Tics?

[hazeyjane]

We saw ds's paed last week who said he though that ds's blinking and sniffing could be tics. He does tend to do it more when he is anxious, and has also started doing a headshaking thing, although this seems more conscious

Do children grow out of tics? Or do they often escalate?

I had many tics as a child.

At one point I used to make an intermittent 'um' noise.

I remember constantly nodding my head (in spates of three nods, pause, three nods, pause, etc)

And even twitching my nose (like I was on bewitched (anyone remember that) constantly!)

Each tic was just a phase and def anxiety related. I was an extremely anxious child.

It is only as an adult now (who takes anti depressant/anti anxiety meds since teens) that I no longer suffer from tics.

Would I still have tics if I weren't on meds? I don't know?

I agree with the above poster that sleep and stress management should help with tics.

xxx

My DS got a diagnosis of mild tourettes when he was 6. He got a diagnosis because he has had motor and vocal tics (vocal tics include throat clearing, sniffing) for two years or more.

He still might grow out of them. They are not cause by anxiety but are worse if he's tired.

As pp has said, his wax and wane, sometimes they are awful, especially the multiple tics which involve a sequence of movements, for example, jerking his head back, pulling his shoulders down, bringing his hands up.

He can feel trapped by them at times and has callouses on his thumbs where he rubs them repeatedly.

We were told to not encourage him to hold or change his tics because he can't control them (well he can try for short periods but it's exhausting).

I sometimes give him massages to relieve his neck and occasionally pain relief if he gets sore because of one of his tics.

Ds2 is 6 and has ASD has some shocking tics at the moment but we haven't pursued a diagnosis for him as there's too much else going on.

My dh had tics as a child and didn't out grow them but his are very mild and almost unnoticeable.

Dd has tics they change regularly atm she has a rubbing fingers one, patting her sides and a mouth one.
2 of my sisters and my mum still have eye twitches as adults. And my brother has Tourette's so it's not really a big thing in our family- hard to get a nice photo though!