The subject pretty much says it all. My son is blinking a lot more than normal, sometimes is like he is blinking twice every time. Anyone has experience this with their 5 year old?
Have him see an eye doctor. Could be as simple as dry eye, could be his vision. Best to know exactly.
If this is a "motor tic," be aware that motor tics are COMMON in children and are usually transient. It is absolutely NOT a sign of Tourette syndrome, which of course is what most parents immediately worry about.
Two children I know with facial & neck tics were helped with chiropractic. Another with osteopathic cranial manipulation.
For peace of mind, you may want to get his eyes checked (dryness, astigmatism, near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and binocular vision (eyes working together), etc) and have him checked for allergies.
If he is on an antihistamine, that can have a drying effect and can also escalate blinking.
If he gets more motor tics or gets a verbal tic, even that could be transient (not last).
Some parents get the child checked for strep or check their strep titers as that *may* also correlate with tics and OCD.
Even if it is Tourette's, that is often mild. It runs that way in my family, and it is no big deal. But even for them, chiropractic helps especially with the repercussions of it.
I was just googling this myself. My son is also 5 and his right eye is blinking a lot more than his left. This started yesterday. He broke his collar bone two weeks ago and has been tired since as he hasn't been able to sleep well. Please post if you get an answer. Thanks! C.
I have a friend who blinked a lot. It is fast, and frequent. He started doing it pretty badly around second grade. He was diagnosed with a mild form of tourettes syndrome.
Interestingly, my son is going to see a neurologist in a couple of weeks for blinking and eye rolling. I don't know what to think of it. I did take my son to his pediatrician that recommended a neurologist evaluation because of the frequency of the tics. I have kept a log of when he does these things because it isn't all the time but it does happen it is done in high frequency. Good luck!
Start by taking him to an eye doctor..he may not see very well.
my nephew does that occasionally. Its a tic. He has epilepsy. Has outgrown it over the years (he's almost 21 now). Don't get nervous, just have all options checked out.
So not to freak you out, but have him checked for Tourette's Syndrome.
We have a family friend with a 4 yr old that does the same thing, and was just diagnosed with that. Some other mannerisms incorporated too, but that was the key thing that set off the concern.
The doctor told them that it typically starts to show between 3 and 5, and is more common in little boys than in girls.
I had a neighbor whos son at about 5 or 6 started doing that too. They had his blood pressure checked and it was a bit high, especially for a little kid. So have that looked at just in case. They ended up taking him to a chiropractor and had several adjustments done and it helped a lot. It was better than taking meds for it at his age for sure. I was a bit of a skeptic before that, and it really changed my thinking about chiropratic.
It also might be that hes watching too much tv or computer screen time is making his eyes dry and causing him to blink. When I first got a computer I sorta forgot to blink and would stare at the screen and afterwards my eyes were dry and I had to blink a lot more.
This sort of thing is often caused by anxiety. It will most likely go away. Don't bring it to his attention anytime soon, however. You don't want to make him more anxious. Think about things that may be going on in his life, at school, etc. The tiniest things upset a child's routine. It could be something as simple as a teacher getting after him for something that is okay at home. Or, anxiety over the holidays (something we don't think should cause anxiety but these things often do). I imagine it will pass but might last for a long time. My son has been whispering to himself for 3 years. He has finally stopped. It would always get worse when he was stressed (it took me a long time to discover there was a pattern). I asked doctors about it and they said the same thing (that it's a form of coping when he was stressed).
Lastly, I learned in a college business class that people who blink a lot when they are speaking are nervous. We were taught that so we would always be aware and try not to blink, making our stress obvious to our audience. Again....anxiety! :) Hope this helps.
Is this something new? Or has he always done this?
Yep. Doctor said she thought it was a nervous twitch that would eventually go away. I think she was right because he eventually stopped. We also checked him before we went to bed at night to make sure his eyes were completely closed. Sometimes he sleeps with his eyes a little bit opened. That probably caused some daytime dryness.
Get his eyes checked. It could just be that he's unable to focus, and doesn't know that if he squints it'll come in clear. If it's not because he needs corrective lenses, at least the optometrist can rule out other, more serious, issues.
