On October 24, my five year old daughter suddenly started hunching her shoulders repeatedly (like five times in a row, every 5-60 seconds). When she is involved in an activity or thought, she doesn't do it. Then a couple of days later she started jerking her head back. A few days after that she started contracting her butt muscles and causing her leg to jerk.
We took blood this morning to check for low potassium levels or elevated muscle enzymes and we have an EEG scheduled for November 12. But, I'm wondering if anyone else has experience with something similar.
I wanted to share what has happened with my 5 year old with muscle twitches for those who shared that they or their child had similar symptoms.
The EEG was normal. Blood work normal. But after seeing the chiropractor, she is doing MUCH better. The twitches are not nearly as strong or frequent. In fact over thanksgiving several relatives who hadn't known about it didn't even notice. So, is it time or the chiropractor? I don't care :) We're sticking with Dr. Brackeen (chiropractor) for now.
I HIGHLY recommend getting kids adjusted by chiropractors on a regular basis. I take my almost 5 month old all the time and it's worked wonders for us!
My 7 yr old son is diagnosed adhd and anxiety. For the past couple years he was blinking his eyes constantly and I thought he was just copying someone in school . Now they are getting really bad he would open his mouth really big all the time, blink his eyes, twitch his neck,and when I sit next to him I feel his hole body get tense n then loosen up . I told his doctor n she said to try him on meds so we are trying something like ten ex. It is helping a little with the tics but they are still there. I feel so bad for my son. Anyone else going threw this please let me no what I should do next. Ty
I had to learn to control them growing up. Then my son started doing it....not quite as severe as your describing but enough to be noticeable. I took him to a chiropractor. His spinal alignment was way off. Think back to any possible time your daughter could have wrenched her body falling or hitting her head etc. He stopped doing it after he had an adjustment. Potassium , magnesium or even calcium deficiencies can be a factor. Good luck.
My son did the same thing when he was 3 days old, the doctors could not explain it! It started getting so violent that I thought it might be seizures. He quit nursing as well. I went in to see my chiropractor to get an adjustment and told him about it and he told me to bring my son to him right away. I took him and Dr. Clarke adjusted him and it stopped immediatly!! He began nursing again and stopped screaming! From then on we could tell whenever he needed an adjustment b/c he would start the tics again, but now, they are completely gone and he is a very healthy and active little 2 year old! :o)
Please go and see him, it could change her life for the better without doing anything difficult, expensive or painful.
Dr. Clarke
13849 S. Mur-Len Rd. Ste. E
Olathe, KS 66062
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my daughter had "tics" that gradually turned into different ones for the past year or two (furrowing brow repeatedly, fluttering fingers, then bending thumbs while looking at them). it was very disturbing to me, but like others here have said, her pediatrician said it will probably go away on it's own and to not draw attention to it. Sure enough, he was right.
another factor may have been genetics. my husband said he had tics at a young age but those too went away on their own.
M.,
Have a neurologist evaluate him. My son has tics as well and from an early age. Our neurologist diagnosed him with what is called a habitual spasm. It is a disorder of the central nervous system. There is no cognitive impairment. The good news is that the behaviors change over time and evolve into less conspicuous mannerisms. Our Dr. said when he is older it may be as simple as tapping his foot or rocking back and forth. For my son it tends to become more pronounced when he is tired or over excited. There is no medication that will help but if the behaviors are distracting you could try behavior modification therapy. We just made it a point to mention to him when he was doing the behavior and ask him to stop. This has helped and his tic has evolved into a less noticable behavior.
By the way my son is 8 years old and happy, healthy and well adjusted in school!
I don't have any advice, M. - but I'm so sorry your sweet little girl is going through this. - P.
My son (who is 7) started doing similar things about six to 9 months ago. I was really nervous and scared. Our doctor said that it is quite common and usually goes away - very rarely turns into something chronic like tourettes. This turned out to be true because I haven't seen my son have any muscle tics in a few months.
We did think it might have been due to stress - as we have a new baby (one year old now) and my husband and I were arguing quite a lot during that time. We were conscious about keeping things more calm and upbeat for him, which may have helped somewhat.
Hi M., My son also has what has been diagnosed as "Motor Tic Disorder". It sounds like what your daughter is experiencing. Dru's started around 1st or 2nd grade. I just thought he saw some kid at school do it, and he started doing it. Well after talking with the school nurse who i knew very well, she told me she thought it was some type of Tic's. After taking him to a few Neurologists, he confirmed that it is a Tic Disorder. It's a form of Tourettes syndrome. Don't get too freaked out if that is what is it. IT can be very mild at time. If that is the case, feel free to contact me. I can tell you a TON of stuff about it. Dru is on Medication now which does help. Again let me know if you have questions regarding my thoughts on this. If you need a name of a few good Neurologist, let me know.
Thanks!!!
L.
My best friend's son has ticks and was diagnosed with terets (sp?). It is mild, but he does get the spasm ticks. Usually when he is under stress this happens. A nuerological test will determine this. Good luck and God Bless.
I have a friend who had similar tics and it was later diagnosed as Tourette's (sp?). I hope this isn't what your daughter has. It does tend to run in families, though. Has anyone else in your family or your husband's had this?
M.,
My son has also experienced different tics over the years. I too discussed it with his pediatrician, and because he was developmentally normal, and they always went away on their own, he wasn't concerned. He said not to make an issue of it too him, or it could make it worse. He had no control or knowledge of what he was doing most of the time. If your doctor doesn't find anything wrong with him, your job is to just be patient during the phases of the tics. Although they can be quite annoying to us, we only make it worse to criticize them. Our doctor said to call him if the tics ever got to be so bad, that my son came to me saying he couldn't stop it, and that it bothered him. It never came to that. I wish you luck.
Thank you for the responses. We did try a chiropractor and it seemed to help a little. About 7 months after I posted this, she was diagnosed with OCD, anxiety disorder and tic disorder. She started therapy and still saw the chiropractor occassionally. She is no seeing a psychiatrist and is on medication. Not for the tics but for the ocd and anxiety. She says that her foot sometimes twitches but that's about it for now.
