10 yr old boy with a nervous tic

[Strix]

DS1 (age 8) seems to have a nervous tic. I drives me crazy and I want stomp my feet and instruct him to stop it. But, that of course won't help so I don't.

He blinks uncontrollably. And he also chews his fingernails (and somtimes his fingers). Sometimes if I tell him to gt his fingers out of his mouth, he starts blinking.

If anyone has any experience or advise I would be most gratefull.

He is 8, not 10.

My seven year old gets tics. The most recent involves flicking his eyes to the sides. It is very hard to watch. We have had blinking, burping, and bizarre stomach rolling in the past. They wax and wane.

We have to ignore it. Calling attention to them makes it worse. This eye ball one is hard to ignore.

They do go away, but they make me worry. I wish I could help. He is a worrier and a perfectionist.

I have been reading that some people think magnesium helps. Have you tried that? If so, do you think it helps?

My 10 year old son developed a tic (neck holding) following a ghastly year with a teacher who was a bully. We consulted a clinical psychologist who said under no circumstances draw attention to his neck holding as that would reinforce the behaviour. It almost killed us not to say anything but we got all family members on board and just ignored it. He continued for 10 months and then when he had an unrelated bout of pneumonia, it stopped as quickly as it had started never to return , he's 17 now! It was as if an intervening act made him forget. Good luck, I hope everything resolves of its own accord.

look up Tourette's syndrome. don't panic - it comes in kids this age and often goes again. your child needs support if he can't stop the tics.

Is it a nervous tic, or is it on and off regardless of anxiety?

There is a spectrum of tic syndromes. I'd suggest asking your GP for a paediatric referral if he's had it over a year and it's present a lot of the time.

My dd also started having a tic shortly before her 8th birthday. It really stressed me out tbh, especially when I googled Tourettes. However, it calmed down after a month or so and has since disappeared. Nothing has appeared since. She had a bad virus at around the same time and I sometimes wonder if the two were connected.

It is a watch and wait situation at first.

My 10 year old son has various tics that come and go. They can be quite annoying - he currently makes a humming noise, his eyes flick side to side randomly and he brushes his mouth/nose with the back of his hand. It started with blinking and shoulder shrugging when he was around 5 years old, but sometimes some disappear and are replaced by others. We are looking into his diet and have found that going gluten and dairy free helps quite a bit. We didn't realise just how much until we stopped being strict and the tics worsened. We are now seeing a naturopath and will be going back gluten and dairy free for him.

I think it's a nervous tic. It's not Tourettes. We are talking eye blinking, sort of chewing on the bottom lip, nail biting, on rare occassion shoulder shrugging.

Also, I suffer from migraines. There is an established link between magnesium and migraines. So I wonder if there might be something genetic there. Perhaps we are naturally deficient.

We do try and ignore it. Although we are human and sometimes don't succeed. He also sucks his thumb (and so does his sister who is 10). Recently I signalled to him in assembly to get his thumb out of his mouth, and he started blinking. So I think it was one nervous "habit" for another.

We are giving magnesium a go (in small doses, nothing radical).

My last message did not send, so here is the abridged version!

strix my dd developed hers after stopping sucking her thumb so I think you might be right. I have never made that connection before. Like replacing one self soothing habit for another. Interesting. Thanks.

Ps: I am also a migraine sufferer.