Child sensitive to light when first waking up

[Mashandcarrots]

My 6 year old DS is very sensitive to light when he first wakes up.
Example this morning he went from his dark bedroom, straight downstairs and put the big light on, he then said his eyes were hurting and couldn’t open them properly, it took a few minutes but his eyes eventually adjusted.

Is this normal? He’s always struggled with bright sunlight too. Hiding his eyes in the car during the summer if we didn’t have sunglasses for him.

Yes, normal. Don't you feel the same eg. if you go to the loo in the night and put the light on and your eyes take a few seconds to adjust?

You can get alarm clocks with gradually increasing lights to help with this. It's totally normal, and is particularly pronounced in the winter months when we're waking up in darkness.

Hi OP, as a mum to a visually impaired child, I would say it's important to get this checked out. A few seconds of discomfort while eyes adjust to bright light is normal, but several minutes probably isn't. My child has a condition called CVI (cerebral visual impairment) which causes symptoms such as light sensitivity and difficulty adusting to changing light levels. It was once thought to be rare, but recent studies suggest that it is now much more common than first thought, and that one in 30 children have it undiagnosed, so that's one in every class at school. It would be a good idea to speak to the GP about his reactions to light and ask for a possible referral to Opthalmology for a review.

I had this as a child. Would sit in the kitchen with my eyes closed or covered for several minutes because they hurt so much.... as an adult I am fine and my vision is better than average.

My daughter who has autism is like this - it's a sensory issues. She needs to sit and eat her breakfast in semi darkness and then she's OK after that. Not suggesting your child has autism at all but this is the cause for her. Ruling out medical reasons would also be a good idea especially if it's new behaviour.

I'm pretty sure this is normal. It's always happened with me and I have no neurological or eye issues that I'm aware of.

My DH and late MIL are sensitive to light. I think it’s normal when waking up.

I had this as a child. Couldn't uncover my eyes for a few minutes in the morning. It was hellish but I grew out of it.

I remember being really bothered by bright lights when waking up as a young child.

I still don’t like bright lights as an adult.

Have they had an eye test? If so then I'd say normal. But its good to get eyes checked routinely anyway.

I've got really sensitive eyes and always need sunglasses on even slightly sunny days where others seem to be fine

My son was like this his teacher had to move him because his eyes would water in bright sunlight streaming into the classroom. The opticians said that he was sensitive to bright light. He has pale blue irisis. My grandson has the same issues.

I feel the same way in the morning. My eyes also stream when it's bright, particularly bright and cold.

Does he have blue eyes
my eldest has blue eyes and he has very sensitive eyes to the light opticians said people with blue eyes can be more sensitive to light
My son is 27 now and apart from needing glasses for reading and wearing sunglasses in the bright sunlight he has no issues

Anyone else sneeze when entering bright sunlight. Our family do. All pale blue eyed.

I’m nearly 40, definitely not blue eyes and I hate bright lights in the morning (or any sudden change from dark to light).

I am short sighted and have pretty severe astigmatism in both eyes but I have had my eyes thouroughly checked and they’re the only problems I have.

I think this is fairly normal stuff.

Yes, he’s got pale blue eyes.
He’s also on the waiting list for an autism and ADHD assessment, I didn’t think of any there.

He’s got a routine opticians appointment at the beginning of March anyway , so I’ll talk to them about it then.

I didn’t think of any link there * that should say