To ask - do you ignore tics?

[Notcool1984]

My daughter, 5, has developed several ticks, jerking shoulder and face mostly. I notice it more and more over the past few weeks. Should I ignore or talk to her about it? is it worth a visit to the GP? Also... is this quite common? My other kid never did / does this :(

I definitely wouldn’t ignore that OP.

Yes and they went, came back for a bit, then went again. Was in year 3. I think too much screen time may have made them worse.
If you speak to your GP, if go alone. We never mentioned the tic (snorting nose/throat clearing in our case)

My DD went through a phase of tics around this age. They stopped when I stopped mentioning them. I would ignore for now.

Look at the NHS advice on childhood to s (online). My daughter started this at age 5 and every now and then it reappears. She has done throat clearing, excessive blinking, squeaky noises and eye rolling.
The advice is to ignore. If the child tried to suppress the tic it makes it worse. My daughter's have come and gone - it could be stress related but doesn't have to be. It's also very common.

Its worth a trip to the gp but I would recommend not drawing any attention to it with her as it may make her self conscious and make them worse. My ds has tics and they are more prominent when he is stressed or worried

*childhood tics

Is she anxious about something. Has there been a change to her routine. How often does she do this and does she realise that she is doing it? Without going into too much detail but talking from experience I would definitely contact your gp if you are concerned about these. If they think there could be an under lying issue for example Tourette's they will get you referred.

Hi, we broadly knew the reason so did not feel the need to investigate. But in front of our children we mostly ignored them but they were however acknowledged in a casual way, particularly if they were around for a while. If it looked painful, then I'd say that looks uncomfortable and rubbed part of body for a while. With eye blinking I'd ask if eyes dry, maybe we should try some drops. Just stuff you'd normally ask if your kid is poorly. Hope this helps.

I just wanted to clarify, as these were quite big obvious tics in our case I felt it surely must be obvious to them as well and feeling out of control of your body on top of everything else would only add to the distress. Btw all ours have gone away, good luck.

Our 10 year old has been through a series of these - throat clearing, excessive eye blinking and now we’re on to knuckle cracking. All stress-related, from what I can see, but the knuckle-cracking is driving me daft. If fear he’ll have arthritis when he’s older.

How did you know the reason Nick if you don't mind me asking?

She could be stressed as we are moving house, but she seems ok with it. I feel so bad for her!

Ah well our kids had a tough early childhood, it comes out in many ways. So I'm sorry that doesn't help you really.

Go with your gut, if you think it's moving house you could always have a play around and ask her what does moving house mean? Or to draw a picture of moving house. Or ask basic questions like, yes or no, do we keep all of our friends when we move house? Do we take everything with us when we move house?
Sometimes this kind of 'fun quiz' helps me to get a bit closer to what is bothering my kids.
NB I am a mum, not a professional, but involved in a lot of therapy.

My son has had various tics over the years that come and go.
I did mention it to the Dr when we were there for something else and she told me to ignore it.
He doesn't know he's doing the tics and can't stop himself.
Some of them drive me insane (tongue clicking, repetitive throat noises) to the point I have snapped at him or had to leave the room.
Not sure what was causing it but they've pretty much stopped now he's 10.

I know this is super old post but how long did the tics last?