3 year old saying waking saying eyes hurt but eyes have been checked and are fine!

[MrsOs]

Our 3 year old son came down with a nasty virus a few weeks ago.. had a high temperature.. was saying his tummy, head, eyes etc hurt.. got a rash which turned itchy.. we took him to the GPs/Out of hours and each time they said it's a virus. But then his eyes became a real problem, he was photophobic.. got referred as GP was concerned about viral meningitis.. anyhow turned out after thorough investigation of his eyes that his eyes are absolutely fine.

It's basically been 2 weeks since the virus started and he is still waking up crying saying his eyes hurt. He is still sniffing too.. but there is no snotty nose. I was thinking of sinus trouble.. I've had sinusitis and had terrible headaches and pressure around the eyes with it. but in himself he seems ok.. it seems the cold has almost but gone.. he is still blinking a lot too. He seems to be able to see stuff at a fair distance away so I don't think he needs glasses but I will make an opticians appt.

This seems to be first thing in the morning, he wakes up screaming saying about his eyes hurting. this morning he was smacking himself in the face.. but he was also sounding quite nasal too.. I distracted him and he seemed to settle down.. but this is driving me nuts.. every morning I dread it cos I know he is going to start kicking and screaming about his eyes and it's horrible to watch. I've got a GP apt for tonight and am going to ask for a course of antibiotics in case it is a sinus infection which needs help to bugger off. Something is wrong but I just don't know what.

anyone had anything like this???

Yes you could ask for Ciloxan drops its quite strong
Maybe they are a bit dry though? Did they do a test to see if he's producing enough tears? You could ask the GP for eye drops to lubricate the eyes!

Could he be suffering from hayfeaver? My DD gets dreadful hayfeaver, has done so since she was tiny and her eyes get really red, sore and puffy. It's already started for her this year and even with antihistamine she still looks like she's been hit in both eyes.

thanks ladies, thing is he seems fine most of the day but it seems to be much worse in morning and then when watching TV in evening.. the eyes aren't red ATALL... seemed to come on with the cold virus he had.

The dryness is always worse in the morning - has it happened to you? I suffer from this occasionally
I personally would ask for the plain natural tears drops and if they don't work you can always try Ciloxan

This is driving me nuts his eyes have been checked and told are fine. I took to dr and insisted on antibiotics in case sinusitis.. For a few days it seemed to improve but it's back again along with another stuffy nose. Saying eyes hurt and light hurting his eyes.. Sniffing nose too. Wtf is this???

Please take your son to an optician to have his eyes checked. Doctors can only check so many things. An optician can truely give his eyes a full check over and a clean bill of health.

Any chance it's a sinus headache but he can't explain that to you?

I asked if his head hurt but he said no

OP when you say his eyes have been checked ... was this by an optician? If so, I would hope it is just linked to the virus and will pass when he fully recovers from this. If not please go to see an optician. They are not just there to look at eye sight issues. They are the specialists in overall health of the eye and will see if there is anything else going on which may be causing him pain. My Dad had eye pain during a virus and the GP sent him to the optician. It was the optician that picked up he issue so that he could be treated.

Allergy?

Sounds like sinus headache behind the eyes.

Have tried to make an opticians appt but they won't see him as he is too young !

You need to find a better optician.

Even vision express say a child can have a check at any age.

I get sinus inflammation without congestion so no snotty nose! The pain in my eyes is unbearable at times and my eyes are ALWAYS sore in the mornings! Your poor little one! I use a saline nasal wash and drops to keep nose clean and also bath my eyes in cooled bouled water never just out of the tap. Also when the pain is bad I use a warm flannel above my eyes and on my eyebrows X I take sinutab but obviously he is far too young for those meds

Definitely second a better optician. The specsavers website even recommends toddlers have their eyes checked for the first time around 3 years of age. If you have no joy ask your GP to refer you to the eye clinic at your local hospital. It must be really frustrating for you.

Once younhave ruled out health issues with his actual eyes, you can then more confidently explore the ideas of possible ongoing sinus issues.

I often have sore eyes in the morning, in my case it's a dust mite allergy. If I take antihistamines it goes away.

I suffer from corneal erosion, which is due to a scratch on my eye that just hasn't healed well, without using ointment at night part of the cornea comes away and causes the most hideous pain and photophobia. Have you an eye hospital you could take him to in a morning as they should be able to assess him better than a gp.

I tried to get an optician appointment for my 3 year old and eventually went via the GP who referred him to the hospital. He was quite long sighted, but not only that, he had blepharitis, which we only noticed ad recurring eye infections, his lids looked fine to us. The blepharitis had led to keratitis,cwhich is scarring on the cornea. He is now seen and monitored every few months for this. He used to wake in the night crying about eye pain. It took 6 weeks of oral antibiotics and drops 4 times a day to knock back the blepharitis/keratitis. I wouldn't ignore it if I were you. Ask the GP to refer.

He is being referred back to paediatric ophthalmologist. He woke again this morning really upset saying his eyes hurt and there was sniffing too... Then you distract with breakfast and he seems fine aside from the blinking

Are his eyes weeping during the day? Is there any build up overnight of dry 'crust' around his eyes?

No weeping no redness no crusting... Nothing. He wakes up saying eyes hurt.. He is usually sniffly too... Once destracted he is ok and then lots of blinking through the day. Its weird!

Back to gp tonight I'm done with the worry they are the clinicians and need to find out wtf is wrong!!!!

Great that you are being proactive, if an optician said your child was too young, go somewhere else. I'm happy examining any child's eyes when they are weeks old. What you describe is possibly an aftermath of the virus and doesn't sound too serious but you should definitely get it checked out. This can cause a little bumpiness of the eyelids (upper in particular) and instead of being smooth the bumps just rub eye when blinking. If you watch people blink you will see that the upper eyelids does the bulk of the blinking and the lower remains fairly stable and doesn't move much - check it out! The advice you had about trying an artificial tear in the meantime is probably good advice. Like I said probably not serious but follow it through.