Tourette's?

[Sarah CB]

I posted about ds' humming a while ago. Well, it hasn't gone away and now he's doing this weird shoulder-jerking movement as well. And he is constantly chewing on his fingers.

 

So, I googled (big mistake) tourette's and found that it often co-occurs with ADHD and with sleep walking. Ds sleepwalks, or rather he talks and gets agitated and walks around while sleeping. It's been going on for over a year, usually between 10 and 11 at night. Lately it's been almost nightly.

 

He also has major attention issues, problems with eye contact, etc. He had a significant speech delay and a couple of years of speech therapy. He often seems like he's off in another world...

 

Anyway, one site mentioned tourette's co-occuring with aspergers as well.

 

I'm going to take him to the doctor and see what he says and I hope I'm just scaring myself right now, but this kind of reminds me of the major concerns I had when he was 3 (serious social issues, speech delay, OCD symptoms, etc) that were not taken seriously by our doctor or ped. In fact, after a couple of years with violin and speech therapy I was beginning to think that I was the one making too much out of things. Sure, he's a sensitive kid who has some quirks but he has made so much progress and is a fantastic kid.

 

Now we've got weird humming things and scary shoulder jerking. Not to mention the "witching hour" (what dh and I have named the hour in which he usually sleep walks) and the finger chewing.

 

Does someone want to tell me all of this is perfectly normal and I should cancel our appointment?

[Laurie]

My dd developed a facial tic about a year ago when she had turned 10. Both are on the autism spectrum, and I had read that it isn't unusual for kids on the spectrum to have Tourette-like symptoms. Since the tics didn't interfere with daily life I didn't try to do anything about it. I had also read that tics will typically wax and wane over time, and that's exactly what happened here. At the moment both still have their quirks, but I'm not seeing any tics.

Because of the similar timing in both of my dc I've wondered if the tics were set off by some sort of pre-puberty thing.

 

Lately, I've been hearing that kids with ADHD are often low in magnesium, which is calming to the nervous system. I heard about a magnesium supplement called CALM from Peek a Boo over on the General Board and I bought some to use when I have insomnia. It definitely relaxes me and works better than my usual remedy of chamomile tea, and if I see any tics in my dc again I'm going to give that a try just in case it might help. (Too much magnesium can cause diarrhea, so if you ever try it with a child I'd start with a really small amount.)

 

Just remember, your ds is still a fantastic kid, with or without tics!

[juls]

All these conditions can run together. My son has Tourettes, and some mild blend of OCD, SPD, Aspergers and/or ADHD. He's a great kid too. We have had great success with supplements for his Tourettes. His tics are almost nonexistent when he stays on them and we've had such success for over a year. I would recommend spending some time of the Lattitudes board: http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php. I have learned a great deal there on the Tourettes board.

 

I remember when I first noticed my sons tics three years ago. I was extremely upset about it. I talked with a friend at church whose son also has Tourette's and she told me that as a mother I would get used to it and soon it would not be such a focus. That was true, although tics can become very difficult for a child depending on their severity. Supplements have controlled the tics for my son quite well. Unfortunately its the mix of all the other co-morbid things to become much more problematic for us. The tics are extremely secondary at this point.

 

By the way, when I first looked at the Lattitudes site I was very overwhelmed. I just kept going back and slowly trying out some of the suppliments that were suggested until one day all the tics stopped suddenly. I know they wax and wane but the value of the suppliments was proven to us when my son stopped taking them for three days and the tics came right back until he started back up. It was a pretty amazing demonstration to us and made my son a believer. As a previous poster said, magnesium is a huge part of it. Vit C, L Carnatine and Taurine have also been very important.

It took more than a year of slowly experimenting (and adding). When we started my son didn't swallow anything. Now he's a pro.

 

I'm sure your son is a fantastic guy. Don't miss that fact as you help him through his struggles. We call them "bubbles." Each bubble is a small special need that my son has. Tics, "stuckness", social difficulty, skin sensitivity, hyperness, low energy, whatever it is that moment...he tells me that when the bubbles merge together and get big he really has a hard time but often he manages quite well.

[Laurie]

Sorry! The magnesium supplement is actually called Natural Calm. (It comes in a pretty large container, but I was able to buy some individual-sized packets at Whole Foods to try it out.) Or, you could try Epsom salt baths, which also contain magnesium, before bedtime to see if that helps your ds sleep better.

[Becki in IN]

Don't cancel and don't let your ped. blow you off either. Insist on getting a referral to a developmental pediatrician or pediatric neuropsychologist. You are the mama, and you're a good mama.

[MicheleB]

Wow! I'm really interested in this thread. Tics run in *my* family (my mother, my twin brother and I) and my 7yo ds has tics that change all the time. This summer on the baseball and soccer field, he "spun" almost the entire time. Or he grunts while eating; he used to blink all the time; it just changes a lot. Very interesting....

 

From *my* perspective, when I was a child and I had tics (and actually I still do), it was something I knew I was doing but couldn't stop. My parents weren't real relaxed about it and it made me tic more. That and other kids' teasing.

 

I guess it's given me good insight into my son anyway.....