fast like hyperventilating? or is it like he's trying to fill his lungs with a big breath? (the last one I recall doing as a kid for a bit). But it sounds good that his tics have been on the wayside for a while. Has he been sick lately? how are the other issues? Faith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airbucket Posted January 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Thanks for your replies everyone, I need to look into allergies, although he has no sniffling or runny nose, I wonder if the puffy eyes are a food allergy. And yes he has a huge overbite and we are going to get an orthodontic consult in the near future. My son is 10 and a half. His first vocal tics, at the time we thought they were sensory issues - appeared around age 5, then body tics at 6, pretty bad through end of age 7, then they all dissapeared, appeared again mildly at age 9 for a few months and now again just for the past few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fixit Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Thanks for your replies everyone, I need to look into allergies, although he has no sniffling or runny nose, I wonder if the puffy eyes are a food allergy. And yes he has a huge overbite and we are going to get an orthodontic consult in the near future. My son is 10 and a half. His first vocal tics, at the time we thought they were sensory issues - appeared around age 5, then body tics at 6, pretty bad through end of age 7, then they all dissapeared, appeared again mildly at age 9 for a few months and now again just for the past few days. I'm sure you know but just like with any doc....some are better than others and i woud look at a tmj doc who has some relation with movement disorders I spoke with Doxie a few days ago and her son was tic free!!!!!!!!! till he stopped wearing his mouth pieces for more than a week.... Besides all the things others have mentioned,I would also say also follow up on the fact he was sick with something a month ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faith Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 Airbucket, oh I'm okay enough, still hving some issues here, and basically still trying to fix things. What do you attribute to the tics waning for that stretch of time? that's interesting. but I see you have some other issues that vamped up, some rage and behavioral? that can be tough. was that ever a problem before, or just this past summer? tell me more about the rash? was he ill and had that? or it was just a rash? is 5th the only thing they tested for? any possibility of lyme here? that could be a sneaky one. I've been reading a little on it only because we're having some immunological bloodwork done on my son and that was one of the things we are testing, really at my request, just trying to cover some bases here. looking a little at the PANDAS angle, but we are not exactly a typical case. we've got some ocd as well as tics. I don't feel like they are that mild anymore... I'm just trying to look at it from a few different angles. you never know what you may uncover if you start looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JensOfSweden Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 Hey airbucket, I have the same sort of "exhaling" tic where I tense my stomach and breath out fast. However i can control it and it has never affected my speech when I'm around people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chemar Posted January 27, 2010 Report Share Posted January 27, 2010 Hi airbucket honestly I would question whether a a TS dx is correct if you were seeing such a long period of remission of the tics. TS tics typically wax and wane but usually dont go away for that long in kids and then suddenly come back sounds to me like something else apart from TS may be triggering tics but I also know that TS is often uniquely manifest in different people so not saying your dx is wrong...just that it bears some further questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airbucket Posted February 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2010 hi Chemar: Thanks for your reply. I have been thinking about it and although there was a long remission, during that time I am pretty sure there were still some vocals, which I guess means that the tics were not all gone. Sometimes I tend to think of the tics as only physical because my son has been making noises since he was tiny and i always said it seemed related to his sensory issues. The vocals continue since the day I posted here. The breathing tic is mostly gone thank goodness. I promptly took him off all artificials, fast food, eating at home now only with natural and whole foods. I would love to say that this is why the tics are reduced since the day I first posted on this, however as Ive said before there have been times over the years when we have been on all natural diet and there have been tics and vice versa, I cant find a pattern. Thank you for your posts! Hi airbucket honestly I would question whether a a TS dx is correct if you were seeing such a long period of remission of the tics. TS tics typically wax and wane but usually dont go away for that long in kids and then suddenly come back sounds to me like something else apart from TS may be triggering tics but I also know that TS is often uniquely manifest in different people so not saying your dx is wrong...just that it bears some further questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justgoaway Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 I can totally relate to this horrible "Breathing Tic", my son who is 15 now started this tic in 7th grade. It was so scary, he could not do anything but try and breath. Every 3 to 4 second 24/7 he would gasp in for air. I would stay awake every night with him until he was so exhausted he would just pass out around 2:oo in the mornings. When he finally did pass out his breathing was so shallow that I would put my hand on his chest just to see if he was still breathing. He could not go back to school, nor concentrate on anything. I have searched high and low for someone who can relate to this horrendous tic. My son told me he cannot believe he has to go through life trying to breathe. I hope you are still out there and see my post I would so like to hear from you and if any progress has taken place for your child. So, sorry that you also have to suffer like me to watch your child not be able to breathe without constant disruption is so hard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JensOfSweden Posted August 27, 2011 Report Share Posted August 27, 2011 I got a similar breathing tic with hard explosive exhales, sometimes multiples for 10 seconds, which also makes it hard for me to talk at times (and breath in all the air I've exhaled). Very hard to deal with, but you deal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lismom Posted August 29, 2011 Report Share Posted August 29, 2011 I can totally relate to this horrible "Breathing Tic", my son who is 15 now started this tic in 7th grade. It was so scary, he could not do anything but try and breath. Every 3 to 4 second 24/7 he would gasp in for air. I would stay awake every night with him until he was so exhausted he would just pass out around 2:oo in the mornings. When he finally did pass out his breathing was so shallow that I would put my hand on his chest just to see if he was still breathing. He could not go back to school, nor concentrate on anything. I have searched high and low for someone who can relate to this horrendous tic. My son told me he cannot believe he has to go through life trying to breathe. I hope you are still out there and see my post I would so like to hear from you and if any progress has taken place for your child. So, sorry that you also have to suffer like me to watch your child not be able to breathe without constant disruption is so hard! Justgoaway, have you ever tried a course of antibiotics? Also, Acetyl-l-carnitine has helped alot when my sons vocals waxed. Kathy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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