Excessive eye rubbing - 5 months

[lottazen]

I have a 5 month old boy and in the last couple of months he has started rubbing his eyes excessively. We thought it might be tiredness but he does it throughout the day and at night. He doesn't have red eyes or any sign of infection but because of the rubbing he has developed little red dots around his eyes. My partner is worried it is behavioral but i am thinking it must be allergies. Can babies so young get allergies? We haven't changed our washing liquid since he was born. We are at loss as to how we can properly help him and hate watching him struggle. Has anyone else gone through the same thing or have any suggestions/advice or seen a GP with something similar? Thanks so much in advance

Mine has food allergies, and would rub his eyes all the time. Then got eczema and then got infected under his eye. But yes all stemmed back to allergy (didn’t realise till weaning even though he had reflux) so it’s worth checking it with the GP.

Thanks so much for replying. Our little one hasn’t started weaning and he is bottle fed so the only food allergy could be cows milk but he has no other symptoms. How was you little one diagnosed? The GP isn’t sure what the problem is and has suggested anti histamines which makes us nervous as the manufacturer says not to be given to children under one.

Is your little one now better?

After birth he didn’t keep gaining weight on his curve (among other things), but it was within percentiles so after we were referred to a paediatrician she called it catch down growth and we continued as normal. After weaning he came out in hives and vomited. Got referred to a paediatric immunologist and had to do elimination diet. It all became clear and the eye was a minor thing that suddenly made sense!

The doctor explained to me piriton was 1+ over the counter, but ok for smaller children with a prescription. We had to use it too, although I didn’t use it regularly it helped my son when he needed it.

Yes his allergies are controlled now and we were prescribed some eye drops.

Also the shampoo/soap you use. My son can’t use baby shampoo / soap, it gives him eczema and if it gets in his eyes he rubs them a lot. If yours isn’t food related, it might be a sensitivity to the soap.

Thanks so much for sharing. I really appreciate it.. Having read a bit more I think it may be a cows milk allergy. I mentioned it to my gp a few months ago but it was dismissed. I am going to go back to them. Finger crossed.

Hey did you figure out what was it?? Currenrly going through the same

@lottazen did you figure out what was it??

Hi there, we went to an allergy consultant and an opticians neither thought he had allergies as his eye whites weren’t red and he didn’t have gunky eyes.
I have blepharitis / mgd and the optician said that babies can get dry eye problems but that they then grow out of it. He is now 9 months and loads better so I am going to assume this was the problem. It is funny because he hardly ever blinks and sometimes when he snoozes his eyes are slightly open. This probably made it worse. We were very stressed about it as we had damp in the flat and thought it might be a reaction to mould or even dust and then because he was bottle fed we wondered whether cows milk might be an issue . I am still waiting to see a paediatric eye doctor through the Nhs. The gp had given us an anti histamine which we were nervous about giving him and it didn’t work anyway. Hope this helps x