Excessive Blinking and Eye Rolling Right

Hi, my 5 yr old girl does this. It drives me crazy. She says it just feels good and it "stretches" her eyes. When she was even younger, she would squeeze her eyes tight and blink excessively. We have just determined that it is dehydration (she doesn't drink a whole lot....that drives me crazy too!) and staring too long at her game system or my iphone. Kids (and adults) don't blink enough when playing games or staring at their phones. That plus being tired and a little lacking in liquid cause her to blink more and "stretch" her eyes. We took her to both doctors and she was fine. They dialated her eyes and everything. So, it is just a phase hopefully she'll grow out of and in the meantime I give her eyedrops. She can not stand the them though and they are a struggle. It gets so much better after I get them in her though. Blessings.

You have some good responses.... it could be a tic. My husband and both my son's have tourette's and they all blink the eyes... my oldest son also rolls the eyes. With tourettes if you make comments or when the child is stressed the blinking should happen more and subside if ignored. My youngest blinks incenstly (sp?) when watching tv. The doctor won't diagnose tourette's unless it's been going on for more then a year.

Hi, my sister, when she was about 17 was sitting in class one day and one eye went spontaneously blind, that lasted for a month or so, where the blind spot diminished but never fully went away. And then, even when she slept, her eyes would open, i cant remember if she would blink, but her eye or eyes, can't recall if one or both, rolled up and then shifted to the side, all spontaneously, without her knowledge. After extensively going to doctore, she eventually ended up at one of the top Dr.s/ surgeons affiliated with NYU optic surgery. Dr. kupersmith in ny. This was optic neuritis, it was something to do with lesions in the brain. by itself it was okay, but she had to be monitored for years to come, basically get MRIs to make sure the lesions werent multiplying, that's all. it does go away and honestly this sounds like its the same thing. you need an optic neurologist. check to see if it happens at night. good luck

I agree it could be an absence seizure or a tic. Chronic strep or PANDAS can cause tics. Sometimes virus or vaccination can cause seizures.

sounds like a small seizure.
My friend's daughter the same age was doing this , and hers started happening more and more.
It ended up that she had a double ear infection and a sinus infection and it had over loaded her little system.

My son had the same thing at 6...lasted for several months. We took him to the pedi and to the eye doc as well. We eventually took him to a neuro and did the EEG scan to rule out seizures. Turned out he was not having any seizures and diagnosed with a tic. Now one year later he has no symptoms at all. I was worried about Tourettes... but it seams to have dissappeared! Not sure what caused it... seemed to happen even more when he was worried about something or when we called attention to it. But, as I said, now one year later he has no symptoms.

It could be some sort of tic. I would go back to your pediatrician and voice your concerns only to rule out some spectrum of autism or tourettes. It most likely is just allergy or dry eyes as you said.

Hey- I notice that this was in 2011. Did this get better?

it might be a tic. my niece started doing this around 6 or 7 and the more my sister pointed it out, the more she would do it. after everyone stopped correcting her about it, she outgrew it. took about a year - during the time wight before she stopped - my nephew started doing it too..his stopped sooner though as no one commented on it.

maybe his eyes are super dry....try a humidifier also during these winter months. my eyes are super dry and i blink a lot and have to use drops during the winter months.

Hi, I just saw your post to Robyn and wanted to follow up directly with you. I didn't see your post last week. Here's what I said to Robyn:

Has he had strep ever? If he's not had an official diagnosis of strep, please get him tested - a blood test. There is a condition called P.A.N.D.A.S. that is like rheumatic fever, only instead of the strep anitbodies attacking the heart, it attacks the basal ganglia in the brain, which controls motor movement. Lots of kids wind up with tics that are misdiagnosed as Tourette's Syndrome, but clear up when they get put on antibiotics, specifically augmentin.

My daughter has this - and it started with eye blinking, then progressed to facial tics and leg and arm chorea and mild OCD. Visit pandasnetwork.org

Th information there may seem overwhelming and way more intense than what your son is exhibiting, but please get him checked out early. The key factor of PANDAS is that one day, and you'll remember it to the minute, these little eye blinks and mild tics suddenly explode into a constant and bigger version.

And be prepared that only a few doctors are either familiar with it at all, or have heard about it but dismiss it. Particularly neurologists who will claim it's Tourette's and there's nothing to do about it except give really harsh meds with worse side effects.

Please send me a message if I can help. There is a PANDAS Support group that meets in North Plano once a month. And the good news is that the couple of docs in Dallas are in the Plano/Far North Dallas area.

My daughter (6 1/2) IS DOING IT NOW AND DRIVING ME CRAZY'

Had a pediatric opthamologist check her out and he said she was fine and kids get tics, habits etc,

We also have foreced hot air (no humidity) and our skin is all dry. Could be Dry eyes?