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When she is coughing, you may want to try to stick your ear on her back to listen to her breathing. My daughter's breathing sounds different when she is having problems with her asthma, and I can hear it when I do this. There is a strange sort of rattling or wheezing sound I can only hear when I put my ear directly on her back in different spots where her lungs are.
My daughter does well with breathing tests most of the time when she is not having attacks, so I am not sure if she would have been diagnosed with asthma if I hadn't brought her to the doctor's office when she was having a bad case of wheezing. My daughter's asthma is allergy induced, and it can be worse in some places than others. For example, she could be coughing at school, but when I pick her up and she gets some fresh air, she does better. Her school is old and probably has a lot of mold etc. that can trigger her attacks. She could have the same problem in a house with a dog etc.
When she is coughing, you may want to try to stick your ear on her back to listen to her breathing. My daughter's breathing sounds different when she is having problems with her asthma, and I can hear it when I do this. There is a strange sort of rattling or wheezing sound I can only hear when I put my ear directly on her back in different spots where her lungs are.
My daughter does well with breathing tests most of the time when she is not having attacks, so I am not sure if she would have been diagnosed with asthma if I hadn't brought her to the doctor's office when she was having a bad case of wheezing. My daughter's asthma is allergy induced, and it can be worse in some places than others. For example, she could be coughing at school, but when I pick her up and she gets some fresh air, she does better. Her school is old and probably has a lot of mold etc. that can trigger her attacks. She could have the same problem in a house with a dog etc.
Sounds just like my daughter. I'll take a listen to her breathing too. Maybe even use her Doc McStuffins equipment so she actually wouldn't mind it.
I will likely get her (re)tested for asthma too, based on everyone's suggestions.
She's at another play date as we speak. Mom tells me she's such a sweet kid.
I'd definitely get her retested for asthma. How did they test for it? I have asthma with the only noticeable symptom is a cough and they only diagnosed it after they finally decided to do peak flow monitoring for two weeks with a rescue inhaler.
My son has tics. Actually technically he has Tourettes, but you would never know that. In kindergarten he would have a coughing tic or occasionally a throat clearing tic but the pediatrician told us not to worry and they would go away.
Then right before his 7th birthday the tics exploded, the coughing turned into a loud growling noise and then suddenly he had a head jerk and a shoulder shrug. It was very odd and very very difficult for my husband and I but as I eventually realized, not that big a deal for our son or any of his friends.
So did start him on a very low dose of Tenex which stopped the tics almost completely, but he still tics but more like coughing or throat clearing once again. So here's my advice on tics now that I'm an expert
1. Most tics DO go away and my son's case is extreme, although up to half of children with technical Tourettes are never diagnosed.
2. No one notices the tics like you do. My sons kindergarten teacher never noticed the coughing and it was driving us batty.
3. All tics have triggers. Excitement and anxiety are the big ones for our son. Tiredness, strong odors, junk food and seasonal allergies are also triggers for him. We had our floors refinished and his tics went crazy.
4. Other kids mostly don't care about tics, the social question in your original post is valid but even when our son's tics were at an extreme the only issue I ever had was with other adults. Teach your daughter "it's a tic, lots of kids have them."
5. You get used to them. Really you do, my husband and I cried our hearts out when our son's tics were so bad he couldn't hold a pencil in class, but now that the medication is working his new smaller tics are just part of who he is.
6. Having a tic disorder isn't uncommon nor is it a sign of anything more serious. In fact some research shows that kids with Tourettes (which is only two tics one motor, one vocal, over a year period btw) are brighter than average, our son is has a very high IQ.
7. Best news of all, more than 80% of kids with tics consider themselves fully resolved by high school graduation. Most of the rest only have a small tic or two that continue into adulthood.
Ok, that's my tic talk please don't worry about your daughter's small tic, don't point it out, and don't prevent her from socializing, the other kids won't notice. So much of us coming to terms with our sons tics was realizing that most of the problem was with us and not with him.
Best of luck and feel free to message me if I can help.
^^^ I am glad things worked out so well for your son HML. In our case, although my son was not diagnosed with Tourettes ( he had no vocal tics), the arm and leg jerks were definitely noticed by the other kids. They would mimic him, and it got pretty bad. I will say the school was very supportive, and brought the worst offender and her parents in to make sure it stopped. Because of the teasing, we agreed to medication, and Tenex was one of the ones we tried. They all left him lethargic, and caused weight gain. After 6 months, and 30 pounds, I ended the meds. All this occurred between grades 3-4, and by the end of middle school, most of the tics had resolved. He still gets a facial tic if he's stressed.
I still wish I had never agreed to the medications, but both the pediatrician and the pediatric neurologist advised them.
My son has tics. Actually technically he has Tourettes, but you would never know that. In kindergarten he would have a coughing tic or occasionally a throat clearing tic but the pediatrician told us not to worry and they would go away.
Then right before his 7th birthday the tics exploded, the coughing turned into a loud growling noise and then suddenly he had a head jerk and a shoulder shrug. It was very odd and very very difficult for my husband and I but as I eventually realized, not that big a deal for our son or any of his friends.
So did start him on a very low dose of Tenex which stopped the tics almost completely, but he still tics but more like coughing or throat clearing once again. So here's my advice on tics now that I'm an expert
1. Most tics DO go away and my son's case is extreme, although up to half of children with technical Tourettes are never diagnosed.
2. No one notices the tics like you do. My sons kindergarten teacher never noticed the coughing and it was driving us batty.
3. All tics have triggers. Excitement and anxiety are the big ones for our son. Tiredness, strong odors, junk food and seasonal allergies are also triggers for him. We had our floors refinished and his tics went crazy.
4. Other kids mostly don't care about tics, the social question in your original post is valid but even when our son's tics were at an extreme the only issue I ever had was with other adults. Teach your daughter "it's a tic, lots of kids have them."
5. You get used to them. Really you do, my husband and I cried our hearts out when our son's tics were so bad he couldn't hold a pencil in class, but now that the medication is working his new smaller tics are just part of who he is.
6. Having a tic disorder isn't uncommon nor is it a sign of anything more serious. In fact some research shows that kids with Tourettes (which is only two tics one motor, one vocal, over a year period btw) are brighter than average, our son is has a very high IQ.
7. Best news of all, more than 80% of kids with tics consider themselves fully resolved by high school graduation. Most of the rest only have a small tic or two that continue into adulthood.
Ok, that's my tic talk please don't worry about your daughter's small tic, don't point it out, and don't prevent her from socializing, the other kids won't notice. So much of us coming to terms with our sons tics was realizing that most of the problem was with us and not with him.
Best of luck and feel free to message me if I can help.
This was very helpful, and gave me guidance as to what to do going forward.
I realize our daughter's only 5 (almost 6, actually), so maybe it's not the most appropriate comparison to your son, but some of the symptoms you mention make it sound like you're describing my daughter.
She came back from her play date yesterday and seemed to have a wonderful time; the hosting family has always been very, very good to us. I heard her coughing maybe a handful of times for the rest of the evening. On Sunday, we're hosting another girl, so I'll get to observe from a distance on what happens to her coughs when she's around friends and stimulated.
Tic? Asthma? Both? Something different? It's confusing. At the end of the day, though, she's otherwise happy and healthy and is doing well in school. I mean, three play dates in a week, plus a birthday party...I guess I need to focus more on the positives, right?
Last edited by stradivarius; 03-08-2014 at 03:00 AM..
Reason: added a line
^^^ I am glad things worked out so well for your son HML. In our case, although my son was not diagnosed with Tourettes ( he had no vocal tics), the arm and leg jerks were definitely noticed by the other kids. They would mimic him, and it got pretty bad. I will say the school was very supportive, and brought the worst offender and her parents in to make sure it stopped. Because of the teasing, we agreed to medication, and Tenex was one of the ones we tried. They all left him lethargic, and caused weight gain. After 6 months, and 30 pounds, I ended the meds. All this occurred between grades 3-4, and by the end of middle school, most of the tics had resolved. He still gets a facial tic if he's stressed.
I still wish I had never agreed to the medications, but both the pediatrician and the pediatric neurologist advised them.
I'm sorry to hear that Mattie. We have had no problems both with other kids or with a very low dose of Tenex (1mg) and our son is still as scrawny as ever.
One of my sons got tics when the school put him in the GT program. The GT teacher that year was horrible and racist and gave him a hard time. He started blinking his eyes constantly and stuttering. He begged to be taken out of the program and the school refused to put him back in regular class so I had to threaten to take it higher and had a meeting with them to explain that if GT doesn't benefit a child and actually harms a child, then he didn't need to be in that program. That teacher was there and I believe she may have been reprimanded, I consented to having him stay in but if and only if I didn't see some immediate change. He stopped complaining and his tics stopped.
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please don't worry about your daughter's small tic, don't point it out, and don't prevent her from socializing, the other kids won't notice. So much of us coming to terms with our sons tics was realizing that most of the problem was with us and not with him.
