A child with 'Benign Fasciculation Syndrome'

Liam is a four-year-old boy who was first seen in October 2009.

Early in May of 09 when he was two-and-a-half, he started having trembling episodes during the night. By September he started having tics, various involuntary body movements and shudders during the day and often more severe episodes during the night, when he would complain about being uncomfortable and unable to sleep. The mother thinks the symptoms came on after a virus. She has started to give him magnesium which helps somewhat.

He has seen a pediatrician and a neurologist who odered an EEG in August which came back normal. The neurologist told the family it was genetic and there was nothing they could do about it.

Mother's history during pregnancy

In cases like this it is important to look carefully at the mother's history during pregnancy as well as the child's health history. In this case the mother experienced a number of stressful events during her pregnancy. At the beginning of the pregnancy the mother was involved in an issue with ICBC involving meetings with lawyers due to a minor fender bender, which the other person blew out of proportion. It caused her a lot of stress and anxiety.

"I didn't think I was to blame for it. There was a third vehicle who was to blame. I had to keep all these facts in my head for a few months until the case went to court."

"I had this feeling in my gut, it sat like a ball in my gut, like a physical golf ball. I'd feel angry at the other driver and felt the whole situation was so unfair. Also, I've always been afraid of public speaking and I knew I would have to give evidence in front of people. I was very scared of that."

"I'm very sensitive to unfairness."

"I will blush if I have to speak, even with familiar people. I wish I could be invisible."

Around the same time the family was told that their property in Vancouver was going to be expropriated in order for the Translink system to build a tunnel. The had to find a new home and move during the pregnancy. 

At the six month ultrasound appointment the baby's kidneys were shown to be 5 mm above normal in size. Towards the end of the pregnancy they showed normal.

When eight months pregnant the mother was walking the family dog around a lake and the dog ended up chasing a bear while out in the woods. 

"I freaked out and had a little asthma attack. I had asthma as a child."

Liam had a fast heart beat which and noticable hiccoughs in the womb which was cause for some concern for the midwives.   

He gets hot after falling asleep. As a baby he would wake up crying with a red hot face.

Sometimes his ears get red after falling asleep.

He wheezes a bit if he runs around fast outside in the cold.

Even before the onset of this syndrome he had sleep twitches. He woke frequently as a baby, five to six times a night; after he turned one he started to wake 12 times a night.

Somtimes an affected muscle will be throbbing, as if there is a heart beat in it. He may also grimace and stick out his tongue involuntarily.

The mother has noticed that his tics are worse when he is excited or nervous, for example when the preschool class went to visit the firehall he had a lot of trembling and body shakes. The same thing happend when the family went to see a marathon event.

His eyelids become red at the rims.

Personality: He has always been a good-natured boy. No tantrums or misbehaviour. He was very comfortable in my office from the beginning and likes to explore the toys and play ball with me.

He will tremble with fear and wants to be held. He often laughs in his sleep.

Plan: Agaricus, 6 CH, 2 pellets twice a day. Agaricus, a homeoapthic preparation of fly agaric, a mushroom, is one of the top remedies used for twitches and tic as well as involuntary movements, also known as chorea.

The day after starting the remedy Liam woke up from a nap and started shouting at the mother and telling her loudly about his father and cousin. Then he started whispering and moving very quickly and then he wanted to be held. The next day he was a bit naughty and teased the dog which was unusual. He was talking a lot and overall was much more expressive.

Follow-up in December

Overall there is some improvement with the frequency and intensity of the tics. I also learned that the mother vomited and choked and went into a full panic after overeating at a wedding when she was five-six months pregnant. The mother is quite anxious and always brings a big list detailing all of the tics and movements Liam has had over the past month.

On December 2 I had given him Agaricus 200 CH. After this dose Liam broke out in full body hives, had diarrhea and was itchy from the trunk to the neck, then became flaccid and limp. The parents took him to the emergency unit, but everything settled down after about five hours. The doctor there said that he never seen a rash like that. By the next day his stool firmed up again.

This kind of reaction can happen after a remedy and is usually considered to be a good sign. Then he took another dose of Agaricus and had a 'massive' bowel movent, 3' long, even after all the diarrhea!!

Four weks later the nights are better overall but he will still grasp onto the mother. Overall he is more clingy than before. The father's mother died of lymphatic cancer. Liam really likes fruit. The mother tells me that his tics and twitches are always worse after he has been out on a windy day.

I decided to change the remedy after reconsidering all the stressed the mother has had as well as Liam's reactions to wind to Aconite.

Liam has now been on increasing infrequent doses of Aconite for the past 18 months and his tics and twitches have improved about 85%. Whenever he receives a dose of the remedy he has a small initial aggravation with a worsening of the tics, then a lasting improvement.

Aconite is a well-known remedy for all kinds of fright and shock in homeopathy. It also is often indicated if a condition comes on after exposure to wind or other exposure.

Anytime that a violent or frightening event occurs, including seeing a bear, an earth quake, a car accident and similar, one should think of aconite. It can also release a shock or fright which has been held in the body for decades, or which may have been passed on during pregnancy as possibly in this case.

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