motor tics

[wiosna]

My 3.4 yo DD developed a blinking tic. It seems the strongest when she watches telly before the bath time, for the rest of the day it hardly noticable. It started with the new arrival of a baby brother, which I thought she's actually taking very well.

I had a look on internet, and it seems that motor tics are quite common, and usually go away within a few weeks without any intervention. Noone actually says what causes it - is it because she's upset about the new arrival?

Does anyone has any experience? I haven't seen any posts about it, so maybe is not as common as they say?

Tics are common - if you watch the TV on mute its possible to spot lots of mild facial tics. Alistair Darling seems to have developed a very noticeable one since leaving government. And I've always thought that the Queen has a minor tic.

As you say tics often emerge or get worse at times of stress or when tired.

Is DD aware of her tic?

no, i don't think so. she has no idea she's doing it and apparently you're not ment to attract their attention to it

Good that she's not aware of it. I only asked because some children can get very upset by their tics - wh then makes the tics worse, so something extra can be neccessary to make them go away. The tics obviously not the child.

My dd is 20 months and she has a blinking tic that she does when she gets tired especially when watching tv. I think quite common unless it perserveres

DS is 3.9, he developed a blinking tic (exaggerated blinking) a few months ago. I had noticed it, but like you googled and read that it was quite common and it only really happened when he was tired.

When his grandmother and preschool noticed it and bought it to my attention (in front of DS) it became obviously worse. Poor DS told me his eyes were broken!
I contacted our PHN who said to get his eyes tested (I did, they were fine), if it wasn't his eyes then it would be a tic, much like a stammer. She said to completely ignore the behaviour and instruct anyone else to also. I was told that it may carry on for a while, but he would grow out of it.

It helped that we saw a fantastic optician, who picked up on DS's fears. He pretended he was fixing his eyes, whilst he was conducting the tests.

It has abated a lot, but he still does it sometimes when annoyed or tired. Now when he finds himself doing it, he tells me the man fixed his eyes.

thanks for that ladies, made me feel a bit better