[cbmstephanie]

Hello All:
I'm hoping someone has some experience with this. I have noticed that Maria has started to blink very hard. What I mean by hard...is that it's not a regular fast blink, but harder like when you close your eyes very tightly. When she does it she will do it several times in a row (six or seven hard blinks) (several times in a row) and then it won't happen again for a while, or at least I don't notice it. By a while it's usually a couple of days later that I notice her doing it again. I need to make an appointment to speak to someone about it...do I talk to our pediatrician or an eye doctor??

[carolynpep73]

My first thought would be take her to the ped since she's going to be more comfortable with them than an eye doc. It could be that she's having some difficulty focusing and maybe needs glasses. Do you notice her having any trouble seeing things like the TV or you when you're across the room? Is she rubbing her eyes too? It could be something as simple as her noticing that she has control over her eyelids Good luck!

[carolun]

my son did the same thing and scared me to death. I could tell it was more than a blink and that he was not doing it on purpose. He had a slight lazy eye so I took him to the eye doctor and just mentioned the "blinking" before I could finish he began to mimic Jacob's blinking and talking to the student in the room. It turns out Jacob was seeing double... the long blink helps them to refocus and get back to single vision. With time he got better and did not need a patch/ surgery/ or glasses to correct. He was about 11 months old when I first noticed. Other things to look for does she look down when she walks ( my son did this in an effort to keep his eyes from shifting focus from far to near) I would go to the eye doctor first I was amazed at what they were able to tell. Pm me if you have any more questions. I know its hard not to worry!!!

[carlyincali]

My girlfriend's daughter does this with her eyes. She also straightens her arms and makes a fist many times in a row. She has been referred to a pediatric neurologist and is being tested for touretts syndrome(sp?).

[lcikra00]

My son also does the same thing. He is 10. It started when he was 8. I took him to a neurologist because I was so scared that he had Tourettes, but he does not. It is a nervous tic. It is hereditary and the tic can, and usually does change form. My son actually started grunting and then it turned into the blinks. Often there are months when there are no tics. The neurologist said that this is something that typically subsides in the early twenties. My second son also has these nervous tics. His are verbal tics. He makes these weird sounds. AHHH! But it comes and goes and they are healthy normal boys. Definitely get it checked out, but if the neurologist tells you nervous tics, there is no need to worry. Hope that helps.

[luv2teach2]

I would start with the pediatrician who may refer you to a neurologist

[luv2teach2]

I would start with the pediatrician who may refer you to a neurologist

[mevertin]

My 3 year old Eddie started doing this about 4 or 5 weeks ago. I asked him several times if his eyes hurt and he said "no, fine mom." The other kids and even a few neighbors noticed it. When I saw your post I realized that I haven't seem him do it at all recently. He doesn't seem to have problems focusing or hold things close to his eyes so I just shrugged it off as a weird kid thing. If he starts to do it again I will check it out with our doctor. Now he's on to "What did you say mom?" It wouldn't hurt to have your doctor check her out. Good luck.
Mary
mom to Bobby 11, Bridget 10, Angela 8, Eddie 3 (home from Guatemala in 2005) and Naldo 15 months (home since Feb.)

[becky]

My son did it and we did an eye exam...mainly fine, but the doctor said it was likely that he was having a bit of an allergy and his eyes were dry...so he got some eye drops which we used for a few weeks and then it was all taken care of!

[mommytoEli]

i do this. it started a few years ago when my allergies got worse. my eyes are so freaking dry i can't stand it. sometimes i swear my eyelids will dry onto my eyeballs....and i don't always have eye drops handy...the only thing i have is blinking...i notice i do it harder and more often when i'm in a drier enviornment or a room with airconditioning on. my dr suggested putting a warm rag on my eyes several times a day....and it does offer some relief. i think you are doing the right thing by looking into seeing a ped and an eye dr...i'd actually go to both....as i do seem to remember some children in my classroom in the past that blinked often as they were trying to get things to come into focus.

[EZ2Luv]

I was just going to post what mommytoeli posted about irritated eyes and alergies. I use artifical tears or plain sterile water to cool my eyes down whenever I have this. Sometimes it feels like I have something in my eye so I keep blinking. Why not see is rinsing her eyes out will help this. Of course she should be brought to a doctor if it doesn't get any better cause she may have some vision problems and be trying to refocus in order to better.

EZ

[Mandy4President]

My son JUST started the same thing. He would blink really hard like he was trying to refocus and he would shake his head to the side. My FIL is a doctor and saw him doing it and said, "Well, I don't think he's having a seizure." Ummm, think?!?!? We knew it wasn't his eyes because he had just been in the week before. Well I cried and felt sorry for myself and then brought him into the peds. He said that it is a tick brought on by stress. If it is really bad apparently a neurologist can put the kids on meds. We have to see the neurologist yet (he has some other problems so they want to see him to be safe) but other than that they said that stress would probably make it worse and it may go away or it may come and go or it may turn into a different kind of tick. I would bring her to the peds just in case and to have it documented, but try to not worry until then.

I didn't read anyone elses answer to I hope that I didn't repeat.

[connorsmommy1999]

My son does that too..it's a tic but we all have mild tourettes
I do it too...because I have a problem with dry eyes.

I would personally not bother seeing the ped first...I would go to the optometrist first. There's a chance that it's a neurological thing - a 'tic' but in order to diagnose that they will want you to rule out an eye problem (needing glasses or allergies/dry eye issue) and the regular ped cant diagnose that.

I guess what I'm thinking is that either way you're going to want to make sure there isnt an eye problem so you're going to see the eye doc anyway...might as well start there because it might end there!

[cbmstephanie]

Thank you so much for all of your replies. I am going to make an appointment on Monday for the pediatrician and see what she has to say, if I'm not satisfied with her answer I will ask her to refer me. I'm not as worried as I was when I initially posted...of course I was thinking the worst!
Thanks again...I appreciate it!

[Tiggysgirl]

Okay, definitely this could be something serious, however, mine does this and it was something his fmom taught him. They call it "ojitos" I'm not sure of the spelling though. Does yours do it in response to something? Mine doesn't do it so often anymore unless we ask, but sometimes when he's playing with a toy he really likes or doing something he really likes he'll do it to no one in particular.

I hope it's nothing serious!