4.5 YO suddenly making repetitive coughing/grunting noises

[PoppiesandPeonies22]

In the past 2.5 weeks I’ve suddenly noticed that 4.5 yo DS is making repetitive noises like short coughing/throat clearing/kinda little grunting noises. First he said it was that he was thirsty.

He doesn’t have a cough/cold and hasn’t had for 1 month, and no history of respiratory problems like asthma, I’ve been really keeping his hydration up - he was obviously at home last week as holidays.

It was still happening and is this week. Terrified that it’s some form of tics/Tourette’s. How worried should I be??

Should I do anything, he starts school in Aug and I know how cruel kids can be.

Not had anything else to date (that I’m able to recognise) that would signify any neurodiversity.

We noticed something a bit like this in our DC at the same age. She suddenly started doing big sighs all the time, ie exhaling loudly like one might do when sitting down at the end of the day, but she would do it all the time for no apparent reason. We ruled our respiratory causes and so thought it might be something compulsive or anxiety related. But in the end it just stopped one day 🤷‍♀️ So maybe you'll find that your DS just stops after a while. Alternatively you could get him looked at by his GP in case it's something physical eg postnasal drip or maybe a throat infection or irritation?

Most tics are transient and go away by themselves.

Ignore it, if it hasn’t gone away go and see your GP in a few months.

Could just be that he's tired or feeling anxious. I would not mention it at all as he probably doesn't know he's doing it and it'll probably go away by itself.

My daughter has loads of these of the years, starting at about 5. They are mostly gone now (she’s 11) but grunting was the first one, then moved onto excessive blinking/twitching. Ramped up when she’s tired/anxious.

It sounds like a tic, they mostly go away if you ignore them. School children are actually very kind and it’s unbelievably common.

Tics are very common at this age and generally go of their own accord. Avoid drawing to much attention to it.

DS had on off tics at primary age always towards the end of term when he was tired or run down. He’s in his teens now and hasn’t done it for a few years.