nervous tics

[Cha]

My stepson, aged 5, has recently started to display a couple of tics. One is blowing out through his mouth after sniffing and the other is rapid blinking. This has been going on for about 6-8 weeks. He seems to do it when he is feeling uncomfortable, unhappy, ill at ease or concentrating hard on something.
What is the advice? Dp gently reminds him not to do it when he does, and has tried 'bribing' him - ie 'if you try and stop, we'll get you this x' etc. It seems to work a bit, though he still does it.
What could be causing it? Should he see someone? My feeling is that the longer it is left, the harder it will be for him to stop? Is this right? There are sure to be underlying pschological reasons as to why he does it, and why it has started just now. We are all very worried about him but are trying to keep things normal.

Oh Cha, I hope your stepson is OK. I would see someone, I guess your GP first, just to check it out. We took ds to the GP when he had a habit of grimacing suddenly, but as he was a baby it was put down to teething, and seems to have gone away.

I have a student who has a nervous tick and has been diagnosed with tourettes. Although I wouldn't want to alarm you, and I'm sure it's nothing like it, this boy got to 14 before it was diagnosed, and finally has started to get himself settled down. So it really is worth going to a GP just to rule it out and know you've done all you can.

Cha - my 16 year old has had one habit after another. Sniffing, throat clearing, eye blinking and now nibbling skin round the nails of his fingers. Try and ignore it - the more attention you pay to it the more he will do it. I actually tell my 16 year old off I have to say. Wouldn't worry too much about it.

Just to add you own't get a dx of tourette's after such a short time. The tics have to be present for a long time (a year if I remember correctly).

I remember going through a phase of blinking and wriggling my nose when I was about 6. It used to drive my mum potty. I don't have any ticks now (didn't last very long).

My eldest boy has had two different tics - rapid eye twitching, then licking round his mouth over and over until it's red raw. The first he just grew out of, the second he still does occasionally but to nowhere near the same extent.

Both seem to have coincided with stressful periods in his life - moving to a new area, starting school. As he has grown more confident (he's almost 7 and happily settled at school now) he has pretty much stopped.

I always took the line of not mentioning it ( hard though!) as I thought that by drawing attention to it, it would become an issue.

Has your stepson been particularly unsettled about something over the last 6/8 weeks? Perhaps if he has, and that can be resolved, he will just stop by himself, as my son has.

tics I mean. I don't have any ticks either!

Cha - my son has Tourette's, so I do know how worrying emerging tics can be. However, for a diagnosis tics mist be present over a period of a year.

Far more common is a transient tic disorder - which actually affects up to 25% of schoolchildren at some stage. But it IS transient, and will pass.

How to deal with it - ignore it. Completely. If it is a tic (and blinking is a classic "first tic" then he cannot completely control it. It is possible that he will be able to supress it for short periods of time, but it is like a sneeze, or a scratchy nose - try as you might to NOT tic and to ignore the desire, sooner or later it will become overwhelming and it will erupt. It is best to not mention it at all.

As to seeing someone about it - well you could, if the problem goes on, but these things mostly pass. To be honest there is little point it going for a dx because although there is medication which can help him control it, the side effects are generally far more severe than the problem itself (this is a direct quote from my son's paed by the way).

There isn't really anything you can do - hard though it is. I cried for ages when my son was dx with Tourette's - bizarrely far more so than when he was dx with Asperger and ADHD. I suppose because it looks so strange (and sounds it too - friends used to ask me how I managed not to strangle him after spending half an hour with him when he was vocally ticcing. It is SO irratating).

Has this helped? Basically, don't worry too much at this stage - as it is probably a stage and will pass. But if it doesn't, there isn't much you can do about it anyway. Just learn to live with it (that is said with a sympathetic tome, by the way - hard to convey in writing!).

Thank you all. Immensly reassuring. I am sure it is not tourette's as the 'ticing' has coincided with his mum getting a new boyfriend. She is aware of this and is very careful and sensitive to his feelings. Her last relationship came to an end about a year and a half ago and dss was very close to her ex and misses him terribly. I am sure he is worried by his mum's new boyfriend on all sorts of different levels. Slightly more worrying is that he has started to poo in his pants recently. He is nearly 6 so it is not an accident thing now. My feeling is that subconciously he is reverting to babyhood to get back his mother's attention. Seems awfully extreme though. It is not as if she is a bad mother, she always puts him first.

Cha my DD2 picks up all sorts of strange habits like this, not sure why. At the moment she keeps doing what I call her "chicken legs". Every now and again she stands still and does her legs like someone doing the funky chicken. Looks ever so funny but I have told her I refuse to take her out while she continues to do so!

I think a lot of kids do it. I remember my brother went through a stage of always pulling one of his eyes to the left everytime he watched tv...he was much much younger then, it became a habit but he eventually stopped doing it. Sure in time your SS will stop as well.

Best thing most the time is to ignore it and it will then go away.

Take Care x

We've just heard that he's developed another tic - turning his head to one side. Now he has three, blowing, blinking and head turning - is this a problem? Dp is really worried.

I'm sorry to hear that things aren't improving and are worryig you all. In honesty there is really little I can add to what has been said before - it may just be a phase, it may not - even if it isn't there is really little you can do about it anyway. You really just have to grin and bear these things. On the positive side, even if he did had a chronic tic disorder, Tourette's or whatever, then these things still coma and go. SOmetimes my lad is SO tic-y it is unreal, and other times you scarcely notice it.

You mentioned the new boyfriend. Is he very anxious at the moment? Anxiety makes all these things worse.

I think it may be the new boyfriend on the scene - the tic-ing seems to have started around the time they were introduced. He is quite an anxious, fear ridden little chap anyway, so I am hoping that it is just his way of showing how insecure he feels? She (mother) is taking him to the Tavistock clinic to get him checked out. Thanks for all your support!