5 year old dd seeing flashing lights

[katesav87]

Hi everyone, not sure were to post this so apolgise if it's the wrong place. My daugther is 5 years old, last week she told me she has been seeing flashing lights in her eyes. I asked her all sorts of questions and then asked her to tell me if it happened again. On Monday the school phoned to say that she had been complaining of the same things again and also that she had a headache. I immediately called the Docter for an emergency appointment. He checked her over and advised not to worry at mo and to get her eyes tested or it could poss be the start of migraines. Her headaches r not severe tho. Had her eyes tested this morning and Optition advised that things don't add up her eye sight is slightly below average but we have to back next week for drops in her eyes as she couldn't get the right possible prescription or check the whole of the back of her eye due to her eyes bring a rugby shape. I just don't know wat to do or dare I say it think. She is absolutely fine in herself. No sickness temperature balance issues etc. I'm scared there's something really wrong but then part of me dosent want to admit that maybe it's being made up a little. Has n e one experienced this before? Sorry for the long post x

Does she mean floaters? Has she hit her head recently? That could be it?

i was going to say migraines.

i would maybe go back to the GP and ask for a referral to opthalmology so she can have a really thorough eye exam first though

I had migraines at her age. Could it be that? I used to get flashing lights in my eyes and then a sharp pain in one eye. I would go to bed and sleep it off, although I was sometimes sick too. I've had them all my life, luckily not too often.

If it is migraines, they are not very nice, but not life threatening or a sign of anything seriously wrong.

Looking back my DS was 3 when he got his first migraine but they didn't start in earnest until he was 5. He used to get 'swiggly eyes' before a headache - sometimes the headaches were proper migraine ones, sometimes they were more mild. They also seemed to come in blocks of a few weeks or so.
We also got his eyes tested and they found out that he wasn't able to adjust his focus properly - a few trips to the optometrist (I think) and some exercises sorted that out but not the headaches.
He was referred to the hospital, put on preventative medication and now (at just turned 8) has come off the medication and seems to be staying headache free.
One thing that helped was getting him to rate the headaches from 0-5 where 0 is no headache at all to 5 where it hurts as much as his broken leg . What we did discover was that he seemed to have an almost constant low-level headache (rating about 1-2) as days where he rated it 0 were very few and far between :(

I hope that helps? I won't tell you not to worry because that is impossible but there are an awful lot of children out there who do have migraines that I knew nothing about until DS started - even in DS's Beaver pack of 18 there were two of them on the same medication!

I've just remembered, both my DDs have had what we thought was a migraine once in their lives. DD1 was about 3, and woke up very upset with a pain in one eye. DD2 was about 10. Again, she woke up in the night and was very upset. She saw flashing lights and had an awful headache. Neither has had it again. Hopefully it will be one off for your DD.

"a one off"

My DD had this at 5 and it is a migraine aura - I get it too. I googled migraine auras and showed her the page and she pointed out the one it was like. So it was a big relief.
My DD and I don't get the pain though.

I forgot to say my DD described it as "lights coming out of her eyes" which freaked me out for a bit!

I do think it may be migraines. As I've read you get the auras without the horrendous headache. She also said that she had pain over her eyebrow wen she told me last week. The Docter said it's very common at her age to start getting them. I will go back to the gp to discuss as this was the next step after the eye test. My husband had headaches wen he was her age to quite badly. I'm worried tho about school. They send her home everytime she complains about the lights but wen I get her and bring her home she is fine. I'm worried the school thinks I'm not taking it seriously by sending her in the next day but I can tell u I am. Also I'm worried she will start thinking if she complains she gets to come him xx

Thanks so much everyone!! I feel slightly better I do think its migraine auras. I've had 2 out of the blue recently and never had them before but I had no headache afterwards either. X

Pain over eyebrow is exactly where my migraines (and dd2's) start.

My auras last 40 minutes (pretty much to the minute) so get the school to sit her in a quiet room for half an hour before ringing you.

That's a good idea I will ask the school to do that. Is it normal for the auras to happen in clusters. She had 2 days of them on and off now nothing today xx

If it does continue, do take her back to the doctor. I don't want to worry you, but my Mum gets epilepsy, her medication was changed and didn't work properly and she complained of lights in the side of her eyes. My Mum doesn't get the kind of epilepsy where she has a major fit, but sometimes you notice she is a little vacant for a second or two, or is perhaps speaking and then repeats some of a sentence as if she hasn't said it before, so do keep an eye out for symptons like this.

Mine can be hormone related or tiredness or triggered by bright lights at weird angles. I think DDs were tiredness related so ... could be anything. If they keep happening - go back to the Dr like everyone says. Hope they don't happen too often.