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Nervous tick in 5 year old - what can I do?

4 replies

bunjies · 22/05/2008 17:19

Hi. I'm not sure whether this should go here or in health.

My dd1 is 5 years old and has had a nervous cough for the last couple of months. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when it started as she had a real cough but then I noticed she kept doing it all the time. She currently does this at least two or three times every minute. It's more like a small cough as if she's trying to clear something out of her throat. I've tried talking to her about it but she doesn't even realise she's doing it. We moved to France nearly two years ago but she has never shown any signs of this having been a problem for her. She goes to the local school here and seems to be enjoying it. She has friends at the school including one who lives over the road so they are together quite a lot. She also has two siblings, ds who is 9 and dd2 who is 3. They get on as well as siblings ever do at that age!

I'm really concerned about it and don't know if I should be, not to mention the fact that it's bloody annoying. Does anyone have any experience of a child in a similar situation and is there anything I can do?

OP posts:
redadmiral · 22/05/2008 20:27

My DD had something similar, and the general advice is to try to ignore it. It's not uncommon and is probably a thing that will go away. DDs went away, came back slightly and I haven't noticed it now for about a year.

I was taking her back to a paediatrition for dizziness and asked him subtly about it and he said not to worry.

bunjies · 23/05/2008 19:01

Thanks redadmiral. I knew the advice would be to ignore it! Do you know why they do it?

OP posts:
MannyMoeAndJack · 23/05/2008 21:19

Some information here about tics:

www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/transient_tic_disorder.htm

CoteDAzur · 23/05/2008 21:27

bunjies - This might be a long shot, but...

Are you familiar with the French mannerism/expression for "Yes, I agree" that is basically a guttural "uh"? Is it possible that she has picked up on this?

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