This seems to be the season for kids to tic. Call it the end of year excitement with school, seasonal allergies, and never to be underestimated, CHLORINE - yep, that's a huge trigger.

Rather than re-invent my story (cause I'm lazy and tired) I'm going to cut and paste a post I added for my Twitch and Bitch group last week.

The question was: If you're doing all this food elimination and supplements, and he still tics, then how do you know it's working at all?

Here's my answer and would love to hear your thoughts.

Hi all -


First off, we all seem to be in crisis now! For us, Stink has been clearing his throat four times/minute for about a week. The eye rolls were out of control a few days ago and now are down to a few hard stares. The hums are a bit less, but taken over by the barking coughs.



I decided to give him some sucking candy to see
if swallowing spit and having something quieter to do would "replace"
the clearing. Everything has sugar, of course, and tons of dye. The
best candy I could find, ironically were... get this... TIC TACS.
Stink: "You mean, to attack the tic, right?" Too funny. I only
offered him candy to help his throat because he was complaining how
sore it was. Either he has strep (a good reason for the tics or it's
just from the constant barking. I think the latter.)




Regarding some of your food questions - I stick by the diet 100%. I
would not have gone gluten/dairy/peanut/citrus/soy free if his allergy
test did not show he had this issue. We have had very very good
results up until now. He did cheat a lot last month, plus school
ended, plus he's swimming (chlorine is awful for him) AND he's not on
any enzymes/probiotics now. We will reintroduce those, along with a
very steady diet, by end of August.




As far as enzymes and probiotics go, I think for us what happened is that
once his gut cleared out, and we stopped (due to my husband's concern of over medicating him with stuff we really don't know a lot about) he rode on auto pilot for awhile. This month is a case of the bottom falling out.



Also, the reason I'm not freaking out altogether is that I've
slowly started to accept that he has Tourettes. All the diet changes
in the world are not going to keep him from ticking if it is his
nature.




But the thing is, my son is happy. I mean, beyond happy. And his tics
would undoubtedly be so much worse if he wasn't on a some steady diet.
I know I'm going to do more, including giving him an OATS test for
heavy metal testing in August. That, combined with some quiet time
this summer, more probiotics in August and perhaps the magic tic tacs, all will be well.



I don't mean to be glib. Head bobs, kicks, eye rolls, facial
grimaces... it can suck. But really, our kids are not these tics. And
I just refuse to live in fear over it. I don't believe God makes
mistakes.



If some kids are going to make fun of Stink in the future,
sure I"ll cry. But I've got a few years still to keep him on a
positive path so that by the time that happens, we'll deal with it.
He'll have friends that matter and those that are mean can kiss his
ass.




And that's all I have to say for now.






 


Comments

eve
06/24/2009 18:22

Reply
Crystal
07/04/2009 01:21

Hello,
I have to say this is the first time I have seen this web site and I find it interesting. I can't say I totally believe in the concept of food allergies being the cause of ts, and I do agree with your husband about giving your son supplaments you don't know much about, that would worry me as a parent. I do totally agree with you about taking your son off the foods he is allergic to, but are those allergies causing his ts? Tics can get worse when a child is stressed or not feeling well ,which all us ts moms know. So,couldn't it be possible that the food allergies and the ts are two seperate issues which are linked because of one simple fact. If your son is eating food he is allergic to he is going to not feel well and this is going to put stress on the body and mind so therefor, his tics are going to be worse.Then when he's avoiding those trigger foods he will feel better and not be so stressed and the tics will lessen.
I am by no means an expert,but I am a mom whose daughter was diagnosed three years ago with TS, OCD.and ADHD. Her tics are complex vocal and motor tics and I do find that if we follow a routine of good eating and sleeping habits her tics will lessen somewhat, but they never go away.As Brad Cohen described, it is her constant companion,but it will never be who she is,and that is one amazing and gifted person.She is one of the bravest and strongest nine year olds I know.Thank you for taking the time to read this.I hope I didn't sound to soap boxy.It 's just that I like looking at and questioning every aspect of this confusing condition. Again, thank you.

Reply
andrea frazer link
07/04/2009 12:09

Hi Crystal-

Yes, I absolutely agree with everything you've said. All the "correct" food in the world isn't going to make Stink's tics disappear. However, I have found certain foods absolutely trigger the tics, so why not stay away from them?

Have you ever done the IGG blood test done on your daughter to see what foods she might be allergic to? I can honestly say that Stink's tics decreased a lot when we found out what foods to avoid. That test is science based - either there is a bad antibody reaction or there is not when certain foods are introduced into the blood. My husband, who is wary of supplements and very scientific, is in full support of this method as it's proven. (Not as a cure for TS - not at all! I don't know where you got the idea that I think food cures TS. It helps suppress triggers in Stink's case.)

Like the food allergies, take ADHD kids. When they go gluten free, their behavior is much more manageable, so why not be true of tics?

I am seeing, more and more, that stress plays a huge part in Stink's tics, and I couldn't agree with you more on that. The less craziness, the less he tics. It's kind of a complete circle for him: stress, food, sleep. It all needs to be in place.

And of course, all kids have different forms of TS. Stink's is minor. My regime might not work for some kids who have it more severe. But then again, I've seen moms on the ACN forum whose kids used to scream and jerk and now are controlled through supplements and diet, so I can't disregard that.

Thanks! I'll copy this letter onto my forum so others can see my response also. Keep in touch!

Andrea

Reply
Crystal
07/04/2009 13:54

Andrea
Thank you for your reply.I also wanted to say sorry. I must have worded my comments to you badly, because I never meant to imply that you believed tics could be cured by food. All I can say is it was late and I guess I wasn't to clear in my wording.

Reply
andrea frazer link
07/04/2009 15:37

Crystal -

No problems. It's a tough subject for a lot of people. My son's own doctor won't even touch the dietary subject as there's not a ton of research on it backed by Western Medicine.

And yet, 50 years go, people would have looked at you like you had two heads had you mentioned that tiny needles in the form of acupuncture could greatly reduce tension in the body.

My gut reaction (speaking of the gut where I believe so many tics arise from) is that there is something to natural food/supplements and toxin testing. It's a path that is working for me. But I'm open to meds for Stink if we need them.

Stay in touch. I'll try and post later this week on a new subject.

Andrea

Reply
Kimberly
10/06/2009 10:22

My daughter (just turned 13) has been having alot of tics lately...we took here to a neuro who wanted to put her on Ritilan and another who wanted to put her on blood pressure meds. I have just found a natuopathic doctor in my area who is willing to look at the allergy aspect of it. Thanks for making this site...I love it :)

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