Hi
over the 7 years since realising my son has Tourette Syndrome, we have also come to understand that, whereas genetic TS waxes and wanes characteristically and sometimes without any obvious indication of why....yet, there are certain things that, without fail, will trigger a waxing phase of tics for my son

a few years ago, Sheila Rogers at Latitudes/ACN did a survey on Tic Triggers which, although not a scientific study, yielded some very interesting results

I thought it may be interesting to open up a discussion here on this subject

here is a link to the article written by Ms Rogers
http://www.latitudes.org/articles/finding_triggers.htm

For my son, his biggest tic triggers are stress, illness, teeth issues, chemicals (chlorine, artificial air fresheners,pesticides,perfume, strong smelling household cleaners, fresh paint, new carpets=formaldehyde etc), artificial colouring(especially the reds), MSG, becoming overheated. He also reacts to artificial sweeteners(aspartame/Nutrasweet and sucralose/Splenda, and also to high fructose corn syrup. There are others that we have noticed too