Help with a nephew with torrettes

Hi Julie

Firstly is your nephew ingesting known neurotoxins, such as fluoride, msg and aspartame? How much caffeine? And is he using conventional toiletries? He could be taking in a total chemical load which could be causing or contributing to biochemical chaos, so its worth checking that first and reducing the load his body has to deal with. High stress (including long term even low level chemical stress) has a negative effect on the adrenals, so its worth reducing all stress that you can immediately influence, such as chemical, electromagnetic, etc. If its something not already being done, you could work with the easy stuff first, where its just a change of brand rather than a complete diet change.

Nutritionally I would be looking at avoiding microwaved food, balancing blood sugar levels, checking digestive capability etc etc, ensuring sufficient protein, dependent on the circumstances specific supplements. Does he have a normal thirst? Does he have gut problems? Does he sweat normally?

I believe there are reasons why stress triggers such behaviours as you describe, (and a lot of others on the hyperactive and autistic spectrums) and why children appear to be able to cope with it better at some times than at others.

Its difficult to know what to suggest looking at first without more details of the history leading to this, and even then sometimes its best to think of it as peeling the layers off an onion..... it may take several layers before you see any results.

But those who say he does it for attention :confused: well there's no advantage to him, he's unhappy isn't he, so that doesn't wash. Its more likely to be a coping mechanism so that he can deal with the environment in which he finds himself at that particular moment in time. The more difficult the environment, (whether "out there" or his internal environment), the more dominant the coping mechanism.

Hi rustic
thank you for post i have saved it and will give it to my sister.
i agree with all of your comments and hope we can find a way for him to cope and lead a normal life, as i said to my sister "what actually is normal"
belss hih hes just such a lovely lad i hope that his piers dont knock that out of him.

thank you again

julie

:grouphug: Hello Julie,

Has your sister tryed the autism society, i know thats not what your nephew has but they hold an awful lot of information on different organisations that could hopefully help them.

take care

My son has TS and OCD - i got lots of support from the Tourettes Scotland group where Johnie Davidson - you may remember his documentary in the 80's called "John's Not mad"- chats from time to time.

The people on there are fantastic and you can ask whatever you want and get support.

Just want to send your Sister and her son a hug - i understand the pain of watching your child be so badly treated by the education system - i can also understand the damage that it causes the child - if life wasn't hard enough already for a TS suffer, the education system really do a fantastic job of really ruining a child's life. I have nothing but pure anger for the way my son was treated. The hard part is knowing how to repair that damage as well as coping with the difficulties posed by a child with TS - and OCD jsut makes everything 10 times worse.

Will try to find more time to come back to this later.

Anne

Firstly is your nephew ingesting known neurotoxins, such as fluoride, msg and aspartame? How much caffeine? And is he using conventional toiletries? He could be taking in a total chemical load which could be causing or contributing to biochemical chaos, so its worth checking that first and reducing the load his body has to deal with. High stress (including long term even low level chemical stress) has a negative effect on the adrenals, so its worth reducing all stress that you can immediately influence, such as chemical, electromagnetic, etc. If its something not already being done, you could work with the easy stuff first, where its just a change of brand rather than a complete diet change.

My son actually craves all of these things and is obsessive about spraying loads and loads of vile chemical filled deo - he is also obsessed with tooth paste and aspartame filled drinks.

He is 16 now and so my days of making sure that he was healthy seem to be over.

I will add - when a child has TS the body can not control the tics, it can supress them but they will happen at any time - usually in a situation that feel stressful - so when in school, the stress is caused by them trying not to tic - Children can be very cruel and some tics can just not be hidden.

My son would cover his tics in many different ways - he does not swear BUT he has had some awful facial tics, tics that affect his limbs, so his arm might fly up in the air - can you imaging the bullying that can come with this?

So, in an effort to conceal TS, many children will become the class clown and they are disciplined for this. No matter how many times you tell a teacher that your child behaves in a certain way and can not help it, unless someone is very understanding of TS, they would simply fail to understand why a TS child behaved in the way that they do. So, the whole school life of a child with TS can be miserable and probably the biggest cause of stress in their lives.

OCD can also cause major problems - my son is tactile sensitive SO, he can not touch anything dirty or greasy - nor can he stand certain fabrics against his skin - his school tie was a major issue for years and years.

Problem was, i didn't get the diagnosis of TS when i took my son aged 4 to the GP, i was fobbed off - i knew that he was different from being very young. he was treated for asthma for years and yars - he isn't asthmatic, it was a vocal tic.

When i stumbled on TS and OCD and took my son for treatment he was by this time suicidal.

By this time he had been placed in a remedial class - when tested for dyslexia - he isn't dyslexic but in my need to find out what was wrong with him, i considered that he could be - that this could be a reason for some of his problems - i was told that he tested in several test and his results showed that he scored almost 100% and that he was in the top 16% of children for intelligence - unfortunately his year 6 teacher had shattered any ounce of confidence that he had - she told me that he couldn't read - i'd taught him to read age 3. From then on, after this teacher destroyed him and i mean distroyed him it was a downwards spiral.

I have seen him het top grades some years in school with a particular teacher then fall right to the bottom grades the next year - in the end he gace up and my child who should have gained straight A's came out of school with nothing.

His damaged confidence now affects his whole life.

Us moving home and changing area also did lots of harm - his friends who accepted him for him were left behind and so joining a new school and having to find nw friends was also an issue - this also caused him to be suicidal - i have watched my child attempt suicide and it causes me so much pain.

My son loves to bake BUT he can't bake because it involves putting his hands in ingredients that he can't touch - every week he'd ask me to get the ingredients, every week he'd pack them ready for school, every week i'd find them left on the kitchen work top - each week he'd get into trouble and because he couldn't tell his teacher why and because he felt so angry at being told off because he couldn't help it, he would retaliate and rebel.

So, it has been a vicious circle. Now he won't try to apply for a job, his frustration turns to anger and no amount of understanding from me - well my understanding just seems to make it worse - it's like he has to admit that he is different - all he wants to be is normal.

His OCD causes other issues, his TS causes other issues - he will say what he thinking, he will do what he is thinking - he will do what he HAS to do - to others he appears so anti social - he has little control over the way that his brain and body works.

he had the most fantastic healthy diet when he was younger and the tics were at their worst back then - there were no chemicals in his life, he has learned to hold onto his tics and he will go to his room and tic away -

There are thousands of children with TS - i think i read that the figure could be as many as 1 in every 100 children - yet TS is misunderstood by so many.

The best was when i took him to see a new GP about a year ago and he said " he doesn't have TS, he hasn't tic'd once" FOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If even GP's don't understand TS, what chance do these Children have?

Anne

My son has TS and OCD - i got lots of support from the Tourettes Scotland group where Johnie Davidson - you may remember his documentary in the 80's called "John's Not mad"- chats from time to time.

The people on there are fantastic and you can ask whatever you want and get support.

This is a fantastic site, I recommend it too.

Anne, my son is 9 and was diagnosed with TS and Dyspraxia 2 years ago, I am shocked that there are so many GP's out there who are ignorant to any parent trying to get the best possible treatment for their child.

I strongly advise that you go to a different GP for a diagnosis, at least that way you can officially inform the teachers that he has a "learning difficulty" (I hate this label because I don't think Kai has any difficulties in his learning, just the teachers being unware!!!), and then he can get the support he needs....maybe it would do his school some good to go on a TS awareness course? 😉

Flower essences will help with the emotional well-being of these children.

Check out the Indigo Essences especially made for children.

I have tried all sorts over the years, essential oils, crystals, you name it i have tried it and it is not so much helping them, it is getting other's around them to understand.

The emotional damage has been done now and there is littel help for my son in that respect, the TS he now deals with, the OCD is more tricky but the real real issue is people's perception of him, the way they deal with him and the lack of respect that he has had for his needs.

Pixybell who diagnosed your son? I am trying to get him to go back now to see a different psychologist and if i can get him back i will ask for a diagnosis - i have been told that at the moment he is unemployable - i know this, i am just waiting for some idiot to break his confidence again by telling him so.

All his life he has been told that he is usless simply because people don't listen.

Thank you

anne

The emotional damage may have been done but that doesn't mean your son can't heal from it. Hence why I recommend flower essences, they work on confidence issues, on improving the way your son sees himself etc They work wonders on 'emotional health' and you have just dismissed it, or it appears that you have.

I have found that the more he works on himself and improves how he feels about himself, people's attitudes will change towards him. You can't change others, but you can heal yourself and work on those things that perhaps are holding you back, like saying positive affirmations, working on confidence etc

Flower essences flood the body with the opposite quality that we're lacking, so if it's a confidence issue, it will give you more confidence etc

All healing is self-healing. The book Louise Hay 'You can Heal your Life' is worth reading too.

The emotional damage may have been done but that doesn't mean your son can't heal from it. Hence why I recommend flower essences, they work on confidence issues, on improving the way your son sees himself etc

I hate to point this out but there is no scientific evidence to prove that flower remedies can control, cure or prevent any type of disease or illness. A review of flower remedies in 2002 looked at the published results of several randomised controll trials. These were trials of flower remedies for any medical condition. The researchers pulled all the information together to draw their conclusions. The review concluded that there was no evidence to show that flower remedies worked beyond having a placebo effect so you may be better off giving the individual a blank gel capsule with nothing in it.

I would continue to hassle medical professionals about this and get help that way as best you can. Don't be satisfied with the answer of "I will see him when he is 16"

There is documented clinical evidence that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy will work on the OCD and assist to alleviate the TS as well. The authority on OCD in the UK is a chap called Professor Salkovskis I suggest that you Google him and see if you can get a referral...

I hate to point this out but there is no scientific evidence to prove that flower remedies can control, cure or prevent any type of disease or illness. A review of flower remedies in 2002 looked at the published results of several randomised controll trials. These were trials of flower remedies for any medical condition. The researchers pulled all the information together to draw their conclusions. The review concluded that there was no evidence to show that flower remedies worked beyond having a placebo effect so you may be better off giving the individual a blank gel capsule with nothing in it.

Scientific evidence there may not be, but there is stacks of anecdotal evidence. Please don't be as naive as to think that only 'scientific' evidence is acceptable.

Also, as someone who works with essences on a daily basis and sees many animals healed and helped by them, quite clearly they are working. You can't use the 'placebo' on an animal, so I'm guessing that the trials you speak of were conducted on humans.

Essences have helped heal tooth infections (no drugs were necessary)
Rheumatoid arthritis
Bladder infections
Mites
They can get rids of fleas
Get rid of eye infections
Hyerthyroidism in a cat

etc, etc just a few examples of what they can do

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