Does anyone have a LO with a tic disorder/tourettes or family history? My nephew on my husbands side has multiple tics such as eye blinking, shoulder shrugging, abdominal tensing, throat clearing and due to such was recently diagnosed with tourettes. I don't know much about tourettes so I started researching out of curiosity and now I'm worried about my son. He's only 2.5, but as of late I've noticed he'll randomly raise his right shoulder. I know this could be nothing, but reading about how tics start and could progress has me feeling anxious. Im so afraid this is his "first tic" and his tics will grow into something more, and I don't want him to get made fun of or have a difficult childhood. Tourettes is also associated with co-morbid conditions such as OCD, ADHD, and anxiety disorders so that makes me feel even worse. I wouldn't be as concerned, but these things have such a huge genetic component and it runs on my husbands side.
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I'm so sorry no one ever responded to this question and I'm happy to revive it and look for others' experiences.
My girl is 4.5 and has had a sporadic throat clearing since June 2020. it happened right when the first quarantine opened up and I took her to the dentist. I worried she was coughing the first time she was in public - at the dentist, no less! Its not a cough, but a throat clearing that happens off and on most days. She's going for blood work tomorrow to check for allergies. Has anyone else dealt with this?
As an aside, my friend's 9 year old was just diagnosed with tourette's, so now I'm really thinking about all this throat clearing could lead to.
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@agold: I recently read some posts about this on my local moms group. I think it most often was allergies/asthma and post nasal drip but there was one person where it was something different. I’ll see if I can find what it was.
I think developmentally there can be a lot of reasons for tics that will resolve, but I can understand the OP’s concerns with a genetic component. For example, my oldest had a very bad stutter from 2.5-4 (we treated it during that time) and she had some tics that are frequently associated with stuttering ... kids use them to try to force the words out and physically help them manage. When we treated the stutter, they went away, but it was absolutely concerning in the moment.
ETA found the thread, seems they’re quite common, most often allergies and/or stress and recommendation was to ignore vs calling attention to them and just wait it out
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@agold: my son had a few successive colds one winter when he was 3 or 4 and the throat clearing lasted about 6-8 months. His ped said it sometimes becomes habitual for them and to ignore it. He eventually stopped but it was super irritating!!!!
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@Portboston: thanks for your response! When I first took my girl last year in June to the ped about this throat clearing, the habitual tic was the initial thought. My daughter was routinely and overwhelmingly sick with colds, HFT, different random stuff between Nov 2019 and March 2020. So the habitual tic made sense. But its now been nearly a year and its still sporadic yet consistent. My husband took her to get blood drawn this morning to test for allergies, but the darn place was closed! Like, first time i've ever seen it closed. no luck getting appointments anytime soon and they accept walk in. Ugh. at least we all got donuts out of it! We will try again tomorrow.
@bhbee: thank you for looking! And yes, it does seem to be quite common. I just can believe this throat clearing is going on a year now. So, i will see about allergies as soon as we can get her tested. My husband is a person with allergies, so maybe my daughter is, too. I'll come back with whatever I learn in the next week or so. Thank you so much for sharing what you know!
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@agold: ooooooh yea a year is a bit lengthy for it to be habitual. And super annoying about the lab!!! Hopefully you can get some answers soon
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Small update - no apparent allergies. Her blood work came back normal. of course, the whole scope of possible allergies in the world was not tested. but the most common were. so, next step is a neurologist appointment to diagnose a tic disorder. Ugh.
Please tell me if any one has had a kid with a throat clearing that went on for a year + and then resolved on its own.
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@agold: I will say that lots of kids/people have random tics that come and go and never develop into anything else. My brother, even into his 20's, has had a blinking tic that I think happens when he is more stressed. But otherwise he doesn't have anything else like that. And it's not even very noticeable.
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I’m a bit hesitant to post this because I really don’t think this is what’s going on with your son. However, in some cases tics can be a symptom of PANDAS/PANS. Usually this will include or develop into other symptoms which could include bed wetting, severe anxiety, restricted eating, problems with handwriting, aggression, lots of emotional dysregulaton, and others. We went through this with our then 6 year old and were incredibly lucky to get him diagnosed and treated early. Most kids who end up this diagnosis take years before they receive proper treatment (often requires antibiotics). Again, I don’t think this is what is going on with your son based on the info you shared. But I feel like when ever someone mentions tics or another symptom I want to put this out there just as something to keep an eye on in case other stuff does pop up you’ll know to look into it.
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@Chuckles: thank you for sharing your experience. This does make me feel better because of course I can go from thinking about a mild throat clearing tic to full blow swear word yelling tourettes (which I have read is extremely rare).
@am110613: thank you for posting this because i'm sure this information will be helpful to many more people than just me. I did look into pandas when I was trying to figure out this tic, and it doesn't seem to fit my girl, who is so very chill, although a tad emotional but I just chalk that up to being a girl. Thank you so much though for keeping this on my radar as something to consider.
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Just a follow up. My daughter is now being treated for iron deficiency, which is highly suspected to be causing her throat clearing tic and and also what I considered growing pains in my little leggies. It was a pediatric neurologist who recognized this. I wish our pediatrician had included iron in the blood tests we did last year for this. So please, all of you, request your kids' iron be tested when blood is tested.
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