Hi,
We have a 8 year old son who has 3 ticks.. 1 for over a year, 1 for 3 months and 1 for 1 month.. The first one was excessive blinking of the eye, which we know it exists but neither his teacher at school or his friends have noticed... I think he does it most when he is tired and since I know some of his friends do it as well I did not really worry about it too much.. About 3 months ago clearing the throat started.. His best friend used to do it as well, so I thought they are copying each other, it wasn't something like every 5 minutes, it would happen 4-5 times a day so I didn't worry about it. Now, since over a month ago he started stretching his neck.. I went to my paediatrician (whom I told about the other 2 habits) he said to wait for a year, to tell him to relax when I see him doing it etc.. I can say about month ago I would see him do it twice a day, now I can see so many times.. I observed if it is when he is stressed, anxious, tired... I can't say there are certain times he does it more than other times.. I have seen him doing the neck movement even when he is at the park playing with his friends.. Again no one has noticed it, friends, teachers, other moms.. But we, me, grandparents, father etc are a bit worried now.. We went to a pyhsicolog but it was a bad recommendation as it was not a child one, she asked us what the problem is while my son is in the room, which I dont agree with, so now I am in search of a child pysicolog.. All this is rather difficult as we live in France and trying to find doctors who speak a bit of English so us parents could communicate easily.. Our son speaks both languages fluently. The reasons why I took the route of going to a child physicolog is, (we had 2 other visits when he was younger in another country) is to find reasons.. He is a social boy who does well at school.. As my husband used to travel a lot due to work, and moving countries and 2 kids, I was not always the calm zen mother I wanted to be...I could say he was and is a anxious child.. He was a difficult baby, who was very difficult to put to sleep, still is.. Big mistake we co-slept so till last year he was still in our bed, this year he sleeps in his own bed but still always will wake up middle of the night.. I dont know him to have slept through a night without waking up once.. The 2 visits when he was younger was to try to learn how to deal with his tantrums, anger at times.... Which he only shows to us at home when he can't get his way.. He has a younger sister, we make a big big effort to treat both equal, but a day doesn't go by without them fighting.. So maybe I can get some answers, it may help him to talk about things and maybe all this may be lying reason for his tics... Should I be worried about his tics, who should I see? Which route to take to get help..