Very concerned | Imamother

amother

Cobalt

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 8:42 pm

Dd, 5, is twitching with her eyes for few days. Spoke to dr who said to ignore it. I'm really concerned! In addition she's also complaining at night that everything hurts her. I tried talking to her but didn't seem to notice anything bothering her. How shoild I deal with this?!

ra_mom

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 8:43 pm

Did she recently have strep?

amother

Cobalt

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 8:45 pm

Not recently. I mentioned strep to dr and he dismissed it by saying it can be a cause but very unlikely. And he took throat culture that came back negative

ra_mom

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 8:48 pm

She needs a blood test to test her titer levels. The strep may not be coming up on the culture but it can be picked up via blood test.

amother

Dodgerblue

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 8:52 pm

Has she had any ticks or strange bites lately? Lyme disease can cause tics and whole body pain in children.

amother

Cobalt

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 9:00 pm

I don't think everything really hurts her cuz she's fine all day, it's only in bed that she starts complaining. I'm just concerned why she's complaining like that. Also why didn't the dr check any of this (posts above)? He dismissed it and didn't even give me a chance to tell him everything!

amother

Periwinkle

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 9:18 pm

Be persistent with your doctor. A mother knows best. Always better to be on the safe side.

goforit

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 9:19 pm

Tics and not being able to fall asleep are two signs of pandas. Go to a diffrent Dr. If you feel you where not heard out.

amother

Cobalt

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 9:33 pm

The funny thing is that she falls asleep pretty fast! she starts complaining a minute after she gets into bed

seeker

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 9:43 pm

I would rule out possible causes in case I'm wrong, but my guess is complaining a minute after going to bed and then falling asleep easily = looking for attention or stalling bedtime. I'm not too worried about that part.

The eye twitch, seems like it wouldn't hurt to rule out possible causes. I've heard it's pretty normal for kids to get this kind of thing and then it goes away, but the more attention you give it the less likely it is to disappear. But if there are blood tests for conditions that could cause it, that seems like a reasonable thing to try.

MinnieMa

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 10:08 pm

A child of mine went through a period of eye twitching.. Like blinking very strongly and very often. The child is an anxious type of child and we realized it might be related. Did your child go through anything traumatic or any changes where she might be a bit more anxious now. Sometimes eye twitching can be trouble seeing well maybe need glasses....

amother

Cobalt

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 10:17 pm

MinnieMa wrote:

Thanks you for your post. Can you tell me how you dealt with it? Was it recurring? How long did it last?

Leahh

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 11:12 pm

My child had this too. Pediatrician said to ignore it but asked if I should go to the eye dr. He said if it continues past a few weeks I should. But it really bothered me so a few days later we went to the eye dr. Eye dr said ignore it too. There was no underlying condition so we assumed it was probably something he saw at school.
Shortly after there was a long school break and within 2 or 3 days it completely stopped.
Can it be your child is imitating someone?

amother

Cobalt

Sun, Jul 05 2015, 11:44 pm

Leahh wrote:

Thanks for your insight. I'm starting to think it may be due to change of environment and hopefully will fade away with time. Hope to keep you posted with good news b'ezras Hashem

amother

Wine

Mon, Jul 06 2015, 2:28 am

goforit wrote:

Tics and not being able to fall asleep are two signs of pandas. Go to a diffrent Dr. If you feel you where not heard out.

They are also 2 signs of anxiety. Try and get her talking and see if something has been bothering her recently, without ever mentioning your having noticed the tics.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Jul 06 2015, 3:15 am

I get eye twitches when I'm under stress, and I find that I notice my aches and pains more at bedtime, because I'm not distracted by the demands of the day.

400mg of magnesium really does help calm the nerves and soothe sore muscles, and sometimes I double up on the does if I'm really feeing "twitchy".

You can buy magnesium in capsules, open them up, and sprinkle the powder in oatmeal, pudding, or whatever else words for your daughter.

mandksima

Mon, Jul 06 2015, 3:21 am

This just shows how easy it is to misdiagnose and how hard it is to correctly diagnose, even for a doctor.

I have been meaning to post this because it has been so eye-opening for me but haven't gotten around to it. Then I read this post and figured why not post here?

My 7 year old son has been acting weird since Pesach time. A bit childish and not listening much. He is an anxious child in general so it is hard to tell if it is school issues, friend issues, home issues or just anxiety. He always has had a bit of behavioral issues and is hyperactive so weird behavior isn't really abnormal. It was just that his behavior had gotten so much better over the previous half a year that this felt like a regression. Within a month into the weird behavior, I noticed a facial tic in his jaw. Then it hit me and I remembered last year with the same symptoms- he had had PANDAS and after 3 rounds of antibiotics, his weird behavior and facial tic went away and we attributed it to that. I was the one who diagnosed it last year and the doctor wasn't convinced but agreed to the antibiotics because strep kept coming up positive even though there was no pain or fever.

I couldn't believe I didn't see it coming with the weird behavior as it repeated itself exactly the same way only one year later but it is so easy to chalk it up to a new setting, a trauma, any reason for anxiety. So easy to misdiagnose and the facial tic doesn't come out right away so you forget to relate it at all. The doctor thought I was crazy for asking for a strep test but I insisted because I remember his sister had strep right before Pesach. That means he had it the whole time too and only now was he diagnosed. His second strep test that was done soon after he finished the antibiotics came back negative but I told the doctor no - he still has it but we can wait another week to retest as the recent med could give a false answer. Sure enough, next test was positive and he is on another round. The tic is still there but much less noticable. Tics take a few months to disappear altogether sometimes.

OP, I am not suggesting your son has strep and it developed into PANDAS. I just want to remind parents that doctors don't know your child like you do and only you can say how his behavior is. Even my son's teachers didn't feel his behavior was that off but I could tell. A tic could be a giveaway but there are other reasons for that too. I just don't let my doctor says he's fine when I know he is not. I did a LOT of internet research. PANDAS is not that well known and it is so hard to realize a strep infection started when there are no symptoms.

BTW, I also get eye twitches when under stress but a different facial tic would worry me more. Magnesium also helps me, I use the oil.

Ruchel

Mon, Jul 06 2015, 8:10 am

Can be tiredness, stress...
I don't know what is panda. My kids have had this over time, sometimes. That said if there are other tics or symptoms and you feel something is up, go for second, third... opinion.

Laiya

Mon, Jul 06 2015, 8:40 am

Some pediatricians advise taking a child to a pediatric ophthalmologist every year or so, just to check out. You may want to consider this if you haven't already, to rule out eye strain, focusing, eye muscle issues, etc. And I would think an ophthalmologist would be a good person to ask about eye tics or twitching issues.