Worried about dd's twitches.

[alittlebitshy]

I have spent the last few days looking through the archives on MN and having a look at other bits and bobs online, all of which have been helpful. But you know how it is when you just want someone to reassure YOU?! So I thought I ought to start my own thread; sorry if I'm repeating what's been asked many a time, this is to try and calm a sad mummy (me).

Ok - deep beath! My dd is just 5. Over the last few weeks I noticed that she was doing a blinking/squeezing eyes shut kind of movement. I think she started off experimenting with what she could see as she squeezed the eyes shut and how her vision changed. I wasn't worried, just told her not to do it too often so she didn't hurt her eyes.

Last week I noticed that she now seems to be doing it involuntarily and it it sometimes accompanied by a jerk of the neck.

I am so worried. I know that sounds silly, as it is such a minor thing, but I was a twitchy child (nose wrinkling, mouth opening are the 2 that spring to mind) and I hated being like that. I can't remember if my parents brought the subject up themselves but i know when I told them how worried I was about the fact I did these things they just told me to stop doing them, which I did try to do but as I've been reading this week, I can see that in the long run it's not easy or helpful to do so. Now, at almost 29 I'm fairly ( non twitchy (I think), but I am just terrified that my dd will go through life with these twitches. I'm scared she'll get teased or that it will influence how she gets on in life. Rationally I can take in what I've read, that these are transient and are likely to wax and wane and disappear within a few weeks or months, but what if they don't?

She is a lovely, if sometimes eccentric, little girl who I adore. amd I keep bursting into tears (not in front of her) about this (prob not helped by the fact that I am 30 weeks pg and v hormonal ) because I just don't know what to think or do. I am being very careful (after an initial day where I kept on at her to try to stop it) not to mention it unless she brings it up.

She has been having friend troubles lately at school . Her "friends" have been telling her to go away and she has been crying about it at bedtime, but from what I have been reading, online tics and twitches are not necessarily caused by stress etc per se, but can be exacerbated by it. Or am I getting that wrong?

Am I making any sense?

Any advice or shared experience would really be welcome.

Tia.

bumping to keep in active convos at least while I head up for a quick shower. Can you tell how stressed I am

hi alittlebitshy, I hope your dd's twitches are nothing to worry about. You may have seen my messages from last autumn when my ds1 (then 5yo) was doing something a little similar. He wasn't squeezing his eyes shut but was moving his eyes rapidly from side to side and often staring at lights. He did it loads and it appeared to be involuntary i.e. when we asked him about it he appeared not to know what he had been doing.

Just like you, dp and I read up about it all and concluded it was probably just a 'tic' and would go on its own. But he just got worse and worse and one of his schoolteachers mentioned it to me as well so I knew it was becoming very obvious. Like you, I was worried about them becoming a lifelong habit, and about other children taking the piss out of him - because I know how nasty other children can be. And in the back of my mind was a worry about nystagmus or absence seizures.

We took him for an eye test which was fine (although verified that he had colour blindness, which we already knew). So I took him to the doctors - twice!! The first GP didn't see him doing it at all, but took my concerns very seriously and referred him to a neurologist just in case he was having absence seizures. The second GP saw his eye movements (we were officially there to talk about ds2 so I think ds1 felt less under scrutiny) and said it definitely wasn't an absence seizure or nystagmus, and that it would go faster if we stopped drawing attention to it - but might take 6 months to a year. Well about 4 months on and I'm happy to say he doesn't do it at all any more.

So I suppose I would advise you go to see someone about it - as it will either put your mind at rest or reassure you that the worse possibilities are being investigated. Then if the medics agree her eye squeezing is just a tic, you can safely stop talking about it and hope she will stop of her own accord.

Hope that helps.

By the way, I am also in the later stages of pregnancy and quite hormonal, and both of my sons are going through different stresses at the moment so I know how hard it is to be rational about these things

thanks for that - v useful. Do you think it's ok to wait a little bit before seeing someone.... ?

bump

hello again, surprised no other mumsnetters have come along to comment. I suppose it depends on how worried you are before you take her to anyone. It helped me because I was getting really concerned and knew it would be hard to wait months to see if it would disappear on its own. And I found it hard not to mention it any more to my ds. Maybe you don't need to see anyone if you feel deep down that it's not really a problem and you're happy to wait for her twitches to stop.

i have read up an exact samr thing about a little boy doing exactly the same

the main thing said was to not make to muh referance to it when it happens to get them to do something that involves alot of concentration as the more they concentrate ticks stop

it can be caused through stress tiredness can take months to go but i would say to go to your gp as sooner you get seen about it sooner you can get help or advise

try and get some things that take alot of concentration and maybe the more she is concentrating ticks will slow down then stop as it could have become a habit that needs to be distracted

i remember doing something similar myself and found making my own candles helped as painting and concentrating i forgot about my habit it just went

but had no neck movement so it wouldnt hurt to seek help

thanks both of you.

mmm -i think I'll keep an eye over half term, maybe ask her teacher (who is very subtle and would not draw dd's attention to it, so i know I can trust her) if she's noticed it, and if she has any thoughts, then get a drs appointment at that stage - ie in a week or so's time. I don't think I want to wait a couple of months (for a start dc2 will be coming in 2 months) as I want to have at least set out my concerns to someone who might "know". Our gps can be a bit on the rubbish side, but I Guess I can only try.
I'm sure I have more questions mummypig - so keep an eye out for me
Thanks so much.

You've prob read this but it's what I put on a previous thread...

Try not to jump to conclusions - sounds more like "transient tics of childhood" than Tourette's. There are 3 main tic syndromes - transient, chronic and Tourette's. Transient tics are very common and grown out of.

This is a complicated article but helpful too www.postgradmed.com/issues/2000/10_00/evidente_tic.shtml

"Transient tics are common, particularly among children under the age of 10 years. In fact, about 20% of kids in this age-group have tics that disappear as they get older. Nonetheless, parents often are concerned about what strange movements or sounds mean and what can be done about them. Many have heard horror stories about Tourette's syndrome and fear a life of social rejection because of uncontrollable "urges.""

thanks for that - and for the link!