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About a month ago, my son's tics were the worst they had ever been. One long stead stream of "uh - huhs" and "hmmmms" that rarely had a moment of silence between them.

With these tics were lots of hyper activity... so much twitching, in fact, that even his teacher sent home a note with the subject line, "New Sounds." (They weren't loud at all, but just incessant... ANNOYING. Oh God, it was a hard few days for me.)

As I sat at the dinner table, literally about to lose my mind, my husband asked about diet changes. (This from a man who really thought the whole diet thing was bunkus.) "Nothing other than mangos," I said casually.

He took a look at these "Naturally delicious" mangos from Costco. Sulpher Dioxide was one of the prime ingredients. 

This article talks about how chemicals in our daily food (over 540 permitted by the FDA) can have profound affects on kids. Check out the section called "Avoidance Tactics". It's got an interesting bit on sulpher dioxide. Dried fruit? Very very bad for kids who tic.

Needless to say, when we took the mangos away, Stink's tics decreased by 90%.

For two days, they were gone 100%.

Now his tics are back a bit higher than I'd like: Light" hmmms" and "throat clears" that, compared to severe TS, is nothing big. But it's still distracting. What do I attest to this increase, other than the normal waxing and waning of tics? Too much activity combined with fake nacho cheese at school yesterday. Does it every time.

In closing, let me state this for the record:

1. Does my son have Tourette Syndrome that right now does not have a cure? Yes.

2. Do I think that diet alone and supplements are going to change his neurological disposition? No.

3. Do I need to accept that he has tics and some days he will be noiser than others? Yes yes YES. (That is very hard for me. Another post to be sure. Stink is happy. It's Mama that has perfection issues. I get it. I'm sorry. I suck. It's my lesson in life and slowly... slowly... I am healing.)

This all said - Stink is still not on medication. I do believe we can control many of his symptoms through diet and good habits. I'll let you know if that changes.

Happy weekend everyone!
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