Any experience with childhood tics? Desperate for help.

[njshep]

My 9 year old son has recently (within last month or so) begun constantly flicking his head back almost as though he needs get hair out his face. We first thought it became a bad habit after he had his hair longer throughout covid and he needed to do it to get it out of his face but now his hair is short and it continues. He does this several times within a span of 10 minutes and I feel like it has recently gotten worse.
We brought him into a dr who is going to run a neck X-ray but also suggested it might be a tic.
I am worried sick. He is a well adjusted, happy and super athletic child and the thought of him struggling with this is so upsetting. It really started to amplify when the kids here ( I live in Canada) had to roll back to remote learning in early April as the covid situation started becoming serious again.
Does anyone have any experience with childhood tics they can share? It is so prevalent right now I can’t see how this might disappear.
Very stressed and desperate as getting in to see anyone is such a long wait due to our covid situation.
Any help or insight would be appreciated.

It’s really common. Several kids in my class including myself had tics of varying severity. Mine involved twitching my nose because my glasses were falling down, then I would still do it even when I had no glasses on. It’s just a habit that usually goes away as the child gets older.

My son goes through phases where his tics get really noticeable. It definitely coincides with times that he is really anxious (like lockdown).

We are currently waiting for an appointment with the neuro team but it could be months yet.

My DS has had a few annoying tics over the years. There was one where he would kind of wipe his mouth with his hand constantly and leave a smear up the side of his face. There have been others as well. They have all just disappeared on their own.

Another one whose son started (pretty much exactly the same tic) at pretty much exactly the same age. It went away by itself after a few months. Other small tics followed (the eye rolling was the worst as teachers sometimes thought he was rolling his eyes at them), but all went away and he hasn’t had one for a couple of years now (now an early teen).
I was told they can get worse again in puberty but that hasn’t been the case for us, and that for the vast majority they’re gone by early adulthood.
The key thing is not to make a big deal of it. The child can’t help it and often doesn’t know they’re doing it. We did things like cutting hair a bit shorter during the hair flicking one as there was some small sigh that maybe a flick was triggered by hair falling on his face, but otherwise ignore and before you know it, it’ll be gone.

It’s quite common at a young age to have tics that come and go. My son is now 10 but a couple of years ago he rotated through a few tics. Licking the tips of his fingers was one. There was a noise one too - I’ve actually forgotten as they’ve all gone now. If the same tic lasts more than six months it may be worth talking to the doctor (or just talk to them anyway)

It's quite common (my gp said especially in boys). Both my boys had them one grew out of them by the time he was 11, I did notice they were worse when he was stressed /tired. The other one has them from time to time still aged 16 he has a diagnosis of autism so its probably part of that he was definitely at his worst pre teen.

Thank you NeedingCoffee for your response. Can I ask, was the head flicking quite frequent? My son does not seen to do it much if he is focussed on school, watching tv or otherwise sitting, but if he gets up to play - run, jump on the trampoline the head flicking starts up and comes in very quick intervals.
Very much hoping that this will pass but is is such a pronounced tic as opposed to a more subtle one (perhaps like blinking) that I wonder if that indicates it might be more serious?

Yes, very frequent, often in “sets” of 5 or 6 flicks, and very obvious to us, although bizarrely the other children never seemed to notice and neither had his teacher until I brought it up with her.
In our case it appeared before school end of year tests (May ish) and went away over the long summer break. We speculated it was triggered by a bit of stress, which fits with your experience re lockdown.
I think that unless your son develops multiple (complex) tics, including verbal ones, it’s considered very unlikely to be more serious than just a transient tic.

But I do so clearly remember being very anxious about it and having to consciously stop myself mentioning it / stopping him doing it so I sympathise. Obviously it’s important not to stress them out about the tic itself due to the stress/ anxiety link, but so, so hard as a parent just to pretend you don’t see it!

Thank you for this NeedingCoffee. This is very helpful to know that you went through what sounds to be a very similar situation. This covid situation and all of the changes to routine I am suspecting are at the root of this. Thank you again.