My 7 Year-old Son Beats His Chest

I would do the "wait and see" again...
My son is on the anxious side of normal as well. When I notice he is wound up I have him take deep breaths. Oxygen is such a wonderful Chemical ;)
I would not even entertain the thought of it being ADD or ADHD. If anything, maybe a mild obsessive compulsive tendency... Certainly nothing to be concerned about.

It sounds to me like it may be a compulsion of his. If so, he may have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or OCD. My 9yo niece was recently diagnosed with it. Apparently most children are not diagnosed until 9 or older because they hide most of their compulsions. You could have him evaluated by a therapist. Just an idea. My niece is also an anxious child- worries about a lot more than a child should.

you said it! "He is a somewhat anxious child and I wonder if these little physical tics are just ways he works through all of his little worries" sound about right! have you asked him about it? maybe it makes him feel strong or helps him when he feels insecure.

Hi Candance,

I am a private reading specialist and work with many different children with different issues...

My advice would be this, if you are concerned about the behavior you might check into psychological testing http://www.fortworthpsychology.com/
Dr. A is the psychologist I refer to. Often an MD cannot determine if the issue an issue something like OCD, ADD, anxiety etc. Sometimes when children are overly conscientious they also have trouble with anxiety and this can manifest in many ways.

Trust your parent gut - sometimes wait and see is not the best idea even though MDs commonly tell us to do this....

Good Luck
K.

Hi C..

When I read your story I was immediately reminded of a child that I had in one of my preschool classes about 10 years ago. (I taught preschool for over 20 years and am now retired)

He was displaying some of these tic-like behaviors that you are describing. His mom took him to the docotor and he was diagnosed with Tourettes syndrom.
I would take him back to the doctor and ask him about the possibilities of you child having a form of this disorder. Here is some info I pulled off the computer. Hope it helps and please let us know.

TOURETTE'S SYNDROME
INTRODUCTION

Over 100 years ago, the French physician Georges Gilles de la Tourette wrote an article in which he described nine individuals who, since childhood, had suffered from involuntary movements and sounds and compulsive rituals or behaviors. In his honor, this constellation of symptoms was named Gilles de la Tourette's Syndrome.

Today, we recognize that Tourette's is a spectrum disorder, with some people having a few tics and others having tics plus features of other conditions such as obsessions, compulsions, inattention, impulsivity, mood variability. On this site, you can learn about Tourette's and the other conditions that may accompany it as part of the spectrum.
Once thought to be a rare condition, Tourette's is a fairly common childhood-onset condition

Does anxiety run in your family or OCD-they tend to go hand in hand. If it does that might give you reason to the first comments, but I would also like to say(coming from a family like this) that diet and exericse can help in these situations. YOu would be surprised what out kids eat today and how that can impact their health and well being. Changing a child's diet and exercise can sometimes cure ADD and ADHD.

I would also address and issues at home and worries that could have occured there--you would be surprised what kids can pick up at home and how that affects them, especially when they are 7 and have such a younger sibling. When did all this start. Was it around your pregnancy? or the birth? I have an 8 year old that was 5 when is younger sister was born, he is a tremendous help and a wonderful child, but sometimes being so mature does take a toll on him. I hope you figure this out--Good Luck--

Try talking to a sensory integration therapist. They can help your son relieve his stress in other ways, teach him and you how to do so at home and on a regular basis. It was very helpful for us. My son always made a weird noise with his throat. I have numbers if you are interested.

Good luck - M.

I am raising my grandchildren. One of whom has ADHD. I suggest the CHADD website. It has a wealth of info. Consider having a complete evaluation. I suggest the Child Study Center in Fort Worth. The info from our evaluation has lead us to a little boy who now is doing great at home and at school.

Tics can be associated with ADD or ADHD, but they are not an accurate indicator. There's a nerve bundle in the sternum and it sounds like he's found a new sensation that he may associate with calming. Unless his tics get overly distracting or very disruptive to others, please don't stress him out even further by focusing on every little detail. Kids will do this at every phase of their development, but we're less likely to recognize it when they are small/toddling.

If you watch his behavior, you can catch him when he's doing it (but not making reference to it) and redirect to a less obvious soother. My mother often redirected me with pencil, paper and imagination :)

I know exactly what you are talking about here. My son is turning 12 in just a couple of weeks and he starting "tic"-ing when he was about 3.

He began by humming - I mean ALL the time - with every single exhale of breath. When I made him stop he learned to whistle and whistled constantly. After that we had finger snapping, compulsive throat clearing, clicking his tongue, and by the time he was in second grade he was making a noise that sounded like a growl. (This one troubled his teachers! LOL!)

Every time we broke one habit, a new one began. He finally invented silent tics - nostril flaring, jaw jutting, toe tapping, face making, and the list goes on.

Both our doctor and the school counselor believe he has ADD and his doctor said that his tics harmless and may even be a healthy coping mechanism that allows him to stay more focused. (She said that kids with ADD can be natural multitaskers and may actually have a need to multitask in order to stay focused.)

If I force my son to stop one tic, he'll just replace it with another one that might be much worse, so I learned that I could teach my son a new tic to replace disruptive ones - chewing gum, wiggling his ears, making the shapes of piano chords with his hands (he is now an "air piano" expert) etc.

Basically, in my opinion, if the tic isn't a sign of a serious disorder and it isn't disruptive, let him keep it.