I brought my 4yo son Anthony (5/9/03) to a pedi neurologist yesterday hoping to find out exactly what is going on with him. We knew he had Sensory Integration issues already (sensory seeker). She confirmed that, and says that he has definitely neurological impairment, the root of everything is neurological... (SID, hypotonia, oral motor, apraxia etc). Anyway she thinks he may be having seizure activity and he's having an EEG on Wednesday. If it comes back abnormal, then she said he needs to come in right away, I think for meds. If the EEG is normal, then she said he still has neurological impairment, just that you can't see on the EEG.

He has tics, which the school OT thought was stimming due to his sensory issues. The neuro says it is not stimming but tics. He had LOTS of eye blinking for 8 months or so and then stopped for a month or two. The blinking came back last week, along with a vocal tic. He also does something with his lips too but not as often as the constant blinking/vocal. She did not bring up Tourette's so I assumed it was not suspected. But now I'm starting to think that even if he is having seizures, he may still have Tourette. I can't really find info on kids with epilepsy having vocal tics. From researching his motor AND vocal tics, it sure looks like Tourette's. So now I am thinking that she didn't bring up Tourette just because it hasn't been a year yet... will be a year in about September (that he's had the blinking) and that is when she said to go back (if the EEG is normal, if it's abnormal he goes back sooner).

From what I've read, the tics seems to pretty much be textbook Tourette's so far...? Any advice/thoughts???

Thanks so much!

Dawn

Hi Dawn,

Welcome !

Unfortunately, it does take time to sort this all out. Peds often don't diagnose TS in younger children.

Does anyone in your family or his dad's family have TS/tics? Can you think of anything which happened last fall to trigger these?

I think it's fine to bring up TS with the neurologist and see what she/he says. It's tough when there are multiple neuro symptoms to figure it all out as there is overlap.

Others may have thoughts and ideas.

Take care,
Tessa

Hi Tessa, thanks for the reply!

There is no TS in our families that we know of, but my mom comes from a very large family and there are many many cousins/aunts/uncles I do not know. I also don't know much about my hubby's family history either. Most of his grandparents all died when he was very young (all but one who died later, she had Dementia).

I do have one cousin with NF but doubt that's related to either seizures or TS.

All the best for the EEG on Wednesday! That'll be good to have out of the way and hopefully all will be just fine with the results.

Does the school OT think your son is on autism spectrum?

My son has TS and is also on Autism Spectrum. I have read in the past somewhere of vocal tics and seizures, but I'd have to go hunting for that info..

There are other conditions besides tics ... your message reminded me of something Dr. Freeman has written about on his blog about Stereotypic Movement Disorder which can be confused with tics and with stereotypies. He describes the movements quite well below. When the situation is complex, it's often necessary to rule out other conditions. Unfortunately that can take time.

http://www.tourette-confusion.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much, Lara.

The school OT said he does not come across as being on the spectrum because he has eye contact, but since he does have some possible symptoms (like only parallel play at school) I wanted him to be evaluated. That's actually why I brought him to the neurologist, my pediatrician recommended her so we could get to the bottom of what's going on, whether he was on teh spectrum or whatever it is, and he was right because it looks like that's who we needed to see.

Pleased to see you over here, Dawn

I dont know if you have had a chance to look at our useful websites sticky thread, but for a balanced overview of Tourette Syndrome, I find the site by Leslie Packer to be really good
http://www.tourettesyndrome.net

As I mentioned to you on the Epilepsy forum, so often kids get misdiagnosed so my very best advice to you is to take it one day at a time, and just keep educating yourself the way you are. Then hopefully you will be able to present your observations and info to a doctor who will have the experience and insight to give you a correct dx and effective treatment options

one thing is for sure...whatever the cause of what your child is experiencing, it is so good that you have found a support group here at NT

I tried to take some video, either by hiding the camera or pretending to play with the camera, telling him I was trying to fix it or something. If he thinks I'm taking pictures, he'll say "Cheese!" LOL

You can see blinking, lips/tongue, and when it's quiet enough (I have 3 kids in my house and a dog!) you can sometimes hear his vocal tic if you turn the speakers up. Here he is:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t=MVI_1274.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t=MVI_1277.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t=MVI_1278.flv

Any thoughts??

Dawn

eta: hmmm, thanks Lara... oops I see what you mean! Sorry! They should be fixed now, I think.

Hi there.
I'm just trying to get them to load now. I'm on dial-up unfortunately at the moment so it takes a while for me.

I fixed your links. You might like to edit your post to show the working links and then I can take them out of my post. That way you'll always have the ability to have them removed at a later date if you don't want them on the internet. Hope that makes sense. I've made these special urls. They won't work the way i've got them posted here but if you copy them into your post they'll work fine.

[done]

I haven't seen them all yet, but he's certainly got what appears to be a bit of an eye blinking tic happening there.

I was thinking about your Neuro not bringing up Tourette's at this time. There were a couple of children in my son's year 1 class who had transient tics. Transient motor tics are actually pretty common in preschool and elementary school children and they usually only last for a very short time and go away completely. I remember learning something about that when i was looking for info. about my son years ago. Had something to do with rapid brain development at that particular age. Tics are not uncommon for some children who are on autism spectrum either you know.

Having said all that, it sounds as if you have a good Neurologist and that she's being cautious and careful and thorough. Can't beat that! It's tricky getting it all sorted out sometimes when there are other things going on, e.g. the Sensory issues and other things.

I hope the EEG goes well. Not long to wait for that. You also have other children which as strange as it sounds probably can help you sort out a few things about your son especially if he's the youngest and you'll have already observed how the other children played and developed. At this point in time I'd wait to see how the EEG goes and then if you're worried about more than tics, then it'd be wise to look into evaluation for developmental disorders of childhood which might involve more than one person.

He looks as if he's a lovely, happy, little boy. It'll all get sorted out soon, Dawn. Hang in there and don't worry too much. You have a good doctor taking care of him by the sound of it too.

I just showed the videos to my friend and she pointed out that in teh middle video of him at the table, his eyes are rolling or something, when he opens his eyes sometimes they are in a different spot.... hmmm, wonder if that means anything?

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t=MVI_1277.flv