How Magnesium Helped My Son’s Tics (Premium)
BRENT’S MOM
My son had fleeting, minor tics as a young boy but I wasn’t overly concerned. I remember him crinkling his nose and blowing air out of it when he was five. When I asked Brent about it he said, “It feels weird if I don’t do this.” I thought it was just allergies and left it at that, since it didn’t seem to affect his life in any significant way.
One day when he was six, Brent was watching TV when I noticed he occasionally had tremors in his left arm and leg. When questioned, he told me, “It’s nothing. Sometimes that happens. I don’t even really notice.” I begin discreetly observing him and saw this happening only once in a while.
At Brent’s annual check-up I asked his pediatrician about these movements. She said that he probably had a transient tic, and chances are he would outgrow it. I did a quick internet search on transient tics; it did seem this was probably what he had, and that indeed it was nothing to be too concerned about.
Yet I also talked with my cousin, whose 11-year-old son has been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. His case is serious, with both vocal and motor tics. Various therapies were tried to teach him ways to deal with his tics. Eventually, his parents decided on some prescription meds that seemed to help control his symptoms.
At this point I became more worried about Brent, since we have Tourette’s in the family. At the same time I was hoping his symptoms were just temporary, and that they would not increase in severity. But that was wishful thinking.
