Child non stop blinking eyes!

[blurrman]

evelynlim ,

anything changed? shampoo? body bath? my 4 year old did that few months ago, and we managed to figured out that his day care used other shampoo to wash his hair. we asked the day care people to use back his shampoo and he stopped doing that.

[evelynlim]

Well, if you do not want to pinch him the old fashioned way, then tell him if it is still going on tomorrow, no choice but to check him in to the hospital and the eye hospital don't allow parents to visit or stay overnight, I think you might see results this way too....

All have been said and done to him but not effective Tired & fed up of telling,talking & scolding already. If after bringing him to check his eyes & found out nothing wrong and he still do it, then the old fashioned way is the way

[Firebird]

If after bringing him to check his eyes & found out nothing wrong and he still do it, then the old fashioned way is the way

Try the old-fashioned first and see what happens. Saves you lots of hassles and money, too. Doc charges are not cheap.

[HTCHONG]

All have been said and done to him but not effective Tired & fed up of telling,talking & scolding already. If after bringing him to check his eyes & found out nothing wrong and he still do it, then the old fashioned way is the way

Evelyn, you should bring your son to see doctor. There must be reason for your son to keep blinking his eyes....please do not take it lightly and find out the reason from the doctor......my 2 cents.

[evelynlim]

Evelyn, you should bring your son to see doctor. There must be reason for your son to keep blinking his eyes....please do not take it lightly and find out the reason from the doctor......my 2 cents.

I hv brought my son to Tun Hussein Onn Eyes Hospital this afternoon to get his eyes checked.
Chookyan, I didn't go for Dr Linda Teoh as she being the only chinese dr there has many patients waiting. I choose to go for another doctor as don't have to wait for so long.There is nothing wrong with my son's eyes, healthy and no problem at all. The doctor advise me to do the reverse psychology to ignore him,don't comment/scold him whenever he blinks his eyes,just don't bother at all. Let him blink until he gets tired & fed up with this habit after reliasing nobody actually pay attention to him on his new habit Hopefully it works. The doctor just gave him eye drop just in case is eye itchiness but he refused to let me put the eye drop when reached home. In fact, he has been blinking the whole afternoon & evening when we are out for dinner.
blurrman, nothing has been changed. The thing that has changed recently is I'm busy buying primary school uniform, new school shoes & socks for his brother. By the way, he is very worried & afraid of his brother no longer going to the kindy with him anymore.
The cost of getting his eyes check there is : registration RM10, consultation RM50 and the eye drop RM10, total cost=RM70.

[evelynlim]

Try the old-fashioned first and see what happens. Saves you lots of hassles and money, too. Doc charges are not cheap.

I didn't want to use the old fashioned way first because what if it was actually some discomfort in his eyes or really some problem with his eyes, then I seem very cruel towards my child Now I know there is no problem at all with his eyes, if he still keep doing it after another one or 2 weeks with my reverse psychology, I will have to do the old fashioned /painful way
Thanks again to all your sharings.

[Sentinel]

Make him a star.... videotape him and play it on the TV screen for him and his siblings to see and laugh about it, it might be the right psychology. But don't take my word for it, it might be more cruel than the old fashioned way of pinching him each time he goes blink-blink-blink....

[in]

By the way, he is very worried & afraid of his brother no longer going to the kindy with him anymore.

That could be one of the reasons for the blinking. It could be an anxiety thing. As adults, we may think this is nonsense......but after watching lots of Discovery Health and Oprah , i realise that kids are complex and they have their own thought proces.

[coleslaw]

what you have is a 4 yrs old kid who can't express himself well..
his fears and anxiety..i would say in is right. what he needs now is assurance..not a beating, or being laughed at or being frightened unnecessarily..which will add more to his fears!!!

[coleslaw]

i'm actually shocked and horrified at some of the suggestions on how to 'cure' his blinkings..one in particular is exceptionally cruel
we are talking about a 4 year old here..good god.

[joker2107]

Inothing has been changed. The thing that has changed recently is I'm busy buying primary school uniform, new school shoes & socks for his brother. By the way, he is very worried & afraid of his brother no longer going to the kindy with him anymore.

evelyn, if you went to a psychologist, he'd possibly attribute the blinking to what you said as I quoted above. He is consciously aware that he is going to lose something he is accustomed to. And he is, as you said, worried an afraid. It is not unusual for kids in such a state of mind to do things which would attract attention.

having said that, I still cannot agree with all the fingers pointing at "habit". You did right by trying to eliminate any obvious medical cause, such as dry eyes like chookyan had experience with. by the way, not all dry eyes present with such blinking - my eyes are very frequently absolutely dry - zero staining when the doctors stuck those little stickers in my eyes - and i have never been hit by blinking spasms.

i also have a late uncle (passed away in his 70s) who was a professional photographer and a bookkeeper. looking at him was a pain because of the way his face contorts every few seconds when his eyes blink or squint and his nose wriggles. of course the old folks cursed him for not breaking his "dirty old habit". but to him, it was a suffering he had to carry to his grave.

i would agree with lady-of-leisure's proposal to offer distractions, especially those which demand deep concentration, as an attempt to wean the victim off the blinking (this is an intended pun) spasm. might work if it was of psychological origin. might also work to train the eye muscles.

a parting shot - has anybody successfully controlled hiccups? or been scolded for having a habit of hiccupping?

[Sentinel]

i'm actually shocked and horrified at some of the suggestions on how to 'cure' his blinkings..one in particular is exceptionally cruel
we are talking about a 4 year old here..good god.

I was the one who recommended the old fashioned method so I feel I will need to answer to your comments.

Firstly, if you disagree, by all means do so but there is no need to invoke the name of God to show your displeasure....

My sister whom I mentioned above grew up normal, in fact she was the first woman CEO of a commercial bank in the country 10 years ago and still is a CEO of a bank now....

So, whats wrong with the old-fashioned method? If you are the modern type of parenting, by all means elaborate but no need to run down alternative views like that.

[HTCHONG]

I hv brought my son to Tun Hussein Onn Eyes Hospital this afternoon to get his eyes checked.......By the way, he is very worried & afraid of his brother no longer going to the kindy with him anymore....

I read your posting yesterday morning but I wasn't have sufficient time to reply you as it was time up for me to check in my flight back to Singapore. One of the forumers mentioned it could be due to anxiety which I believe so too.

Nevertheless, for what so ever reason, it is good to talk to your son so as to ease off his worry.

Early this year, I noticed my daughter (primary 3) tends to breathe quite hard. I asked her whether she felt any discomfort with her chest. She told me she was OK. I noticed this "bad habit" went on the following day so I got worried and brought her to see doctor. After thorough examination, there was no problem with her and the doctor suspected it could be due to anxiety or stress. When we got home, I talked to her and found out that she wasn't happy with her tuition teacher ....well

[teacherwong]

my son had the same problem when he was 4 years old. i tried many doctors but doesn't fully recover, it was on and off. finally, i brought him to ISEC (International Specialist Eye Centre), Dr Choong Yee Foong (03 - 2284 8989)and found that he is allergic to dustmite. He consumed a type of syrup medicine and had eye drop. After about 1-2 weeks time, he stop blinking his eyes. of course, i change all his pillow and bolster into those anti dustmite and put an anti dustmite comfortable between his bed and bedsheet. Change his bed is more costly. Please PM me if you would like to know more about it (the blinking eyes or about the ISEC).

[eddychan]

I'm not a doc, but I can relate to u my experience. I too used to suffer from the "blinking eye syndrome". The probably cause was dry eyes from too much TV (in my youth), and the habit was developed. I managed to overcome this by doing the following..

when there is an uncontrollable urge to blink, close ur eyes and count to ten. u will need to spend quality time with ur child and make this into a game. hopefully, he will break out of this habit.