View Single Post
Old 07-14-2007, 04:20 PM
Lara Lara is offline
Legendary
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 10,984
15 yr Member
Lara Lara is offline
Legendary
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 10,984
15 yr Member
Default

I forgot to mention a couple of other things. Aside from sorting out the Strep. connection right now for your daughter, it's also quite common for girls to have an increase in tics pre-puberty or around onset of puberty and that's certainly something that happened in my daughter's case (I have 2 children, grown now, who have been diagnosed with TS when younger).

Regarding tests for GABHS, it's also my impression that one single positive test is not enough to show a relationship between the tics and the strep.. Meaning that a large proportion of the population will at some time have a Strep test and it will be positive. It's such a common illness. The really important thing is that if there has been a positive culture already and there appears to be a relationship between the strep infections and the tics, then follow-up or longitudinal measurements of antistreptococcal or antinuclear antibody titers should be done over a period of time.

There is more here regarding PANDAS.
http://www.tourettesyndrome.net/pandas_overview.htm
Quote:
From a practical standpoint, parents whose children seem to show a temporal relationship between infections and symptom severity can also use that knowledge to plan for their child and to take preventive measures. It's one thing to caution your child not to go near a friend who's infectious or who might be infectious, but if you know that whenever your child has an infection, they pay for it dearly in terms of their tics or OCD symptoms, then your cautions -- and precautions -- need to be increased.
This is certainly something I did with my son who is the one who had the strep connection. If a child has a Strep throat or other Strep related condition e.g. impetigo, scarlet fever etc., then the school should be notified as they're contagious conditions. In the real world that unfortunately doesn't always happen, but I had a good rapport with the school nurse who would inform me when there were reported cases of Strep related illnesses in my son's classroom.

One last thing about Strep. throats. If one person in the family ever gets a Strep. throat then others are at risk. Also, throw out the child's toothbrush. It's simple and cheap to replace and in my opinion worth it.
Lara is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote