DS has likely facial tic - do I tell family or not?

[HalfMumHalfBiscuit]

We noticed that when DS is relaxed watching tv he has bouts of his eyes rolling upwards and to the sides, eyebrows scowl and some mouth movements. This can happen every minute.

If you do a search it could be a petit mall (fit) or a facial tic. I recorded the facial movements and showed the emergency doc at the weekend and his gp today. They both thought tic rather than fit and I am to record and see if there are any changes for a month. If not he will get referred.

He had his first week at school last week. The first sign of the above was on Thursday evening when he was watching tv. He has moved up into Year 3 (wales) and his teacher had told him that there was 'no more playing' only work. The tic could be caused by tiredness and some anxiety at moving up a year. He is one of the youngest in his year.

At the moment only DH and I know and a couple of our friends. Family lives a long drive away.

I don't know if I should say anything to our families as I don't want to draw attention to the tic and I don't want them going on about it. DS is fine in himself (apart from the tiredness and some possible anxiety). On the other hand DH and I could do with some support and we are worried about DS. There is a 3yo DD in the picture here too.

DS is off school today. I have taken the day off to be with him. I don't know what I should tell people is wrong with him (what do I say at work?). Ideas / thoughts please. I have told his form teacher so she can keep an eye on him. I did say please not to mention it to him.

I don't know anything about tics or what to do. All I have heard is that you shouldn't go on about the tic to him.

Thanks so much.

I'm not sure if my dd1 had a different thing, but she did an eyes-and-neck-to-the-side thing for a while, starting from a similar age. From everything I read at the time, it was "just one of those things", extremely common in children, and only something to worry about if it was interfering with their day-to-day life.

With my dd1, we did nothing and mentioned it to nobody. It was just "that thing she did sometimes" and as she got aware of it just said she had a twitch. It has gradually lessened and (at 14) is now extremely occasional. Linked a bit to tiredness/stress, but really nothing at all.

If your ds has the same thing, it's very likely that in his class he won't be the only one. They peak around adolescence AFAIK.

Thanks for your reply. He is 7.

It seems to be another one of those fairly common things that I have never heard of/had experience of, which is probably why it worried me.

Tics are extremely common - my year 3 son (a common age) has developed quite a few over the summer - nose scrunching, hand licking etc.

He is quite an anxious kid too but having done some reading about them (there are absolutely loads of resources on the Internet) mentioning them or drawing attention to them makes them far far worse.

I used to compulsively clear my throat and got bullied by my family which is horrible as it was totally outwith my control. I simply grew out of it and have every hope my ds will be the same.

In the kindest possible way I think you are being a bit OTT tbh. Taking a day off school with him (was this just because of the tic?) and agonising over what to tell people will just make him more anxious and the tics will become worse. Just try to chill out. My ds are already diminishing.

Ds has just been diagnosed with a form of epilepsy. We would have been unaware of it but he had full grand mal during the night and has had full range of tests subsequently. During the EEG they videoed him to compare the brain wave activity with his behaviour.
Having now gend up on seizure types I have realised that he has probably been having partial seizures for some time. His epilepsy is one that happens mainly during sleep and he has been a bit jerky in the early stage of sleep for some time.
The eye rolling and twitching you describe sound more like partial seizures and it could be significant that it is while he is watching TV.
It wouldn't hurt to ask for a referral to see a paediatrician.
I wouldn't normally suggest it but there are one or two YouTube videos showing children having partial seizures. They are useful to see if your DS has similar episodes. Partial seizures are very subtle.

Try looking for partial focal seizures they are frequently diagnosed as facial tics.

Thank you for the advice.

DS was back at school the next day. I didn't mean for him to miss school on monday but his teacher and the doc said to let him rest as he just looked wrecked with red marks under his eyes. Touch wood, he very rarely misses school.

He still seems tired out and not quite himself. His tic seems to be slightly better but as the doc has advised we are going to monitor and take vids of him / observe for a month. If it continues the GP said she would refer and check for seizures as willdoit mentioned.

The gp said it was unlikely that these are epilepsy related as he continued to eat pieces of apple whilst having the eye roll/twitch.

We aren't going to mention the tic to anyone.

My DS gets a facial tic when he is tired or stressed out. We mentioned to his teacher so he wouldn't get told off for pulling "funny faces" and to ask them not to draw any attention to it. We never mention it to DS when he does it as we don't want to make him conscious of it. I don't think we've ever mentioned it to family either tbh.

To video, he was concentrating on the tv and thought I was taking a picture of DD. He didn't know I was taking a film of him for the doc.

I think like Ifcatshadthumbs DS it sounds like it was due to stress/tiredness.