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Concerns about 5 year old, blinking tics

5 replies

babypup · 10/09/2014 16:32

Hi everyone,

My son is 5 years 5 months old. A typical gregarious little lad, tonnes of energy but bright and affectionate.

When he turned 4 last April, he developed a fairly harsh blinking tic which lasted 3 months solid, then vanished. I was relieved, hoping that it was just a passing phase of which I had read similar stories. Last November is resurfaced and has been on/off ever since. Sometimes is can be gone for a about a month, appear again for a few weeks and the pattern repeats. His eye tests have been fine and no allergies, so it is a tic and outwith his control. Watching TV seems to make it worse.

My worry is the length of time this has been present, 18 months on and off now and I wondered if anybody had any similar experiences? My underlying worry is obviously Tourettes syndrome, but thus far I have not noticed any other 'tics'. It is definitely worse at times of stress, when we moved house mid July it exploded to a level I had never seen before which was quite alarming, but then calmed down about a month after the move. He started school 3 weeks ago, and in the last week I think it's starting to creep back again.

I would be keen to hear any other experiences with tics, as I have convinced myself of the most severe possible outcome and him having Tourettes which is quite scary. I find myself watching him a lot! GP has referred us to a Paed finally, our appointment is mi October, but I am not holding out much hope of really getting any firm answers and find Mumsnet is usually the best source of advice.

Any words of wisdom or experience would be hugely appreciated xx

OP posts:
babypup · 10/09/2014 19:10

Shameless Bump for any traffic x

OP posts:
itiswhatitiswhatitis · 10/09/2014 19:14

It's very common for children to develop tics at this age. Ds2 has a facial one that started when he was about for. It would come and go, we ignored it and never drew attention to it. He's 6 now and he hasn't done it for quite a while.

We noticed it would coincide with periods of him being over tired or a bit wound up about something I.e new school etc.

babypup · 11/09/2014 09:26

Thanks itiswhatitiswhatitis. It's comforting to know that people have experienced something similar and that is has come and gone. My reading always points to Tics lasting about 3 months then disappearing, unless it's something more sinister which kind of worried me. His comes and goes all the time, sounds similar to what your little guy experienced around stress/tiredness.

OP posts:
itiswhatitiswhatitis · 11/09/2014 14:02

I think the most important thing is not to draw attention to it otherwise it can become a bit of a viscous circle if they become self conscious about it. I had a little chat with ds's teacher so she was aware of it but knew not to comment on it to ds.

User79853257976 · 29/08/2023 19:40

@babypup i know this is 9 years old now. How did things develop with your son please?

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