Need some opinions or tic vs something else...

[xJackx]

My son is a nomal active 5 year old. He plays the violin and baseball and enjoys video games and playing with his peers.

Sometimes when he gets a bad cold or when allergies are in the air his eyes give him a real hard time.

 

About 2 years ago he suffered from the same things and our doctors said it was due to allergies. I tried some antihestimine eye drops but they made the problem worse. I stopped the medication and his eye problems seemed to go away by itself.

 

Lately in the morning right when he wakes up it takes a while for him to get accustomed to the light. He squints a lot and says that his eyes hurt to look at the TV. He usually bilnks excessively and sometimes very hard.

 

Recently especially in the evenings his eyes are again giving him a real hard time. He has been blinking more frequently and sometimes a few quick blinks followed by a hard one. Sometimes he asks for eye drops (which are just lubrication drops I bought). They seem to help a little.

 

His blinking seems to be the worst when he's trying to re-focus on something new. For example if he's playing his iPad for 10 minutes he's fine, but if he looks up at the TV or something else he blinks a lot almost as if trying to re-focus and the bilinking helps.

 

What I'm trying to figure out is if he has a tic or just problems with his eyes. BTW, when he had his eyes tested the doctor said they were fine.

 

When I do internet searches on excessive blinking everything that comes up is tic related so I wanted to ask on a site like this to people that really know and can help me differentiate between a tic and eye irritiations.

 

We have no family history of any of this stuff however as you can probably tell from my post I worry a lot, especially when it comes to my kids.

 

I suppose I could have summed this all up in one question.

How can I tell if my som has a tic or jusy problems with his eyes bothering him?

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Chemar]

Hi and werlcome

You may want to also investigate photosensitivity induced tics.

We have had members here whose children have developed tics due to photosensitivity issues and things resolved when this was addressed.

 

Flashing lights, fluorescence and use of the old CRT TVs and computers can also contribute to this. A member who was here for many years (Claire) managed to help resolve her child's tics once she addressed the photosensitivty

 

If you so a search for IRLEN you may also find some useful info...take a look at our helpful threads pinned to the top of this forum.

 

People with TS may also have photosensitivty, so the 2 are not mutually exclusive...but if the only tics your child has are the eye tics, seems to me that may be where the trigger is.

[xJackx]

Thank you for the welcome and the information. I just did a search on IRLEN and am pretty sure I can rule that out. My son doesn't really have any problems focussing and we don't have any CRT TV's or fluorscence lighting in our house. And I know I gave the example of the TV in my first post but it happens other times as well. For example last night when my wife was reading him a book before bed he kept blinking when he was trying to look at the pages as she read them.

Although it does seem to happen more often when he's looking at things further away, I think I can rule out light causing the problem.

 

My gut tells me he has a hard time re-focussing on things especially after being focussing on something for some time. We will probably get his eyes checked again just to make sure.

 

I figured it was worth asking about on this site since blinking is considered a tic. I've also read on other sites that little boys his age sometimes get tics as just a part of growing up and they sometimes go away just as misteriously as they came. Another part of me thinks this may be it as well.

 

The one thing I know is true is that because of weather changes and colds his eyes sometimes give him trouble. This has been true his whole life. He seems to carry his colds in his sinuses and eyes.

 

Anyways thanks for the help and if I discover anything new I'll post it up. If anyone else has delt with something like what I am I'd appreciate any other information.

 

Thanks.

[Chemar]

One extra thing to mention is that numerous people have come here due to eye tics....and many of those have found the tics resolve for their kids when they eliminate all dairy products. So that is another avenue to explore............

[xJackx]

Actually when his eyes bothered him a few years ago we stopped milk and switched to rice milk. I'm not sure if stopping the millk was the cure or it was something else. Over the past couple years he has been progressively drinking a lot more milk. Since his eyes weren't bothering him I got really relaxed about him drinking milk. It certainly wouldn't be a huge deal to cut off milk for a few days and see if that helps.

Again, thanks.

[mar]

My boy had the blink which was so hard to watch. When he was young it came in fall and spring. When he was 3 he would bling in fall for several weeks and then go away then as he got older it would happen in spring also. If you have no family history then defiantly look towards allergies/ sensitivities. Milk is a big one. I did not realize the connection till he was eight with all his sensitivities when tested. Your boy is young and I would test for food sensitivities now. Clean diet and eliminating sensitivities helped my boy .

Mar