Please or to access all these features

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Throat clearing tic - advice please!

10 replies

nettlefairy · 11/12/2013 11:50

My dd has just turned 9 and for the past few years has had a nervous throat clearing tic which seems worse when she is tired/end of term etc. It's particularly bad at the moment. She has dyslexia and often finds school a bit overwhelming so I think this is tied to it. I also do the same when I'm nervous and feel so bad that I seem to have passed this on to her, particularly as she feels very self conscious and tells me that the teachers glare at her at assembly and children make comments. Has anyone else had to deal with this and have they any solutions??? Thanks.

OP posts:
MadeOfStarDust · 11/12/2013 12:59

we did not have throat clearing, but had a "blinking"/eye scrunching tic... again at end of term / tiredness made it worse...

doctor told us there were no problems it was psychological/stress/tiredness related -

we were a bit "cruel" I suppose - we told her her hay fever medication got rid of it.... and it did.... the placebo effect I guess...

nettlefairy · 11/12/2013 21:16

That's not cruel - it's genius! I also used to do the eye blinking thing - I remember it went with feeling tired and overwhelmed. Good to hear what your GP told you as didn't want to take her as pretty sure there was nothing they could do but was interested to have an idea of why etc. I might try the throat equivalent of the hay fever meds and give her some cough drops or something...thanks for your reply.

OP posts:
Procrastinating · 11/12/2013 21:17

My son does this. He is 8. Thanks for the placebo idea, brilliant. I'll try that with vitamin pills I think.

ThreeBeeOneGee · 11/12/2013 21:26

The throat clearing is one of the most annoying of the transient tics my children have had. If it's any consolation, DS1 grew out of his tics in the summer after primary school. DD's throat clearing one drives me potty though. She is 9.5 and has been doing it on and off for nearly a year.

ThreeBeeOneGee · 11/12/2013 21:32

We've also had the eye-scrunching (DS1) and the blinking (DS3). It's like transient tic bingo in our house.

nettlefairy · 16/12/2013 23:19

Is it something you just have to wait out or are there any tips to ease it!?!

OP posts:
ThreeBeeOneGee · 17/12/2013 07:31

If you think it's being exacerbated by anxiety then dealing with the anxiety helps (a bit of gentle CBT or counselling). We had a book called 'What to do if you worry too much' by Dawn Huebner.

Otherwise, don't draw attention to the tic because it can make it worse.

ThreeBeeOneGee · 17/12/2013 07:33

www.dawnhuebnerphd.com/WorryTooMuch.aspx

MrsShrek3 · 17/12/2013 07:53

ds2's was also cured with orange chewable multivitamins, was telling a work colleague the other day whose dd is similar Wink .
Told him firmly that this would fix it - he really wanted to stop it but felt he couldn't, so the vitamins (which he thought were genuine tablets to stop his twitch) gave him the extra push.

nettlefairy · 19/12/2013 17:02

Thanks - will try all of these!! She's watching TV now and it's literally every 3 seconds - aaaggggghhhhh!!!!

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page