12 year old with tics

[Stars12]

For the last few months, my 12 year old daughter has started to have tics. She jerks her neck to the side about a million times a day. She also moves her fingers in a peculiar way and twists/flexes her elbows. She has always been an anxious child, not keen on being away from home, etc but is fully functioning, enjoys school, clubs and plays for a football team. Now I have realised what this is, we just ignore it so to not bring attention to it, as I’m sure this would make it worse. But I am concerned that kids at school will notice and make her a prime target for bullying 😢 she also says her neck is painful and that is why she does it- but I think it’s actually the fact she is ticing which is causing discomfort.

Does anyone have experience of this? Of course I’ve considered GP appt but what exactly can they do?

Are you sure she is having tics at school? My daughter has had tics on and off since she was about 4 years old (she is 12 now and hasn't had a tic for a while) and her teachers were always surprised when I mentioned it to them. She doesn't tic at school and they all come out in the evening at home. I have read that it is common for kids to suppress the tics when they are not at home. So it could be that what you see at home does not happen at school.

My DD has gone through two phases of tics, different ones each time. It lasted a couple of months and became much more pronounced when she was tired or stressed. We were getting worried each time but it just faded away. First was age 8/9 second age 11.

My DD started at 17. It came on very quickly - overnight. The doctors put it down to stress, and very gradually it went away - she’s 20 now and I haven’t seen her do it in months, although she said it’s still there but rare. Kids at college/work/uni were very good about it so that side hasn’t been an issue for her.
DD disagreed with the stress side of it at first, but has come to acknowledge that that is what caused it.

My daughter who is 11 has had tics off and on since she was 6. Lots of neck and hand movements. It came on pretty much overnight. We did flag to GP who did some swabs of nose, mouth and groin (if I can remember) as strep like infections can cause tics as symptoms. Google PANDAS.

I get them and they are anxiety related for me I can suppress them 99% of the time but it then increasss them later int he day and I do not get them if I’m heavily distracted if she’s same as me at school she maybe ok because they’ll be learning so thinking about work and hopefully chatting away with her friends in the playground.

My daughter had them from about 8-12 on
and off. She’s 15 now and never gets them, most grow out of them

@Stars12 I had ticks when I was pre-teen. It was the bullying that eventually made me stop. Before that, I convinced myself nobody noticed, which was easier because my mum stopped mentioning it, and because she told friends and family that I "couldn't help it" so they didn't mention it either and just looked at me sympathetically. The bullying was horrible - I remember half the school bus mimicking me in unison on the way back from a school trip - but it did the trick for one of my major tics. Another stopped after my mum took me to a hypnotist (this was 1970s, so pre-ed-psych) - he didn't manage to hypnotise me, but the experience was weird and humiliating enough that I made myself stop.

My dd developed tics during lockdown and she had a telephone appointment with the GP who told me to make sure she wasn’t watching stuff on the internet about tics as apparently it can exacerbate them.

https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/wards-and-departments/departments/clinical-specialties/department-child-and-adolescent-mental-health-dcamh/the-tic-service/functional-tics/

Thank you all for your responses. It’s reassuring to know that it has eventually resolved with all of your children! I am sure it probably is stress/anxiety related with her, although she said she doesn’t feel this way about anything at the moment.
Unfortunately I think she had been doing it at school before the holidays as her best friend mentioned it to me. And I don’t think being distracted stops her as she was also doing it while playing in a football match!
Has anyone used magnesium liquid , as I read that can help…?

That is really interesting… she was actually on antibiotics in June for an ear and chest infection. Uneventful recovery but thinking about it, the tics started quite soon after that. I’ve never heard of PANDAS so didn’t consider a link.

We used magnesium and L themine
didn’t make them stop completely
but helped him relax so they were not as bad.

he also used to have boiled sweets and chewing gum at school to keep him mind busy when they were extremely bad

Dd developed tics at about 13-14. They are better now she is older, but they do resurface when there are big stressors or she is out of her comfort zone ie on holiday or in places that make her uncomfortable.

I haven’t considered magnesium liquid or any other dietary things but maybe I should!

She is currently waiting for ND assessment but we aren’t holding out much hope of that happening quickly.

Interrstingly her brother also had a (long) period of repetitive movements but they were more OCD-like in nature and to be honest I suspect he still does have some of these but masks/ hides these better now he is older. It’s less ‘automatic’ with him.

Bodies are weird. Tics dont mean Tourette’s or ND. Lots of children have tics or compulsive type behaviours.

My son started having tics at 13, usually face, neck & eyes, but sometimes legs, arms and feet.
He was referred to a neurologist.
They could find nothing wrong and said that we should just accept that as part of him, like the colour of his hair, eyes etc.
Gradually, they eased.
Now, 7 years later, he is in an amazing job, travels the world and is on a huge salary.
He still occasionally tics, especially when he’s tired, but we hardly notice it.
Go to the GP, if there’s nothing sinister, try to get her to relax, and find distraction.
My son sometimes took cbd which he felt helped.

Hi, did your daughter’s tics come on suddenly after an infection? If so it could be PANS / PANDAS related. I’ve had two sons begin with tics after infections and a course of amoxicillin usually gets them into remission. For anyone reading this going through something similar my experience was find a GP or specialist familiar with PANS and request antibiotics. The first episode my son had he was prescribed 2 weeks amoxicillin plus a month prophylactic. For each recurring episode I start the same treatment.

I’m in my 50s and I can’t remember a time I didn’t have some sort of a tic, I first remember having them in school about age 9/10

Thanks for your message. Someone at the time mentioned PANDAS and I made the link that she had an ear and chest infection just before the tics started. She was treated with antibiotics at the time. The neck tic has settled slightly- it’s still there occasionally but she isn’t getting upset about it. But she has developed a new one where she rolls her wrists/hands round and round all the time.