My son is 7 years old. About a year ago he started doing this weird throat clearing/grunting sound, all the time! We took him to the doctor thinking, at the time that he had post nasal drip or something causing him to need to clear his throat. The doctor said there was no sign that that was the case but suggested we try an antihistamine for a few days. This went on for weeks. His daycare and school teachers commented on it. Other kids commented on it at school and daycare, asking why he was doing it. He would make the sound in the middle of words, many times a minute, all day long.
That did eventually stop and we almost forgot about it. But then he would do other 'weird' things. He would click his tongue all the time, hum, do weird things with his hands. We attributed it to anxiety.
In November he started doing this shake that started like a shiver, in his shoulders/neck, but became more - sometimes he bends at the waist, his whole body tense, and shakes. And 2 weeks ago, on top of that shaking, he has started making an 'eeeeeee' sound all the time. We've asked him about both. He says he can't stop the noise - it just comes out. And the 'shiver'/shake he says he wants to stop but he just can't...
He has other issues that have concerned us for years that have been brushed off by the doctor - he doesn't sleep well. I don't think he's ever slept through the night. It takes hours for him to fall asleep at night. He has night terrors, sleepwalks, talks in his sleep... He has horrible anxiety, which we're seeing someone about. He also has traits that I think fall into the OCD category - obsessive worrying that he's going to die, that I (Mommy) am going to die... (I have OCD and I see myself as a kid in him!).
Lately we've had people asking if he has Tourette Syndrome which never even entered our radar! But the people asking are social workers and psychologists who he is seeing for his anxiety... So while they're not people who are able to diagnose it, they are people who work with others with TS.
Does this sound like a case of Tourette Syndrome? I know I had tics as a child - I used to clear my throat all the time, and shake my head... and now as an adult I do a little facial twitch that is sort of like moving my glasses up on my cheek (only I do it even when I'm not wearing glasses). My mother also has minor tics. This leads me to believe it's an inherited condition, whatever he has... but does it sound like TS?