Tics:  A Success Story

Posted May 13, 2013 / 4:40 p.m.

It was around four years ago that we discovered our two older children had tics. We learned that our son had vocal tics and that our daughter had motor tics. 

At the onset of symptoms, my son began clearing his throat repeatedly; shortly thereafter he began to make a "hmm" sound incessantly.  It was perplexing to us, but we attributed the throat clearing to throat irritation from season allergies because it came on in the spring and eventually subsided for a time.  But it was my daughter's tics that were alarming -- facial grimacing, involuntary eye-squinting and doing strange motions with her fingers and hands. 

I knew something was terribly wrong but had no idea what it could be.  That's when my mother e-mailed me a link to a website about tic disorders.  I had never heard of the term "tics" before, except in relation to those repulsive insects associated with lyme disease.  As soon as I read some of the information, I knew my mother was onto something.  Soon thereafter, I spoke with the elementary school counselor who referred me to a practice in the Kansas City area, specializing in counseling families of children with Tourette's syndrome, Asperger syndrome and other spectrum disorders.  

When my husband and I met with the licensed counselor, he confirmed our kids were exhibiting tics but that they did not have Tourette's syndrome.  He said, as did Internet sources that for a diagnosis of Tourette's syndrome, a person must have both motor tics and at least one vocal tic, and the symptoms must be chronic (not just a waxing and waning thing).   Our daughter had only motor tics, and our son had only vocal tics.

So the good news was my children didn't have Tourette's syndrome.  The discouraging part was the counselor was telling us nothing could be done to alleviate tic symptoms, short of pharmaceutical drugs, which he didn't recommend unless the tics were severely impeding our children's ability to function in everyday life.  The counselor discredited any association between tic disorders and diet.

Unwilling to accept that my children would just have to live with the discomfort and embarrassment of tics, I continued my investigation,  while my mother located and ordered the book, Natural Treatments for Tics & Tourette's: A Patient and Family Guide.  KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and this book contains valuable insight from professional experts, patients and families throughout the global community on tics. 

From this book, I learned one commonality shared by many children afflicted with tics: allergies.  Milk and wheat topped the list of foods parents chose to eliminate based on allergists' recommendations, so that's where we started --eliminating dairy and wheat from our children's diet to see if any change in their tics resulted.

The results were almost too incredible to believe!  Right away, their tics markedly diminished -- the change was amazing!  It was clear that our children had food allergies, so we later decided to get a single blood test to determine the full extent of their allergies.  We consulted with an excellent naturopath from the Sastun Center of Integrative Health Care http://www.sastuncenter.com/ (located in Corporate Woods) in Overland Park, Kansas.  When we got the blood test results back, we learned that not only were our children allergic to dairy and wheat, they were also allergic to eggs, cane sugar and a host of other foods. 

Several years have passed since we first discovered our children's food allergies and how their tics were associated with consumption of these foods.  While they occasionally indulge in dairy, wheat and other items they are allergic to, we have to monitor their diet.  We can always tell when they've had too many foods off their diet because the tics return in full force -- that's when we back off those foods and strictly adhere to an allergen-free diet for a while.  It's a balancing act.

Since altering their diet, our children come down with colds and other illnesses much less frequently than before, and when they do, the duration and severity of the illnesses are much diminished.

So if your children or children you know are suffering from tics, I encourage trying an elimination diet to see if that makes any difference.  Remember eliminate only one food at a time; otherwise, you won't know which foods are associated with your child's tics. What do you have to lose?  It made all the difference in our children, and I hope it can do the same for yours.