Advice needed DS1 cant stop blinking

[Shrimpets]

Hello I wondered if anyone had any advice for me, my DS1 has been blinking now for a well over a week, he is also closing them really tightly and closing one at a time, I feel so sorry for him because it must be really frustrating. This is not the first time he has had any strange movements going on with his eyes. For the last 3 years he has been doing something or another from opening them wide to turning them towards the side and moving his head. He also has been making grunting noises and sniffs a lot too. I have not put any of these symptoms together because I thought this was just him.

When I Goggled the symptoms Tourettes Syndrome keeps coming up and it all seem to fit. It says that one symptom stops and another starts well DS1 has been picking his nose for as long as i can remember and all intervention to stopping has failed, this now seems to have disappeared (apart from the odd occasion) we thought this was a habit that he could not break!

We have had his hair cut because he was growing it and has been to the opticians today and his eyes are completely fine with no infection, just so we can rule these out. His teacher said he has been doing it at school too.

Just wanted to know if anyone else has been through this. We have a doctor?s appointment on Wed and want to be prepared as to what to tell the doctor.

I know this is long and thank you for reading.

Shrimpets x

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.""

Your GP should be able to reassure you.

DS1 used to blink a lot. Then he stopped doing that, and he started sort of rolling his eyes and pulling his face. That was quite odd. He's mostly stopped doing that now too.

I think nose picking is just nose picking, not a tic.

I think they grow out of them slowly. Sometimes they do it just because of how it feels, and then they sort of can't stop.

I think we might not have any you know now. He's 10 btw.

DD did that too ahundretimes, then starting to pull out her eyebrows. Went on for months. Was very worried, but she was bribed encouraged to stop by a pair of nice earings I think it was.
She is 12 now and occasionaly does the eye thing when a bit stressed/over tired, but not often.

Hope things go ok at the docs Shrimpets x

Thank you all for your messages thay have been very reasuring (does not look right). I always seem to think worse case senario. I do think this could be another one of his habits, but because of the amount he is doing the blinking want the doctor to check him out. I will post again to let you know of the outcome.

Shrimpets x