One of the first things I did after getting very little feedback from my HMO on how to suppress tics through diet (and to their credit, it's not their fault - it's a very new concept) was to go to a kinesiologist chiropractor (I'll call him Dr. K) who had Stink tested for food allergies.

Different than an IGE which tests for extreme reactions (like peanut allergies, for example, where kids get deathly ill) we did a blood test called an IGG.

There are a few schools of thought on the validity of food allergy tests, but it worked for us and it wasn't very costly compared to what the literature talks about. We paid out of pocket.

The kit itself cost $200.00 which we got from Dr. K.. Stink's blood was drawn at a private lab for $15.00. The lab then packed up the blood in the test box kit and sent it out for us to Geneva Diagnositics. Geneva Diagnositics then tested it and sent the results back to Dr. K..

Between a few initial visits to Dr. K., the lab fee, the test kit, and the follow up with Dr. K., it cost about $400.00. I'd have spent that in medicine from my HMO and not gotten as concrete a result.

Once we eliminated the offending foods, Stink's tics reduced greatly - almost 90% in the first week alone. (There's a few other things we did also which I'll chat about later.)

Above is a picture of the lab results. Who knew pork would cause such a reaction? Random! I laugh that basically all food issues avoided by staying away from the ingredients of a McDonald's Egg McMuffin.

For a longer discussion, you can check out this discussion here. I am not affliliated with this blog, but it's an interesting conversation and some insight into the differences between various tests, as well as links to other labs.

* BUTT COVERAGE: Some kids have worse tics than others. Maybe Stink is just lucky or has a "light case" but you won't know unless you try. Again, Stink was only 5 when we started. And I'm not a doctor - just giving my story! I know as a mother I would try the homeopathic option and getting to the root of the tic before just covering it with meds first. But I'm not against meds if I need them in the future!

More of my writing can be found daily at BabyCenter and Good Housekeeping.

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