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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Compulsive blinking and rolling of the eyes

24 replies

Forever · 07/04/2008 20:49

I just posted this under the 'health' section but thinking it should be in this one instead...

My son is seven, and since age 3 or 4 he's had phases of blinking a lot. It seems to arrive and disappear spontaneously, but each time it comes back it's a little worse. A couple of weeks ago it started again (after 4 or 5 month's gap) but MUCH worse - now he's rolling his eyes to the side and ducking his head at the same time. I don't know why it started, but he does it most when he's concentrating (school, TV, whatever). I'm really worried because it is now very noticeable and I don't want him to get teased at school.

Our strategy so far has been to ignore it (general advice is not to make too much of it) but I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of this? He is otherwise very healthy, happy and outgoing - not shy and retiring at all!

OP posts:

marina · 07/04/2008 20:58

Is he Yr2? I just wondered if he was anxious (consciously or otherwise) about SATS at school - or something else at school?

bookkeeper · 07/04/2008 21:03

God I could have typed your post word for word, except that ds is 9. He's recently got glasses just for school/faraway stuff but it hasn't improved things. I think a trip to the GP is probably the next thing to do tbh.

Iota · 07/04/2008 21:17

Have you had his eyes checked recently? If not it might be worth a visit to the optician

callmeovercautious · 07/04/2008 21:25

I do this to some extent. A few things to look into:

Glasses - Tired eyes can contribute to it.
It may be a nervous "tick" that you should discuss with the GP.
Dry eyes - ditto the GP.
Overstimulation - This is my "little thing". When I have had too much stimulation - coffee, wine, Sugar etc, I get tense in my face, I then excercise various muscles, like blinking or twitching my nose. I started this or became aware of it at about 7yo. It comes and goes all the time, DP says he never really notices it.
More seriously you should speak to the GP incase it is something more - A good friend of mine has "Petit Mal" Siezures; a form of epilepsy and she goes"blank" and blinks/twitches. She can keep hold of her Tea Mug but she blanks out for a few seconds. It is not too severe and if she takes her medication she is fine. I don't want to alarm you at all - your DS does not sound exactly like this but a few sentances are hard to Judge.

HTH I will pop back later.

Meandmyjoe · 07/04/2008 21:25

My brother did this when he was younger. It was like a twitch that gradually got worse til he was about 13 when for some reason it vanished and has never returned. It started with him blinking very often when he was about 4, then progressed to moving his eyes to one side as if looking out the corner of his eye for a few seconds. Then it went on to be rolling his eyes and sort of twitching his nose and screwing up his mouth when he rolled his eyes. Sounds awful but actually he looked quite cute!

My mum had his eyes tested, then took him to the doctors, everything was fine. They just said he was involuntarily using muscles as a habbit which he would grow out of. It did get worse after he was being bullied at school when he was 7-10 yrs old but didn't disapear til much later.

Do you think he could be worried or anxious about something at school maybe? If not, i'm sure he'll grow out of it. I'd get his eyes checked just in case though!

bookkeeper · 07/04/2008 21:28

That's really helpful callmeovercautious, thank you.

I know what you mean about trying to ignore it Forever, but certainly ds is worse now than he's ever been, so I think you're probably doing the right thing seeking some help now.

jennster · 07/04/2008 21:33

I know a 7yo girl who did this for a while and it went away. It looked quite weird and almost 'psycho' while doing it. She was taken to the Doctors and had an eye test and all was normal. No explanation, but told not to worry.

Hth

YouCantTeuchThis · 07/04/2008 21:37

I used to do this as a child and still sometimes have spells of blinking a lot

For me, it was just a habit, which probably stemmed from needing glasses but in the end was purely habit.

Mum tried ignoring it as first and that didn't work, so she started pointing it out when I did it, and my siblings very kindly demonstrated exactly what I looked like too...

I probably did it from about 9-11

TheLittleElf · 07/04/2008 21:38

My friends 9 year old daughter is actually doing something very similar at the moment, except she's crurling her lip up and winking at the same time? It sounds funny, but when i was with her yesterday it actually really concerned me.

I mentioned it to my friend and asked how long she had been doing it, and she said a couple of months . I'd never seen her do it before

Unfortunatly all my friend does is tell her off when she does it, so i think it kind of makes it worse iukwim? I think it's like a nervous twitch which has got out of control.

Hopefully she'll grow out of it, but i'm not sure she knows she's doing it half the time.

Original poster

Forever · 07/04/2008 21:48

Thanks so much everyone - it's really comforting to know that others have had a similar experience, and even more comforting to know that in most cases it seems to go away! Trouble with going to the doctor is that I don't want him to think he's got 'A Problem.' There's definitely nothing wrong with his eyes, I had them checked. I used to hate when he blinked, but now he's doing the eye rolling thing I would welcome the blinks! I have been looking on some online sites (mostly American) and found out about something called PANDAS - anyone heard of that? It links this kind of thing with Strep throat. Sounds a bit thin to me.

OP posts:

Sari · 07/04/2008 21:52

Ds1 had a phase of doing this about two years ago when he was in yr 1. It stopped suddenly when he had a conversation with him about not having to be the best at everything. It seemed he had this idea that he was never allowed to make any mistakes or get anything wrong at school. Could your ds be putting himself under the same sort of pressure?

ScubaDuba · 07/04/2008 22:29

Here are a couple of links that may give you some useful information:

1)www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/tics1.shtml

www.keepkidshealthy.com/welcome/conditions/tourettes.html

Original poster

Forever · 07/04/2008 22:58

thanks - had a look at sites, though i think i've seen them all already. done a lot of googling on the subject! anyway, been talking to friends here who have said that he's such a happy/confident/outgoing boy, no need to worry at all, he'll just grow out of it, but i hope he doesn't start to lose confidence. He certainly doesn't fulfil the other characteristics of Tourettes, seems to be an isolated thing, fingers crossed it goes away soon.

OP posts:

Flowertop · 08/04/2008 08:56

We have the same thing with my DS2 who is 7 and in year 2. I did post about this a year ago. I was told by the eye specialist that if it has been going on for more than 2 months I should seek help but it stopped at nearly 2 months. I have noticed that it has come back and happens more when he is being looked at by people. Mind you with all the problems I have with social anxiety I'm not surprised he has issues. Although he appears to be a very confident outgoing little boy. If you happen to find something that works would love to know!
XX

mimsum · 08/04/2008 12:14

they're tics - don't worry about it unless it's causing him a problem

it's got nothing to do with anxiety or stress but children with tics could have separate issues with anxiety

lots of children have what's called a 'tic disorder' when they either have vocal or motor tics - they tend to get worse with the onset of puberty and resolve by the end of adolescence

they are NOT habits, and children have NO control over them - if you tell a child to stop doing it IT WILL MAKE IT WORSE sorry for shouting but it's absolutely crucial

all my children have tics - ds1 has had them since he was 2 - he actually has a diagnosis of Tourette's and it really isn't a big deal - he's never been teased about it at school - most of hte other kids barely even notice tbh and his tics are just part of what he does

tourettes's by the way is just vocal and motor tics which have been going on for more than a year and have not been absent for a period of more than a few weeks - they naturally wax and wane (get worse and go away for a while)

ishouldbeironing · 08/04/2008 12:21

One of my DTS has a habit similar to this and I took her to GP and finally we ended up at the childrens hospital because she was freaking me out.
Nothing was found and it wasnt until she went to the opticians that he discovered that she is sensitive to light.
She now wears glasses which "correct" the light for her and she is much better.
My DD was paricularly bad watching TV / on computer or during the summer in bright sunshine.
HTH

FatZakAteAllTheEggs · 08/04/2008 12:26

I'd agree with other posters not to mention it to your DS. I've had various twitchy things since I was young which seem to come and go - blinking, opening my eyes really wide, winking etc and the more was made of if, the worse I feel. I still get it now especially when i'm anxious and if anyone mentions it, I feel dreadful.

ashleynnoe1110 · 17/02/2020 03:02

@Forever I know this is far fetched being it has been so long since you have posted. my 8 year old is experiencing the same thing.. for about 6 months now but it has recently gotten worse. I was wondering what ever happened with your son? Thanks for any help you are able to offer.

D4d0fTw0 · 05/07/2020 20:20

I came across this thread after googling the same thing. So relieved to see a few similar cases and no dreadful outcomes. Exactly the same symptoms - heavy blinking and eyes turning to eye extreme side. Our 7yo has been doing it for quite a long time. We will get his eyes tested when lockdown ends. Tried an eye spray to moisten his eyes but doesn’t seem to make any difference.

StormyGirl · 21/09/2020 21:09

Hi forever how is your son doing now? My son is 10yrs also started with the blinking and eye roll it's really worrying. He just received his glasses today.It's also comforting to hear that's others have grown out of it

Talia89 · 08/12/2020 11:13

I’m in the same position. My 5yr has been blinking his eyes excessively on & off since age of 2. However in the recent months it got worse and he is also making humming noises. I’ve been to see GP twice about it but they just told me to observe him. At first I thought it was a nervous behaviour but now I’m starting to wonder if there’s more to his behaviour. He hasn’t been diagnosed with anything and nursery hadn’t noticed anything either apart from his blinking but I’m very worried.

StormyGirl · 08/12/2020 11:55

My 10yrs old son had the same with the blinking. I had his eyes tested and he needed glasses and after awhile the blinking and eye roll stopped. I.pray your son grows out of it ir that you can find what's the problem. Hopefully its nothing

tempnamechange98765 · 08/12/2020 13:12

Strangely I've noticed my almost 5 year old boy has been randomly blinking a lot every now and then. I don't notice it all that often but this thread reminded me that he was doing it this morning on the way to school. I asked him why and he said I don't want to tell you

Talia89 · 08/12/2020 13:42

It’s so stressful. We had his eyes tested and it came back all clear. Although I didn’t feel like the optician was very patient with him. He doesn’t roll his at all, it’s just the blinking. My family seems to think he will grow out of it. Will give it few more months if the blinking carries on I’ll go and see the GP again.

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