Tics???

[nelson]

Ok, so I tried to post something about this in the toddler section, but didn't get many responses. DS is 21 months, and over the last couple of days he has developed a strange blinking/nose scrunching thing, that he has been doing repeatedly throughout the day at various times. I have since researched it online, and have come to the conclusion that it is a transient tic. I don't know much about them apart from what I have read, but have learned that they are typically brought on by stress and will come and go, although some get more severe with time. Does anyone have any experience with these that could suggest something other than going to a Dr. and having her tell us to "wait and see?" Is their a dietary change we can make? Also, I haven't figured out his "stressor" quite yet, although he does appear to be very clingy and more tantrumy lately... Thanks in advance.

[karika]

tics can be from so many things... vaccine damage, caffeine, PANDAS, yeast overload... my dd1 has a few. We recently went gluten free, casein free, and heading to soy free (mostly SF already). They have already eased up in this 8th week of the new diet. I was treating her for yeast too with GSE drops, but have realized biotin may be better for us. Haven't gotten around to buying it yet... in the gfcf group I am in, most say the tics can be helped by treating for yeast.

oh, and since it is the eyes, maybe it is a vision thing too? have you had his eyes checked? Can they check eyes this young?

[nelson]

Thanks for your reply karika. The yeast part is interesting because I think that I also have always had yeast issues, and the whole family was on antibiotics a couple of weeks ago unfortunately, and it seems very likely that DS could be having issues also. I don't know much about preventing or stopping yeast. Is there a simple diet that you could recommend? You also mentioned PANDAS, what is that? Sorry, feel sort of clueless at the moment as this is all new to me, and yes, we are going to get his eyes checked just in case.

[tanyalynn]

A simple place to start would be some nutritional supplements. Magnesium, a B-complex, ideally a fairly good brand w/o strange flavors or colors. I buy everything online, Thorne makes adult multivits in capsules that could be scaled down for kids. Perque makes a chewable multivit that my kids use. Search the forum for magnesium recs, there are multiple choices there and that's easier to find something good locally.

My son had stuttering start as the result of a (physical) stress, it did get better and worse with life stress, before our move it was really intense. Nutritional support was helpful for him to make it go away. Although the specific manifestation is different, my understanding is that they are broadly similar.

My DD's gut tends yeasty, it got better when we cut out her food intolerances (gluten and dairy for us) and then better still when we added in a good source of probiotics.

[karika]

to treat yeast, you can use biotin and gse. I am beginning to do the same with my daughter. This site explains a lot http://www.danasview.net/yeast.htm but for some reason I haven't been able to get through lately. Others have. I am on this group http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GFCFKids/ where the author of the above site is active and there are questions about yeast daily and tics. I don't know if you have to be a member to read the messages, but I am finding loads of help there. I was recommended 5 mg of country life biotin (hide it in drink or ice cream substitute) and I give 5 drops gse (grapefruit seed extract) in a shot glass of OJ with breakfast. Make sure you stir it and have them drink it immediately, because it is thick and settles to the bottom, then I refill the shot glass with just juice to make sure she gets it all. I am also treating myself, as I know form a ND visit that I have yeast issues too. I am pretty new to all this, so I was hoping others would come in and explain it better than I can. We also take a probiotic, but now that we are GFCFSFCF I am not so sure the stuff I got at the HFS is adequate, I am looking into others that have more strength and are GFCF... I have heard of Kirkman's so far. Like I said though, I am really new at all this too so not the best to show you more probably, perhaps bumping this up will gain it more attention., or come over to the yahoo group and read some there maybe... I will check back as I know more. GL to both of us on our journey to get our bodies back in balance...

[enfpintj]

did you find out about PANDAS? It is an autoimmune issue thought to be from strep which causes tics and ocd characteristics. google it.