Child with twitch/tic

[Cheerybigbottom]

Hi all

I'm a bit worried about my boy, 4 year old. For a week he's had a tic/twitch where he puts his right ear to his shoulder, ignored it at first, then his dad noticed it and made a big thing about him stopping doing it (because he has a tic where he does the same thing, makes a whinny noise-I know, weird-then sniffs a few times) then I've went back to ignoring it because he says he can't stop it and I don't want to make him worse. It looks like it probably hurts after a while!

Husbands tic is not related to any diagnosed condition and I doubt son has even noticed it much because dad works late comes home at 7ish and as he relaxes he will do it once or twice most during the evening.

Can I be reassured sons new tic will just go away? I don't care about ppl looking or whatever (though they have been) just that really at the end of the day it looks sore and he can do it a lot.

Oh btw his ears were checked a week ago for infection as he had a rash and GP wanted to rule out scarlet fever, so I know his ear is fine.

A physical tic combined with a noise is often a sign of Tourette's. It runs in families and is usually barely noticeable - none of that swearing.

But no... There is a good chance he won't grow out of it. He might learn to become more aware of it and modify his behaviour though.

Thank you Chablis. I am hoping it is not Tourette's mostly because displaying so young may mean serious vocal and physical tics are on the horizon.

I have a friend whose son has ASD and Tourette's and under great stress his physical tics make some activities impossible for him. They also make associated areas of his body hurt. I would be so sad to see my boy of only 4 hurting physically, life should be fun at 4.

Tourette's runs in my family and hasn't impeded anyone's quality of life. Don't assume that because it has displayed early it will necessarily get worse with age.

I have had millions of different tics since I was 4/5ish. Blinking, twitching my nose, throat noises, straining my neck.. You name it I've had them. Mine come and go, Since I've got older I get them a lot less but have noticed that if I'm stressed they get a lot worst/more frequent. My mother took me to the doctors when I was younger and they referred me to a specialist, they did brain scans and everything, they said I had mild Tourette's. I found the worst thing you could do is tell me to try to control it or stop doing it, my parents used to tell me to think about it when I'm doing it and try not to do it but it just made me a thousand times worst, the more u try to control it the more you get the urge to do it. Has your DS been through anything stressful recently? My mother and father used to fight when I was really young and I used to witness it, the doctor reckoned this was the cause of my Tourette's, because I felt so nervous and anxious and this is what apparently started it all off. I haven't had any tics for months up until recently, going through a hard time at home and now I've got a neck tic, can't stop twisting it/moving it to one side and the muscles are really sore from doing it so much. I wish there was a cure.

Thanks for that ChablisTyrant, my husband has asked me to take him to the GP as while I've been out this evening he's quizzed him a bit about his ears and problems. He's looking for it to be anything other than a motor tic. I feel a bit deflated that this is likely to stay and make things hard for him growing up, but things could be worse.

Forgot to add, I'll be 27 next month and I haven't grown out of it, it's got better but still there

Plonkerface thanks for your insight! I don't think he's been through anything stressful except it's been spoken about in hushed tones he may have Asperger's syndrome and though very clever, funny and loving, and with friends, he can be quick to anger and finds it difficult to speak about it.

He's only 4, I hate the thought of more things to make his life a struggle but I will ask his dad to stop mentioning the tic because as you've described that does not help.

Bleedingnora you are right he is making a big thing because he is utterly ashamed of his tic and terrified already about ds having asd. I think he's been googling and found out Tourette's is inherited. I'm genuinely more concerned about strain on ds neck it looks so uncomfortable.

God, it's lucky I only have one kid 'cos I couldn't take the worry of more.

Thanks for sharing advice and experience guys, husband wouldn't like me chatting about this in real life,

DS1 who is almost 2 did the ear to shoulder thing for a few days in a row a few months ago but nothing since x

Ds(9) had numerous repetitive tics from the age of 4 through to last year. He sniffed, coughed, blinked, rubbed his eyes, sucked wet patches in t shirts, bit his lower lip etc. Usually a few weeks or a few months at each new tic, with a tic free few weeks in between.

On the advice of our GP, we ignored it (sniffing one was very hard) and pretend not to notice. He seems to have grown out of it. Occasionally I notice him blinking more than normal in stressful situations but that's not often.

DS1(11) has had a variety of facial tics over the past few years, including blinking. We were advised by the GP that it was probably related to stress and to ignore it, not mention it to DS at all. We did notice that they appeared when he changed school, had SATs. Followed GPs advice and he's tic-free now. I suspect he may get them again in the future but we will continue to ignore them.