My son's psychiatrist swears that he has a few patients whose tics disappeared or significantly reduced by eating/drinking 1tablespoon of coconut oil each day. If he doesn't like the taste of coconut, MCT coconut oil has less of a taste. My son got tics from medication and anxiety definitely exacerbates them. We are also decreasing his meds to see if they go away, but I understand that there is a risk of them being permanent. We have just started trying the MCT coconut oil, so it hasn't been long enough to see if it will really work, but I figure it can't hurt- it's healthy regardless. There is not too much data out on it- may be a reflectively new theory.

I don't know if coconut oil works on tics, but I do know it has natural anti-inflammatory properties. My son and I both use it as needed for arthritis. My son's tics have lessened with age. He had a lot of tics during elementary school, but I only see them (hard swallowing, hard blinks) on ocassion now that he is in high school, and he no longer licks his lips to the point that he has a large red, bleeding circle around his mouth.

My son had tics from the time he was little; we thought they were from allergies. He did have allergies, just not as bad as we thought lol! But when he was diagnosed with Asperger's at age 10, he was also diagnosed with Tourette's. Apparently, any facial tic combined with a vocal tic, which at that time consisted of him blinking and clearing his throat periodically or sniffing, qualifies as Tourette's. Any type of anxiety or excitement will increase the tics. So anything from the excitement of Christmas to the nervousness of starting a new school year will make the tics very noticeable. He never took any medicine for the tics except when he was about 13 and was starring in a play. Unfortunately, while he was on stage, his tics went crazy. So while he was in the play, he used a very low dose of Clonidine and then stopped it once the play was over. Many kids use a low dose of Clonidine on a regular basis to control their tics if they find them embarrassing. My son didn't find his tics bothered him sufficiently to take the medicine all the time.

Thanks JewelsMom, I've started doing reiki on him and it seems to help. Unfortunately I don't always have the time. He has less tics with his eyes recently.

Sometimes meds cause ticks. My son had them for a while but when we discontinued the med, they went away.