Worried about this

[Redruby2020]

Hi all, so my DS who is 3 and a half, I noticed a few days ago that he kept doing this noise like clearing his throat, I thought it might be the apple he was eating, but he was doing it at other times too.
Then today out if the blue since this morning, he has been having body jolts, like you can see his body move from his belly upwards, at first I was thinking is it stomach related and/or connected to clearing throat that he could have reflux etc issues. Then I was thinking it seems a bit more than hiccups, I asked my DS and he said his belly was itching that's why he was doing it, but I knew he was probably just saying something to just answer me.
Anyway this has continued on and off throughout today. Even upon lying down to go to bed, there were random body movements, and I could hear almost a like internal hiccup sound.
When I have googled things earlier it brought up Tic's?! Obviously worrying even though it says on some info pages it doesn't seem like something you would rush down the doctors for, but obviously it's just come up all of a sudden, and was quite upsetting to see my DS like that.

Greatful for any experiences of this or advice. Obviously am planning on contacting the doctor.

Is he having difficulty breathing at all? Does he sound breathless or anything? My 3 year old did the throat thing a few weeks ago which then progressed onto his stomach almost being sucked in, he ended up in hospital with a viral induced wheeze and it was terrifying. When you said the clearing the throat bit I instantly thought it sounded the same.

My first thought is asthma. Sometimes children say their belly hurts even when it doesn't because they don't know how to explain what they're feeling. If he was clearing his throat and complaining of an itch it could be an allergy or asthma. Before my asthma was diagnosed I would hold my breath and stretch my neck upwards because it relieves the itch in my throat. It can look quite odd. Could he be doing that jerkily?

I think it would be good for him to be seen by a doctor.

Thank you all so far. Well he is sleeping soundly now. But I was planning on calling first thing in the morning and unfortunately at the moment it's a telephone appointment first! Before the doctor will say whether you should go in or not.
Thing is because of the clearing throat and body movements it was indicating towards tics. I asked a friend who said a friend of hers their daughter or son had tics and it's brought on by stress.
Which makes me feel terrible as there has certainly been a lot of stress living on my own with my DS for what is short of a year soon. And where he is at that age where he is really playing up and a handful I do find myself losing my temper a lot which I am not happy about, but tired and stressed and finding it all hard to deal with, and there isn't a lot of help from what it seems. You are just told by some it is part of being a single parent 🤦‍♀️
I have noticed that naturally if you get angry with them, they get angry with you, like some aggression is normal in that age group, but I know that any additional factors will not help.
Thing is my DS can have a tantrum etc and whine about everything so I'm either stood there having to see him in a state until I can change that or he calms down, which I feel doesn't help, him being in a state of only adds to stress, otherwise what is the alternative? To give in to everything. The nursery offered some advice but it's easier said than done, and works a little differently for them etc than me who is with him all the time.

Sounds very much like tics.

If you can film him when he is doing it then it may help the drs

My DS had the same throat clearing thing at age 4, he also used to do a stretching thing with his eyes, opening them wide. They came and went for a few years, and eventually disappeared completely. I think it was stress, as they started around the time he started school. Please don’t beat yourself up though - we were lucky in that our family environment wasn’t particularly stressful and he still had tics, some children just do react in that way I think (obviously I did my best to help him).

Thankyou. Yes I was thinking of filming him, I know it said online not to make them feel bad or make them overly aware that you have noticed it. So I will try to do it in as subtle as a way as possible. But definantly calling the doctors surgery in the morning.