Help Please

[Johnny123]

Hi there

Has anyone heard of eye rolling as a symtom of Celiac.

My 8 year old son has started rolling his eyes into his head for the past few weeks. He doesnt know he is doing it.

We are trying to rule out all possibilities so any help would be greatly appreciated. Celiac is in the family.

Thanks for reading

[Ursa Major]

Hi Johnny, eye rolling is a common tic with Tourette syndrome. You may want to see a pediatric neurologist.

Which of course doesn't mean that your son doesn't have celiac disease, especially if it runs in the family. I find that my tics are much worse when glutened. They aren't nearly as bad as before I started the gluten-free diet.

[Johnny123]

Hi Ursa

Thanks for that.

Yes we know that we are probably looking at Touretts, nad we have found very usefull and helpfull info on many sites.

We are trying to to dismiss all possibilities, to see what is triggering this.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

John

[GFBetsy]

Just wanted to throw in: if he doesn't know he's doing it, it is probably not OCD. With OCD, people know they are doing the tic-like behaviors, but feel that they must do them. Good luck with getting a diagnosis.

[Ursa Major]

Betsy, I don't quite agree on the OCD. I often have to blink my eyes (and I mean a lot). I KNOW I am doing it, but I can't stop. There are other tics I can suppress (even though they'll come out eventually if I do), but I have never been able to suppress the eye blinking and clearing my throat.

If somebody feels he HAS to count to a certain number in order to do something, or needs to check if all the windows and doors are locked several times before leaving the house, or absolutely needs to do a certain number of push-ups a day before he can go to bed at night (my husband does that, but thinks I am crazy for suggesting that is obsessive behaviour), then you're dealing with OCD.

Of course, sometimes it isn't possible to know the difference. And I don't always know the difference between my autistic stims or tics. Because those things all overlap.

[Gentleheart]

I don't want to get off the track here, but I'm interested in the eye blinking and throat clearing. At least 2 of my family members did that all through childhood. It dwindled down to occasional in adulthood and seems controllable. Is that tourette's? Never knew what it was. Does it have anything to do with celiac especially?

[tarnalberry]

I don't want to get off the track here, but I'm interested in the eye blinking and throat clearing. At least 2 of my family members did that all through childhood. It dwindled down to occasional in adulthood and seems controllable. Is that tourette's? Never knew what it was. Does it have anything to do with celiac especially?

Sometimes, those two are signs of allergy problems and/or asthma.

[lonewolf]

My 11 year old son has struggled with the eye rolling thing. Somewhere in the "Parents of kids..." section I started a thread about it, probably 8-9 months ago. Sorry I can't remember what it was called or how to find it.

Anyway, since he's gone gluten-free, it has gone away. One of the ways we can tell if he's been glutened is that his eyes start doing the rolling thing. He'd been doing it for several years and we all of the sudden realized that it had stopped one day.

[Johnny123]

My 11 year old son has struggled with the eye rolling thing. Somewhere in the "Parents of kids..." section I started a thread about it, probably 8-9 months ago. Sorry I can't remember what it was called or how to find it.

Anyway, since he's gone gluten-free, it has gone away. One of the ways we can tell if he's been glutened is that his eyes start doing the rolling thing. He'd been doing it for several years and we all of the sudden realized that it had stopped one day.

Lone wolf

When did you child dtart eye roling??

My son is 8 and started 3 weeks ago.

[GFBetsy]

Betsy, I don't quite agree on the OCD. I often have to blink my eyes (and I mean a lot). I KNOW I am doing it, but I can't stop. There are other tics I can suppress (even though they'll come out eventually if I do), but I have never been able to suppress the eye blinking and clearing my throat.

If somebody feels he HAS to count to a certain number in order to do something, or needs to check if all the windows and doors are locked several times before leaving the house, or absolutely needs to do a certain number of push-ups a day before he can go to bed at night (my husband does that, but thinks I am crazy for suggesting that is obsessive behaviour), then you're dealing with OCD.

Of course, sometimes it isn't possible to know the difference. And I don't always know the difference between my autistic stims or tics. Because those things all overlap.

Ursa -

I actually was trying to say the same thing . . . I guess I just wasn't clear enough about it. My point was that people with OCD are AWARE of their compulsions . . . but they feel impelled to do them anyway - even when they think they are odd or don't WANT to do them. Sometimes those compulsions are controllable for a while (sometimes people can put them off until they are alone, for example), sometimes they aren't controllable and must be done right away, no matter how embarrased the person gets by his or her own behavior.

Anyway, what I meant was: since he DOESN'T know he's rolling his eyes, it's probably not OCD because people with OCD are generally aware of their compulsive behaviors, whether they can control them or not.

Hope I wasn't confusing.

[lonewolf]

Lone wolf

When did you child dtart eye roling??

My son is 8 and started 3 weeks ago.

I think he started it at age 8 also. I'm sure it was in 3rd grade. At first we thought it was because of stress (we were in the process of adopting our youngest at the time). It was getting REALLY bad for a while. He would be somewhat aware, but not in control of it. We first started trying gluten-free about a year ago, but he wasn't cooperative. But that's when we noticed the eye rolling was better/worse depending on gluten intake. He's "bought in" to the idea of gluten-free now and is happy that the eye thing has stopped too.

[Johnny123]

I think he started it at age 8 also. I'm sure it was in 3rd grade. At first we thought it was because of stress (we were in the process of adopting our youngest at the time). It was getting REALLY bad for a while. He would be somewhat aware, but not in control of it. We first started trying gluten-free about a year ago, but he wasn't cooperative. But that's when we noticed the eye rolling was better/worse depending on gluten intake. He's "bought in" to the idea of gluten-free now and is happy that the eye thing has stopped too.

Thanks for that lonewolf.

Did you also get your son tested?