4 year old flashes in eye.

[Me2you]

Twice in the last 2-3 weeks in the morning my son has said he has seen flashing lights on his eyes, he's near 4 both times he said the lamp was in his eyes!

Both times after not being up long, in the morning both times he only said it for a minute or so.. he didn't seem to be in any kind of pain at all and no other symptoms.

We didn't have any lights on or anything so he had not been starting at any.

What could this be a one off didn't worry but I am a bit worried now, I get can get really anxious about this type of stuff. I've read about migraine aura but there always seems to be something else other than flashes..
Appreciate any advice .

Flashes in vision can be a sign of a retinal detachment or inflammation in the eyes. Both can be serious. I'd take him to the optician or gp, they can make a referral to the eye hospital if needed to check that there isn't anything serious going on.

I second taking him to the local optician, it's likely nothing but worth checking.

Thanks for your replys
Yeah I have booked him in for Thursday morning, I'm still worried although he's had nothing since yesterday morning or said anything.

Yes, that definitely needs checking asap.

OP would you be able to just get him to sit him back from the TV in the morning and then cover the right eye and then the left and eye check that he see okay out of both of them. If he can't, just call the opticians in the morning and see if they can see him a bit more quickly (but mention this too).

(there's no need to get him out of bed - eye departments don't really work well at night anyway.)

Thanks for you reply
I did this last night covering his eyes his eye sight seems fine and he seems fine in himself.
I've got an appointment with opticians for him at 8.55 hopefully it's nothing.
I would have thought of it was anything serious it would be more often.

You're doing the right thing

There are loads of things it could be, most of them absolutely fine
But the one or two more frightening things are much better for being picked up early

Hope it goes okay.

How did you get on, OP?

Sorry I meant Tommorow at 8.55 lol

Do you think it's really worrying? Because I have calmed down a bit now but was thinking allsorts brain tumours ect
Really thinking the worst, it's something I do do at times & I wish I didn't.

I'm fairly certain it's not a brain tumour 🫂

Hope you got a reassuring answer today OP, and it is nothing to be concerned about :)

How did you get on @Me2you?

Hi everyone
Bit of a long story but I'd turned up for wrong day at opticians, she offered to speak to her manager an get him a letter done for the hospital but agreed it needed looking at, so said if I tool him down to children's they would see him. So i tool him down they said they had not really heard of this in kids before. Said I need a follow up app for all eyes tatest to be done at hospital..
Ended up with a cancellation today, so went along did tests on his vision and eyesight which is all fine.
Then had the drops in, my son is very hyper an also so resistive when it comes to anything like this, he let her look at his eyes but when she put the thing in her head to actually look behind her eyes he would not let her look at all..

She said what she saw was fine, And she wasn't mega worried although she couldn't give me a definite answer that everything was OK as she could look behind his eyes.
She said anything it could be is rare.
So she advised me not to ask him about them and wait for him to tell me about them if he sees them again! She will ring me in a few weeks and see what's been happening and then possibly go back in.

He's actually said it since we have been home that he has seen them again & didn't like he was messing about.

Want to not worry but really think like this is something that is really guna make me worry and set my anxiety off like It already has, I didn't feel too bad till he had mentioned it again.

Thanks for everyone's replies

Took*

Behind his eyes sorry, I should have checked this before posting lol.

Sounds like if there is an underlying condition, it's not serious or fast moving tho

Might be an idea to write down when he says it - and also what he was doing at the time / just before

Hi , any update on this thread, going through something similar with 4 year old . He has woken 2 night with flashy lights .

My little boy still says it sometimes now it's usually in a morning.. even when he was saying it more often & we went to the eye hospital they said it wasn't usually a sign of anything serious. M they also said that it didn't warrant putting him to sleep to look ( he wouldn't let them look behind his eyes) so never really knew what it was, I'm a massive worrier tho but hes been discharged now from the hospital.

Flashing can be a sign of a retinal detachment, usually accompanied by other visual symptoms especially as a 'curtain' or veil coming across the eye, and lots of new floaters. There's no pain or discomfort. RDs are very rare in children but they do happen and need urgent treatment (within days). An optician can review then if they suspect RD they will send you straight to the hospital emergency eye unit who can dilate the eye and fully review. They can be a symptom of connective tissue disorder so having a RD in childhood tends to run in families (genetic).
All the best.