Caryn,
I have been reading your posts and the posts of others and debating on when to jump in with this!
My son is 6 years old. In retrospect he's had tics since he was two or so. I'll call him Buster online (a baby nickname). When he was two and a half he did what we called his "baseball signs" all the time - rubbing his nose and his head, as well as sniffing. He constantly had dirty smudges around his nose, from playing outside and rubbing his nose constantly. His ped said it looked like allergies and suggested Claritan. After months of that not working he prescribed Zyrtec. We did both of those at low doses off and on for about 2-3 years, depending on his "baseball signs." This happened with two different peds.
About 1 1/2 years ago our third ped (third move) thought it looked like allergies so we were prescribed a higher dose of Zyrtec and sent to the allergist. We started him on the higher Zyrtec dose and we saw a side of him we'd never seen. He got really frustrated really fast and had a lot of tics - tics that were new and scarey for us, because up to that point he'd just had the baseball signs. He began "hmmming" all the time and doing the baseball signs like crazy. It seems like he did something else, but I can't remember what it was. We stopped the meds immediately and went to the allergist. He seemed to think the noises (now we know were tics) were something different all together - said he'd never heard of Zyrtec causing anything like that. Keep in mind that the Zyrtec dose he was on was a high dosage for an adult (we found that out later when we went to talk to a pharmacist about this). We assumed that he was on a normal kid "dosage." I could kick myself now for not knowing that. Actually, looking back too, it our peds' partner that prescribed these as he was gone.
Nobody knew anything about tics. All we knew was that he "hmmmed" with Zyrtec and baseball signs went crazy. Then we started to realize that sometimes he'd echo everything his older brother said. Just kind of quietly and only every now and then (he hasn't done that in over a year). Suddenly we could remember him having done that off and on since he was about three. Since that experience with the Zyrtec and the allergist saying he didn't have any allergies most of the tics were pretty minimal until this summer in August. He had the baseball signs, plus occasional grimaces.
During that month he began shoulder shrugs as well as more grimaces. He also had to jump every now and then and say "hey, hey, hey." Most of the time my husband and I just thought that was cute, not realizing it was a tic. We tried about 6-8 weeks of a dairy-free diet and most of the tics went away. Then we put him back on milk and eventually the tics came back, only a bit different, as they often seem to change. We really can't remember if they went away completely without the dairy or if they just went a way a bit. Considering that they always come and do it's hard to say. I keep a journal for this, but not as dilligently as I should. Starting last night I decided that I have write about his tics at least every other day to really see if I can see any patterns.
Now he says, "I,I,I" when he plays, and clucks his tongue very quietly. The baseball signs are there and every now and then he bites his teeth together. He also hits his knees together.
When I talked to our ped he asked if any of these things were affecting him socially and I said, "no," because right now they aren't, but I wanted to say - they're making me worry like crazy, because of the unknown future!
With all this said, he's a bit shy, but other than that very socially normally and intellectually very normal. He is quiet at school and perfectly behaved at school, according to his teacher. When I help in the class I notice the same things. He plays very well with other kids. In fact, he's very easy to play with and will go out of his way to help other kids when he's in a comfortable setting.
I've tried increasing B vitamins and magnesium, but I don't really know how to do it "safely." It seems that there are always problems when you have too much of this or that or not enough of this or that, so I'm afraid to do too much supplementing with a little kid. How do I go about supplementing with Magnesium, the B vitamins, zinc, etc., without causing other potential problems?
Tomorrow I will be calling about the Alcat test to see if our insurance will cover this test, but I just don't know where to go from here.
Also, we talk very little about his tics. Nobody we know has noticed them. Our closest friends, when we mention them, say they don't notice them, except for his "baseball signs." His teacher hasn't mentioned them, either. I'm hesitant to bring them up with others, for fear of getting him labeled too soon. Also, my mother-in-law said that several of her kids had tics that all just went away over time. As adults, none of my husband's siblings have any tics that I've ever seen. She never thought anything of them other than thinking that her kids just had more tics than other kids. My mom said that nobody had tics in our family (I come from seven kids and my husband comes from 9 kids, so we have plenty of examples to choose from. lol).
Now, I just don't know where to start with vitamins, etc., foods, etc., without him feeling too labeled or different. Also, as background, I have a 7 year old that has no tics and a 20 month old with no noticable tics. None of us have obvious food sensitivities.
Anyway, I know that I've said a ton, but I suppose that's because I've been lurking here waiting to jump in and just thinking through and researching everything that I've read. I'm determined to do whatever I can to help my son, so that if tics do get worse or just stay the same I can be there to help them, prevent them, or alleviate them.
Thanks!
