hermom and Lara,
Thanks for all that good info. I just wanted to add also, as I mentioned, my son once had an exacerbation of eye blink and roll last year when coincidentally he said he had a sore throat and when we saw the doctor he said strep throat and gave amoxy. The tics and his very hyper behavior decreased dramatically within two days on it. He had since been tested for the antibody titers twice about six months apart and both came back negative. So I'm just mentioning this because even though definitive Pandas connection may not be obvious, I wonder if something infection related in the body still has a great effect on tics and OCD (if a person is prone to that). I still think you have to get to the root of what causes the symptoms and that seems to be a compromised immune system. So possibly strengthening that will make the body less vulnerable to such infections and thus the tics at those times.

Now, one other thing, my son does not frequently get the strep (hardly ever) so it harder to watch for the connection. The test seems to show no, so what else to do, you know? If a child gets that sort of thing frequently, and you see the symptoms rise, well, then you have to be the detective and go from there. But just the same, I say it is still necessary to strenghten and balance the body, that seems to be something that helps many.

Faith