very worried - One year old rolling eyes

[fizz14]

My dd was a year old two weeks ago and over the last two weeks has starting rolling her eyes back her head. She always seems to frown first then all you see is the white of her eyes for just a second then she's fine. It happens once or twice a day that I've noticed. I've even cut her fringe short because I thought it might be getting in her way when she was frowning and she was trying to look at it! but that hasn't helped. Am seeing my HV next week for a routine check so will mention it then but in the meantime has anyone else experienced this, did it go away or what did it turn into? Any advice appreciated

Our 14 month is doing exactly the same type of things! It started 2 days before his 1st birthday. We've taken him to neurologist and he's had EEG. All normal. Neuro says exactly the same thing as you guys... That it's developmental and within the realms of normal.... But we can't help but thinking something else is going on.

We are in QLD, Australia too.

Development wise our Son is doing okay. Hes crawling, pulling himself up to standing, cruising. Not walking yet. He was a bit slow with some of his physical milestones as he has some congenital benign hypotonia. His mental/speech development milestones are all normal and is otherwise a happy, healthy 14 month old.

Hi All,

Came to this thread after a google search, my son who is 1 in a few weeks has been rolling eyes for the last 4-5 weeks or so. It happens probably once or twice a day and we noticed this firstly in his high chair when eating, when in the bath or when being changed first thing after waking up in the morning.

We have a HV next week and GP has been informed but they dont seem overly concerned, the rolling last probably 1 second. Has anyone had any updates on their babies?

Thanks

Mike

Hi all, would love to hear any and all updates you have. My LO started doing all these things.. laying on ground, fluttering and rolling eyes- also often happens in high chair. Very stressful

@CTJ20 did you get any further with this? Is he still doing it?

Hi @Sass1981 we panicked at first but have Accepted it now, he’s not losing consciousness which apparently is the thing that starts to make the docs concerned and it has become slightly less frequent though we do still get bad days where it happens more (today being one of them) what I will say is today after doing it we noticed he watched his mummy worry and he started laughing 😂 so it appears it’s within his control and he’s just maybe attention seeking and getting to know his eyes. Docs also mentioned to us to watch out for any regression of development. I also noticed my wife rolling her eyes a few times when she’s frustrated (normally with me lol) so it could be that he’s copying that. Good luck everyone try not to panic until you need to, easy to say I k ow because we freaked out but looking back it didn’t help the situation.

Other than the eye rolling everything seems fine and he’s a happy chap, so we’re focusing on that as well

I am a little late to this discussion, but I have a 16month old who has been doing the same thing. I have been referred to a pediatric neurologist. I am still waiting for the call to schedule the appointment. However, I have done some research along with videos to a specific diagnosis. That diagnosis is called paroxysmal tonic upgaze (or downgaze). I don’t want to frighten anyone especially since I don’t know if this is the cause; but after looking at videos of children who have been diagnosed, it is very similar to my son. It is worth mentioning to your doctor to find out if your children may have it too. I hope that this information may guide you and your child towards an answer. My son will squeeze his eyes shut and then roll his eyes upward and all the back to his head. It has been getting worse and usually happens in his high chair. It’s been happening as he’s playing with toys and will rest his head as well. Very similar to what you all have been sharing. Again, I don’t want to frighten anyone. My goal is just to help anyone that is still struggling, like me, to finding out a cause.

@MeganMB22 @Onlyoneshoop @Westyggx @SarahLewis18 @AT20 @Emmm1324 @Madds358 Any updates on these events? My son is experiencing similar events. He is 9 months old (preemie, born at 34 weeks), and had his first eye rolling event in his high chair about two weeks ago. He would act normal, then all of a sudden roll up his eyes and flutter his lids for about 4 seconds. This repeated about 5 or 6 times in his chair. After I removed him from the chair, he did not do it again until his next meal when he did the exact same thing in the high chair. After this event I have noticed quick eye rolls in the crib or while playing, but not in a series. He went about two weeks without doing it, then yesterday he did it several times in the high chair. Once his eyes were not in unison, one eye rolled before the other. We sent a video to our pediatrician who referred us to a pediatric neurologist. The neurologist said we must capture the events on an EEG to determine the cause. He did not have an event during the EEG, and the EEG was normal. We are scheduled for a 48 hour EEG next week to try to capture an event. I would say my son is slightly delayed, but not so much that the pediatrician is concerned. He still does not know his name or what any words mean and cannot crawl yet. He can pull to standing pretty well and support himself standing, he laughs, smiles, makes eye contact. He is not good at eating solid foods and gags a lot or just is not interested in eating. He will eat puffs and random foods from my plate that I give him, but only small amounts. Also, his pupils are different sizes from time to time, but a pediatric ophthalmologist was not concerned enough to do an MRI. His regular eye exam was normal; however, we did this prior to the eye rolling events. He is mostly still breastfed. Are all of your children breastfed as well? I am worried I am not providing the proper nutrients that he needs in my milk and am considering switching to formula to see if this helps the issue. I am very worried that these are mild seizures that could be causing brain damage each time. I hate how long it is taking to get answers or even testing done with the doctors.

Hello @Jelk,

My son got referred to a pediatrician and we were in there literally 5 minutes, he said he was completly fine and healthy and progressing well. He did say that the eye rolling is probably something he has learnt to do randomly, or that he has something in his eye or they are dry.

He still does it to this day, not as much but he does it mainly when in the bath if he gets water in his eyes or if the sun catches his eyes he does it.

In our case, we are no longer concerned.

Regards,

Mike

Have a 2 month old last week when I picked her up I noticed she lent her head forward throwned & then her eyes rolled for a second then she was fine again .. really worried 😩

Hey all
Bub is 16months and started this just last week. His eyes would roll back and up towards the right. It lasts only seconds but we managed to capture one. Paedtrician thinks it may be absence seizures and we have blood tests, eeg and mri lined up. BUT I've noticed that taking him out and socialising him with other kids at the Park the last couple of days the rolls have significantly reduced! Anyone else on here currently in lockdown? Do you think our children might be underestimated and this may all be in response to it?

Sorry that should read under stimulated not underestimated.

My son was having this for about a month, then it went away. He was on lock-down the whole time, so I don't think that was the cause for him. Our neurologist thought it could be opsoclonus myoclonus. Had 48 hour eeg, mri of head, abdomen, and pelvis. Everything was normal. He seems to have just grown out of it. The only difference for him is that I switched him from 100% breast milk to mostly formula, and he started eating more solid foods. I thought it could be a nutrient deficiency, but the doctor did not seem to agree.

Hi! Any updates ? Worried mom here. Same thing is happening to my 10 month old daughter. Her hour long eeg came back normal but she didn’t have an episode during it. Doctors are not recommending any follow up but I’m so worried there is something going on. Thank you everyone!

Hey. We've been told it's possible absence seizures. Still waiting for our eeg (Thursday) and an mri (hospital had to reschedule to a later date which is frustrating when you want answers). He had stopped rolling his eyes for about a week but it's back and seems to be more frequent 😔 I'll keep you posted. Have you been able to catch it on camera for your Dr to see? I think that's what helped to get the ball rolling for us. Hope we get answers soon so we can worry less.

My daughter has stopped the eye rolling now have been watching closely but haven’t seen it since posting on here the 1st time .

Does anyone have an update? My son has been doing this a lot and waiting for neurology referral to go through. Mostly was happening at high chair but now other places aswell. Really worried

Came across this thread on a Google search and thought it might be helpful to future readers to drop this video here: (More context here: www.easybabylife.com/baby-is-rolling-eyes.html). A phrase you might want to look up is "paroxysmal tonic upgaze" to see if it matches what you're seeing.

Hello
@SarahLewis18 @Marinayia @RB82 have a diagnosis for this. My 13 month old has just started to do this and waiting for an urgent referral to a neuro paediatrician

Did you get a diagnosis for this? I’m waiting for a referral to neurology for my little one as she has just started doing this.

Hey, we were told it's possible absence seizures. However, they have seemed to stop thank God. Hoping your little one grows out of it too! 🙏

@Marinayia thank you.
yes, fingers crossed she grows out of it. Really hoping it’s just a developmental phase.

Hi, has anyone got any further news/updates? My little girl started displaying similar eye movements 10 days before her 1st Birthday. A deep frown and eyes rolling up, then returning to normal, usually it's fleeting 1-2 seconds. I can always see the bottom of her iris so they don't completely disappear. She does this more when she's tired and sometimes in highchair. I'd say around 5-15 times a day. Some days are worse than others. We had a 20 min EGG at the hospital but she didn't do any eye movement during it so nothing showed. I'm desperate to know if it's absence seizures (epilepsy) or something else and if it will get worse or better or disappear. It's awful not knowing isn't it.