Blinking Eyes

N.,

My girl friend has a daughter who is now 19 years old and she has always had the same problem. It probably is a nervous condition. The only way to take care of this condition is through medication. her family elected not to medicate. they looked at as the medication could do more harm to her that the eye blinking and I have to agree with my girlfriend.

S.

My son is the same way. He is 5 and would come home from kindergarten and would sit down and would look at a book or watch tv and his blinking was non-stop. We thought his eyes were tired from school or dry. We took him to pediatrician and then to a pediatric opthamologist and nothing was wrong. It seems to come and go and we have also come to the conclusion it is nerves. We have ignored it and it has seemed to decrease. It may just be a phase she is going through.

This happens to my son (also 12) and it is very clearly stress-related. At times, my son's blinking has been so frequent his teacher asked if he had a tic (I suppose maybe he does.) Have not had much luck dealing with it as a medical issue. The doctor would like to treat it as an eye problem, much like your doctor. The important thing for us is that it goes away when the stress goes away. The blinking doesn't actually hurt him, and it is one signal to us that things are weighing too heavily on him.

Good ideas from the other posters - adding a couple of thoughts: Check with her teacher(s) and ask if she does this in class. If so, when (during heightened activities, during quiet reading time, etc.) and compare to when she does this at home (ie: only while watching tv, reading, dinner, busy time vs. quiet time). That will help you assess whether it has to do with nerves or if it's an environmental thing, like excessive noise. My other thought is if you determine that it is anxiety, and then determine the cause for the anxiety (maybe it's sensitivity to noise, for example), then you can help her manage her anxiety. After you do some inquiry and observation, you should talk with your pediatrician on the best way to handle that with her.

My son has transient tics (variety of tics, they come and go). Our neurologist told us that ALL kids have the capacity to have some form of tics without it being anything to worry about - and most grow out of it, usually by the time they reach teenage years. We ignore them and they tend to dissipate on their own.

Good luck!!

I am sure it could be any of these things. I remember at that age having friends comment that I blinked much more than the average person. When I met my husband 13 years later he always said he knew when I was tired b/c I would blink like crazy. I haven't heard this from him in awhile, so when I read your post I asked him how long it had been since he noticed it, he said about 5-6 years, which is when I had lasik surgery. I did not have great vision for many years prior and didn't like to wear contacts or glasses. So I am now guessing I blinked heavily when my eyes were really tired from straining themselves. Hope this might help.

constant blinking can be a sign of poor sight, have the child examined by a pediatric opthamologist to rule out vision issues.

I have a friend who's child does the same thing and it is a form of nervousness. I would see a different Dr.and find someone that can help you with the problem. They do use different techniques at home and he talks with a counselor. I'm pretty sure they said he should outgrow it, but I would find a dr. who shares your concerns.

N. G
My son is 5 yrs old & he does a lot of blinking when he is nervous!! He did it when he first started school & every first time for different things!! Hope that you get answers!!
LoriW.
A SAHM of 4 ages 11, 9 1/2, almost 6 & almost 4

Take her to an eye Dr, my son does that an dhe is eight. he has been doing since he was about 4 or 5.( i never tok him to the dr for it) Mostly when he gets tired, but this year he failed his eye test at school, and when I took him to the eye dr he needed glasses.

good Luck

My son blinked for a while (he was 7-8) and we "fixed" the blinking using "psychological accupuncture" - Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT; more info at www.emofree.com or on www.mercola.com, search EFT). He blinked when he was upset or nervous. If you think emotional issues are the cause, EFT is a great tool to try and non-invasive. Also, you can use it to eliminate the root cause of the blinking as well. Contact me if you'd like more info about how to use it (it's very easy to learn) or educational dvds. Hope you find help soon.

That is definitely good advice from Amanda R. below. But also it could very well be something much more mild and temporary. Certainly if you're concerned, ask her doctor about it again. In my personal experience, I exhibited several tics when I was your daughter's age. And they drove my mom crazy! Mine lasted quite a few months each as I can remember, some maybe even close to a year. I went through the eye blinking, throat clearing, teeth grinding, and probably a few more (not all at the same time). Certain parts of the brain are still under development at her age, so I do think it's important if you are truly concerned to rule out OCD or Tourette's.

Since you have pointed out the eye-blinking to her, if she is interested in stopping the behavior, maybe she would agree to you video-taping her briefly so she can see what she looks like doing the blinking. In my case, even though my mom talked to me a million times about my blinking and throat clearing, I didn't stop doing it until I became acutely aware of how it looked and sounded to someone else. Then I was able to make a conscious effort to stop doing it, and was able to cease the behaviors rather quickly. Once the habit was broken, it didn't happen again.

It could be a tic disorder. There is really nothing you can do to "cure" it, but there are some things that help:

enough sleep
dietary changes (Feingold diet is great, check feingold.org)

Also sometimes scents will make it worse- try using unscented products (some people say chlorinated pools make their tics worse as well.)

Trying to learn triggers- prolonged reading or computer or tv, etc.

It is not technically diagnosed as Tourette's Syndrome until tics are present for one year and there is more than one type of tic (you can read up on tics- she may have some or have some OCD behaviors that go along with tic disorders that you don't even realize!)

If it begins to bother her, there are medications that can help as well. Abilify is a newer medication that gives wonderful results and with a very low dosage as well. It has relatively little chance of side effects too, in comparison with others like Zoloft, etc.

My daughter was diagnosed with Tourette's a year ago, so if you have any questions let me know. She started with eye blinking and finger flicking and then some skin picking around her cuticles and progressed to some OCD behaviors such as door shutting, etc.

Our path was this:
pediatrician (prescribed dry eye drops and allergy med)
opthamologist (told us it was to get attention)
allergist for testing (nothing showed)
homeopathic ped (did alternative allergy testing- showed a lot!!)
started Feingold program (decreased some behaviors and helped very little with tics)
psychologist/psychiatrist (started meds, Zoloft first then Abilify. Zoloft made her hyper, but Abilify has helped the tics and most of the OCD.)

Hope this helps!
Manda

You already have many suggestions and you will have to do process of elimination. It could be a form of seizure OR allergy as well. I have friends who have both.

Get a recommendation from your doctor for Allergist, neurologist and psych. Good luck!

We have a friend who does this, and for him it really only happens from stress or when he is very tired. For him it is a "facial tic" - he has a mild form of Tourette's. It is a misconception that all people with Tourette's swear uncontrollably - most simply have a "tic" either facial or body. You may want to mention it to her doctor to see if that may be what is causing it. It was worse when he was younger (he is in his mid-30's now) but as he has gotten older, it has gotten better. He does not take medication because it is not bothersome to him. He is a firefighter and owns a successful business as well. Good luck and I hope you can find the answer to her blinking.

How is her sight? Also and this isn't to scare you but have you researched Turette's syndrome? Most likely it is nerves and eyedrops might be like a placebo but maybe you can do the relaxation exercises. Sometimes kids do jokes with eachother like that also. I had a couple of girls do that in my classes all the time and I thought they had terrible eye problems and they were playing jokes and they were the same age.

Blinking eyes sometimes comes with a B-complex deficiency. Lots of B's are used to metabolize sugar. Based on her age, I would guess she eats quite a bit of it.

B vitamins support the nerves in the body. ( Interesting isn't it) Dr's are trained in drugs, not nutrition.

Add a complete, balanced B vitamin to her diet daily and I would also add a a multiple. You can go to the store and roll the dice, I know one that comes with a guarantee to work, or you money back. I know it will work, it worked for my sister.

If you have not done so already take her to the eye doctor for a proper diagnosis. I myself have just been recently been diagnosed with dry eyes. I was blinking all the time (uncontrollably) and it was driving me crazy. After an eye exam I was told that I have dry eyes. I have been using Systane eye drops several times a day. They are available over the counter. After about 2-3 weeks it is much better no more blinking. It takes time for the eye drops to work. My blinking has pretty much disappeared.
Good luck to you and your daughter

My brother suffered from that. After top eye doctors looked at him, it was determined it was a nervous tick. As time went on, he relaxed more. He is now 40 years old and it only comes out rarely. We could always tell when he was really nervous because of the blinking. He has learned to be cool as a cucumber. She'll be fine. Maybe she would llke to try yoga or karate.