To ask about your experience with children and tics?

[Lalala89]

Typical jumping to conclusions mum here but I would just like to ask about your experiences with the above.

My 7 year old ds - sweetest most loving boy who is very sporty has all of a sudden over the last couple of weeks started opening his mouth very wide and then shutting it quickly. I didn't think much of it until my brother- who lives with me asked why he does it.

After that I started to look out for it. I noticed he did it 3/4 times an hour (could of been a couple more as I wasn't staring at him.) When asked about it, it was like he didn't even realize he was doing it.

Of course I did the stupid thing of googling it and it was article after article about tourettes/tics starting at age 6/7 which he is. It mentioned in the article about it starting with face tics that eventually develop into more. I now remember a couple of years ago he used to blink alot for a couple of months ago that I thought he needed glasses but then it stopped and I hadn't thought if it since.

I realize I am probably over worrying and there are far worse things going on. I've just had a tough life and I finally feel like for the first time in my life I'm in a good place and always feel like I'm expecting something bad to happen so am probably over worrying.

I love my son more than anything - do you have any experiences you can share with me?

Thank you in advance

Some children get a tic that goes away naturally. Don’t draw attention to the tic as this may make it worse. I’ve seen a girl who blinked her eyes more for a few weeks and a my friend’s boy was nodding his head. Both cleared up naturally

My son did that exact thing! I was convinced he'd develop Tourettes or it would get worse and worse but it came and went over the years (came normally when he was going through stressful time) .However it has now gone altogether over last 2 years. He's had loads of other little tics in different places but they all went eventually. It's very very common. Don't worry.

*hes a teenager now. I think its a developmental thing. Just don't mention it to him, as that would stress him out.

I have this exact thing (late 20s) and bizarrely started around age 8 when my parents separated. For most children it’ll disappear on its own. 9/10 I don’t know I’m doing it but sometimes I will and it’s a huge mental release. I only tend to do it when daydreaming/stressed. I did go to the hospital as I developed two more ticks, one of clapping hands and another of clicking fingers. I was told by a specialist that it was a chemical imbalance misfiring signals in the brain

Please don’t worry BUT don’t interrupt him when he’s doing his mouth. It is very frustrating when disturbed. It’s similar to having a stress headache disappear. It is nothing to worry about, especially if your son isn’t bothered by it :)

My son started ticcing at around age 71/2 years. We went to our GP, who referred us to a neurologist and after several EEGs, he was diagnosed with Tourette’s. At the time it seemed devastating, but now it is just a part of my son, the same way that his glasses are part of him, or his freckles. I had to realise that he and his friends accepted it and thought it wasn’t a big deal, and that actually, I was the one with the issues around it more than him.

I've got three sons and two of them (third is a baby) suffer from tics.

My 12 year old started when he was 6. He ticked for the first time in front of me when I said we were moving house. And it got steadily worse from there. Some were violent almost, contorting his neck in a bad position repeatedly. He would cry with pain.
He had a throat clearing and sniffing tick.
He would sniff so hard he would feel dizzy and be in pain. His throat clearing tic would hurt. There's been many more.

He's 12 now and he has an eye flicking/rolling one but that's it. Considering how bad they got, I'm surprised he's grown out of them so well.

My 8 year old is peaking at the moment and are nowhere near as bad as his brothers and are totally different. His are mainly physical tics. He currently has a blister on his toe from a foot flicking tic. He has a few others but thankfully no where near as violent and pain as his brothers.

DS3 has a 50% chance of getting them as well. I just hope they are mild.

DS was diagnosed with Tourette's when they were at their worst but I'm not totally convinced by that.

I did the exact same thing too! At about the same age. My parents didn't make a big deal of it and it stopped with time.

For got to mention that my second son first ticked on his first day of school. He was only 4.
It was so very faint and mild I would have missed it if I was already experienced in that area with DS1.

At their worst, the poor things would trigger each other off especially at dinner time. If you remind someone of their tic they will of course get that urge to tic.
Seeing someone else tic reminds you that you have tics so the would set each other off.
We jus had to ignore it, DS2 set DS1 off more than anything.

My son has gone through a few at similar ages - throat clearing and later a head tossing one. Both disappeared and he’s 11 and tic free.

Thank you so much for your replies. Cuddling him reading stories before bed and its definitely increasing. About every couple of minutes. I feel incredibly sad about it for him. Thank you for your kindness

Please try not to worry. I wasted so much time worrying about it every time he got a new one. I wish I could go back to me, and have a word with myself, a few years ago and say "He's fine now. Hes grown out of it all. People were right that it will pass and STOP GOOGLING TICS".
I wouldnt have listened though, probably!

I need to stop googling - I'm reading the same articles again and again. Probably because it's all so fresh and i hate not knowing what the future holds for him. You never want your child to have any reason to be picked on etc. I just feel so sad.

I really cant thank you enough for being so kind and giving me some positive stories/experiences

I had a lip-licking tic between the ages of about 13 and 15. It used to be really bad first thing in the morning, and would fade in intensity as the day went on. Unfortunately, it used to drive my ASD sister BONKERS, so she'd comment on it all the time, which made ME more aware of it, and making it worse.

Our DS has and has had several tics. The opening the mouth wide, rubbing his chin on his chest, licking his lips and rubbing his big toes against the next toe are the ones I remember.

We never point them out unless they were causing him a problem. His lips got very sore so we made sure we put cream on and at his request taped his toes together because they hurt so much from the rubbing.

They still come back and we ask him if we can do anything to help with any discomfort from them but never point them out or try and stop them. Our therapist said they are like needing a stretch and it can be distressing or uncomfortable if they are not able to do it.

I always explained it to him as just something your body feels it needs to feel good and he was fine about it.

Most tics are transient and even if it is Tourrettes, it has a wide range of manifestations. The uncontrollable swearing is the one we have all heard of but is actually rare.

My Son started having tics aged 6, he was eventually diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome aged 8. His tics waxed and waned ( very common) for a couple of years and just now are quite strong. He's 10 and I'm thinking it might be hormone related.

You get used to it. I've struggled with some of the vocal tics ( can be irritating!) but other than that we just switch off from them. We've had very little issue with DS having problems with other children. One child asked me when DS was doing something and I explained to them and that was that

My 13 year old DD has recently developed something I’m not sure whether it’s a tic or not. It’s the shudder you’d call having a goose walk over your grave. She says sometimes she just has to do it and sometimes it just happens. It’s bothering her so am taking her to the doctors next week. Was wondering if any of the more experienced people here think it does sound like a tic

My daughter had this a bit (on and off for a couple of years)when she started high school, I just ignored it and it went away x

My eldest son had ticks off an on for a couple of years. He's 12 now and hasn't had one for a while. I think they were mostly between about 7 and 10.
We did take him to the GP, but they weren't worried and said they would stop eventually, which they did.
He had specific tics for weeks at a time. He did throat clearing, blinking, sniffing, a sort of sideways head flick. I can't remember but he would do the same thing for weeks and weeks and then one day I'd realise it had stopped.

DS developed a tic a couple of months after he started primary school, like you I read lots and stressed out but it seems to have been linked to stress, with a couple of things bothering him specifically.

The source of the stress went away and the tic did too, it only lasted a couple of months in the end and fingers crossed it stays away.

if the tics last no more than a yr, then it’s just transient tics only if it’s been going on for more than a yr including motor and vocal tics is it TS. The most challenging part of TS is not the tics in itself (barring severe tics) but it’s associated co morbidities. OCD and ADHD. I think it’s 70% of TS sufferers will also have one of OCD/ADHD or both.

@LoisSanger in your DD’s case, it’s sounds like a form of OCD. You are already doing the right thing by seeing the GP because the earliest she can get treatment the better the outcome.

My DD developed a mouth opening tic about the same age. After a few months the tic was getting worse rather than going away, so I recorded a 2 min video of her watching TV to show the doctor and she did it more than 10 times in that short time.

The doctor referred her to a neurologist, who checked that all was fine and said that if the tic was bothering her she could go for CBT to help, eg to learn to replace mouth opening with another less obvious tic instead, as some children were teasing her about it, but she didn't want to. Other advice from the neurologist was not to mention the tic, to make sure she got enough sleep and was well hydrated, to limit screen time, ensure her schedule was not too busy and encourage plenty of down time listening to audio books and music.

The tic then went away after 6 months. Brilliant I thought, only for it to return again in the same month it first started. The same thing happened for the next 2 years, starting in the same month and lasting 6 months, so I took her to an allergy specialist. She suggested that the tic was being triggered by wearing a ski helmet on a week long ski holiday with a tight chin strap.

Maybe she would have grown out of it anyway, but the following year I made sure the chin straps on all her helmets were loose and the tic hasn't reappeared again in the last few years.

I hope that is helpful, if a bit of a strange story!

Thank you @shimy. I have wondered about OCD with her in the past and so that would make sense.

It's hereditary as well as linked to OCD.

I suffered from OCD between the ages of 7-12 and I think that's been passed onto my kids in the form of tics.

Son #1 had a variety of tics from age 7. The first one started when he grew his hair long at the front and started flicking his head to move the hair out of his eyes. It moved on to mouth & hand movements.

I took him to the doctor after he'd had been doing it for about year and the advice was to not draw attention to it and to acknowledge to him that it was a natural thing that was happening so he wouldn't worry about it.

They went away naturally when he was about 11/12.

Try not to worry about it too much.

Please don’t worry OP. I’ve had a couple of tics since childhood, they haven’t got worse and don’t bother me. It doesn’t mean Tourette’s.