My son did throat clearing for some time. He usually complained of not being able to speak clearly so he had to do that; I thought it was true bacause he usually did it before he was about to speak. But suddenly this throat clearing stopped completely and now he is just taking these deep breaths which started with him upping his shoulders to take these breaths. Now I have the feeling that this throat clearing was a tic and that he switched to a new one. His tics have always been simple; he has never shown more that one tic at a time.
I will post about what his neurologist says.
My son also does the throat clearing "thing". He claimed he has phlem(spelling?). His doctor said it was a minor tic and not to worry. He takes concerta and guanfacine.
As long as it isn't a noticeable tic, we just ignore it. That is what the doctor said to do as well. What we receive from him taking concerta is worth ignoring the tic!
Beth
We finally found a medication that seems to be helping our son in all positives way - except 1. he has developed "head turning tics" about every 45 seconds. He spent a better half of last evening crying because he could not stop doing it. Is there something they can give him to help other than remove the current medication he is on? I have a call into his doctor just curious about others with similar situations.check into tenex (guanfacine)...there is a 7 page thread on it in the medication forum....wow - my son went to school today off medication as he is to be off for 3-4 days and 45 minutes into the school day, I get an email from his teacher and it wasn't a good one. Needless to say, i have a call into his doctor.You might look at the guanfacine alone to get behavior under control (reduce his school woes, reduce issues with peers at school, etc); and then start working on a low dose of stimulant. Just a thought, especially if the doc is reluctant to restart meds.Thank you all. I just heard back from the doctor and we are going to lower the dose to 25 milligrams as the doctor does not like using Tenex to counteract the tics. I kind of feel bad because we are almost taking a step backwards by lowering his dose. He was showing real progress on 30 milligrams. I don't think we are every going to get to his full potential. We've been at this for 3 years and still haven't gotten it right. I wish I just would of let his tics go and see if they would of went away on their own without interupting the current medication.My son has had simple tics without being on medication, so we started treating him first with Strattera and it didn't work. The doctof recently and very cautiously put him on Concerta. I am a little scared bout the tics issue. I have noticed very mild movements, and I don't really know if they are tics. I just wonder how long did you have him on the med before he started showing the tic you mentioned?
I know there are other meds that can help in coping with the tics issue, guanfacine is one of them like some posters say. Clonidine is another one.
I wish you luck. I understand how hard it is to find the right med, moreover, when there are tics around...
Thanks for the responses about Tenex. When I call the doctor back on Monday to get him back on med's I am going to ask him if we can try this while keeping him on the Adderral XR. Now i'm wondering if I jumped too soon or if I really did what was best by contacting the doctor. The teachers at school were starting to point it out and he was really starting to notice it. I hate when I second guest myself. Especially because this medication had great potention.
I have a sister who has Tourette Syndrome, so i guess that's maybe why I acted so soon after they started to develop (1 weeks). I guess I was kind of hoping the doctor would say give it a few more days or another week or so.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that someday, just maybe someday, we will find the right medication for him.
Mariaven - hi, thanks for the post. He had been on the Adderral XR 30 for about 45 days. He developed tics about 1 week ago of the head. He had developed throat tics early on that seemed to disapper after a while. His head turning tics althought are very severe. A head turn about every 45 seconds (especially when reading, writing, playing gameboy etc). However, of course because I called the doctor, tonight I didn't notice it as much, but he still did it in school all day.My son's tics happen to be inherited. My husband and father in law have tics. However, my son's neuroped, told me that my ds didn't fill the criteria to have Tourettes but that we had to be careful if we decided to use stimulants; which at the end we did. Let's just hope that tics don't complicate this treatment because he has been doing great in regard to adhd symptoms. The doc told me that if tics appear and they are mild, it wouldn't really matter; the problem comes when the tics bother the kid, like i see is your situation right now...
I really wish you the best. Keep us posted.
Mariaven39183.8358564815I agree with chasemom on discussing a lower stim with guanfacine. Also, the tics may settle down once he is used to the meds and is doing well. Tics can be worse with stress.vickie39183.8114814815Ask him if you can augment the med that is working with tenex...this med is often given to counteract tics.....and sometimes with this med as an augment, a lower dose of stim can be used with the same result as a higher dose previously....it may be worth a try?Well just heard back from the doctor. he is taking him off all medication for the next 3-4 days to see if the tics stop. then we'll do another medication. just when we found one that seemed to work. we've been dealing with medication for 3 years and just can't find anything that really works until now and now this happens.I am so happy to know i am not alone. My son is ADHD and has been on medication for 2 1/2 yrs and has done very well. But about a year ago i noticed him rolling his eyes and turning his head. I first thought his eyes were dry and itchy. The movements increased and i finally mentioned it to the doctor and he said it sounded like a motor tic. He said this could be a side effect of the Concerta, so we stopped it for a week. His school work was hurting and the tics didn't improve. So we started back on meds. He since developed a throat clearing tic too. We are going to a behavioral specialist because he also has increased anxiety. I guess maybe all these things go hand in hand? It is frustrating to all of us.
Any way like i said i'm glad i am not alone and i hope to get some advise and support from this.
[QUOTE=tigergirl]I We are going to a behavioral specialist because he also has increased anxiety. I guess maybe all these things go hand in hand? It is frustrating to all of us.
[/QUOTE]
The anxiety part calls my attention. My ds has been taking deep breaths quite frequently lately; I even started thinking that this was a kind of weird tic, since my ds has had simple tics even without medication. I took him to his ped for a routine check up last week, and mentioned the "taking deep breaths issue"; he told me that he did not think it was a tic, instead, he said that it can possibly be anxiety., and possibly linked to the med. But he has been doing very well with Concerta in regard to school work... Anyway, I will mention this to his neurologist on his next appointment at the end of this month.
Mariaven39188.8312037037I would be courious to know what he says. My doctor called a neurologist about his tics being related to strep throat. We also recently found out that my son is a strep carrier and some docs say that something called "Pandas" (which a think is a tic disorder) may be linked to strep/rhumatic fever. The neurologist dosen't believe those two are related.? It is however interesting to me.