Posted by Natasha Pearson on April 1, 2004, at 14:18:54
In reply to Re: My baby has a tick, posted by McSweeney on October 7, 2002, at 18:47:02
My son has had exhibited muscle tensing since he was about six months old. At that time he would extend both arms out to the side and do a bear down sort of motion sometimes a hundred times a day sometimes once a day. It got worse when he was tired or stressed in any way. He had terrible acid reflux,and the ped. neurologist said then that it was probably due to the reflux. He outgrew the reflux when he was 11 months old. He still was doing the tensing movements.
Now he is 2 1/2 and the movements have changed. He now tensing and opens his mouth (facial grimacing), still tensing his entire body, jumps up and down all day long, and has starting sniffing between words sometimes (this last behavior is new and he does has a slight cold). He repeats things a lot and changes voice tone during these tensing movements, but no other vocal tics.I took him back to the same ped. neurologist at Duke Hospital. He called him a little professor without any of the social issues whatever that really means and called the movements motor stereotypes. He said that because he developed these movements so young, he doesn't think of Tourettes. He thinks he will outgrow these movements. He is extremely bright with a large vocabulary for his age and extremely social. However he can't control these movements and I worry about social implications. They seem to be getting worse. In preschool other people (kids and parents) ask why he opens his mouth like that...etc. Not mean really, but I can just feel that this will be a sense of emabarrassment for all of us. I also notice he has started suppressing these a little out in public, and doing them at home a lot more. Could this be Tourettes even though he started the tics so young? How should I handle them? I am an extremely loving mother, but they make me crazy. Can I help him control them in some way or teach him to replace the behaviors with other behaviors? Help!
poster:Natasha Pearson
thread:122505
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040329/msgs/331361.html