Frequent blinking - a tic? A little freaked.

[ctc221]

Sounds exactly like what my DD went through ("I dream of Jeannie" blinks is a good description). She started at around 1.5 y.o. (which I've heard is very early for tics) and it got worse when she was tired, crying, and/or cranky. Assuming everything else is normal, the best advice we got from our ped was to ignore it. Pretend like we don't even see it. Because any reaction from us, even the most subtle ones, can exacerbate the problem. Over the years (she's 6 now), the blinks have slowly subsided, and now I can't even recall the last time I saw her do it.

Sorry you're going through this... I remember being totally freaked out and googling tics and getting more freaked out. Hopefully it's just a phase. Good luck!

[awoodm]

My son started that about 6 months ago, I didn't really think too much of it until it became very frequent. Exact same symptoms though, he was very irritable and became difficult for the baby sitter, which was totally unusual for him. I took him to the dr to have his ears checked for infection and the dr. said that the tics could be caused by the strep virus. He put him on an antibiotic that would clear up the ear infection and strep (JIK). The dr. said a lot of times infection can worsen tics or simply make them appear. After being on the antibiotic the tics almost immediately went away. They haven't come back either. I would def. take him to the dr. just for peace of mind if nothing else. HTH

Anna

[kimbe]

DD went through this a few months ago. Blinking the EXACT same way as your Alek. I too was totally freaked out. It went away as mysteriously as it appeared. I got some great responses when I posted. Try not to worry too much. Hopefully it will pass soon. I know that it drove us crazy!

http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin...d.php?t=286125

[ciaobella]

My DS went through this around 1.5 yo. It only lasted a couple of months, but it was scary, so I totally understand! He got a full neuro work up and they ruled our seizures (he seemed to roll his eyes too after the blink). We discussed that it could be a tick and we kept a diary of each occurrence. We noticed that he was going through a language explosion and it seemed to happen when he was tired and was thinking hard.

Good luck!

[KBecks]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I called the ped office and spoke with the nurse who thought it may be related to strep throat, but Alek hasn't been sick, well, just tired and crabby, so the nurse spoke with a doc who said it's probably a tic, it's unlikely he's always going to have it, and to ignore it. They're sending me an info sheet.

It's reassuring to know I'm not the only one who has experienced this, thanks.

[Karenn]

DS went through a phase like this right at 3 1/2. He called it "bad eyes" and he would do it whenever he was meeting new people. You never can tell when talking with a 3 1/2 year old, but he made it sound like he was doing it on purpose- sort of playing around with his eyes because he didn't like people to look at him. It went away within a month or two.