Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Do any of your kids have "tics" intermittently?

The initial research on PANDAS was on kids with sudden onset OCD, usually accompanied by tics. I'm fascinated that I have never heard it mentioned in relation to OCD on this board, usually ADHD, or in this case tics. Also the posters who have talked about have discussed treatment with anti biotics rather than the autoimmune suppression therapy that I believe the research was done with?

I am no help on the PANDAS... It was mentioned to me when I first noticed a tic and DS was also at the same time exhibiting uncharacteristic OCD-like behavior and expressed concern (just by a friend I was complaining to, who actually is an adult with OCD) but my DS has never had strep so I never looked into it. He's only had antibiotics once at 3 years old for the only ear infection he has ever had.

Tics are actually very common among boys. If they interfere with his life or go on for an extended amount of time I'd speak to the pediatrician.

I believe that these are called transient tics- they are common in young children. My son went through 2 periods of "throat clearing, humming, and winking." They went away completely, returned, then went away again. I understand that they are only worrisome when they are accompanied by a cascade of behavior issues.

I hope this helps- my ds 11 has had ticks on and off since he was six. The same ones you described, plus a few more, eventually they became verbal. Well it turns out he suffers from severe anxiety and has ocd. The ticks are not really ticks, they are actually ocd symptoms. Just something to look into.

My brother was diagnosed with Tourettes..growing up, I don't remember him doing any of the things that you associate with Tourettes..but I remember his hands would shake a lot, especially when he was writing..I remember specifically, my stepmom saying one night, I wonder why he shakes like that, maybe I should have him checked out... and then we found out he had Tourettes

Actually, this was part of reason behind DS's first eval. He became very anxious in a bad school environment (his disability was being completely ignored and he was actually being shamed for it - even though he had a 504 no one had read it) and he started displaying OCD, phobia about germs, and some sort of tic /ocd thing by which he was refusing/incapable of swallowing allegedly fearing that whatever "disgusting" thing that was around would go into his body, i.e., if people were sick and coughing he couldn't sallow his saliva, if he smelled something bad, was in a public bathroom, near a trashcan, etc. I did explicitly express concern about tourettes in that eval. He was diagnosed with anxiety disorder. That whole episode and behaviors is entirely behind us now - all those sort of fears behaviors melted away. The next thing was flicking his fingers. He would do that when he was nervous or trying really hard at something it seemed. Like, he was struggling with reading and he would flick his fingers while reading (at other times too but I noticed it a lot when reading). That has mostly disappeared. The next thing was shaking his hands when excited or nervous... like shaking them as if they hurt. (my little brother did this for years as a child shake his hands when excited and it reminded me of that). When asked why he does it - he says something like "it just makes my hands feel better." It seemed kind of sensory to me. Sometimes he bites his nails (I do that at times though). Now it's the throat noise.

Incidently or not, he's fatally allergic to peanuts... Like has come close to death with his throat closing up. I often felt that was basis to the inability to swallow. Even now he will not eat anything if some near him is eating peanuts/peanut butter. He will go hours with eating anything due to this underlying deep fear he will someone accidently ingest the poison.

Does he still have that dx? Was it an accurate one do you think? Or did it turn out to be something else? How is he presently?