10 year old suddenly blinking A LOT

Gold Member Joined: Sep 23 2008 Posts: 1261

Have you asked him specifically WHY he's doing it? Does he even notice? Does he say he does it because it feels good, or he feels a need to do it? Does he say he can stop whenever he wants, but then doesn't stop? As another poster pointed out, it could be related to strep -- even though that sounds weird.

Gold Member Joined: Sep 23 2008 Posts: 1261

Here's more about the strep connection -- it's something called PANDAS that's related to strep and brings on tics and other OCD-like behavior very quickly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PANDAS

Just in case this is related to stuttering in your child, you can look at the following link. Look at Secondary Behaviors "Secondary stuttering behaviors are unrelated to speech production:
Physical movements such as eye-blinking, forehead wrinkling, sudden exhaustion of breath, frowning, or nostril quivering."

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Speech-Language_Pathology/Stuttering/Core_Behaviors

And for more info on stuttering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuttering

Hope that's helpful.
_________________
הודו לה' כי טוב, כי לעולם חסדו

OP here: I have read and taken seriously all responses. To respond to some, he is aware of it and it bothers him. Deep down I think he is tired and stressed and that is what's causing it, so along with making sure he gets more sleep and lots of love, I will get this checked out (of course, as a full time working mom it's not that simple, but we'll work it out). Also, he does not stutter.

I just noticed tonight that it's not so much blinking -although it's that as well - as it is the following: left eye turns in towards right eye, and right eye slowly closes, and (right eye only) stays closed for about 5-10 seconds. All this, while turning his whole head to one side. He'll do this repeatedly, like hundreds of times a day. And again, this all began suddenly last week. Does this updated description change anything??

Could it be an eye problem? There is a type of optometrist called a developmental optometrist. They have special eye exercises, but I don't know if it's for this type of thing. Might be worth looking into if nothing else works.

Silver Member Joined: Jul 26 2011 Posts: 805

as others have posted, I would guess PANDAS from strep that you may or may not have known about. I would bring up that possibility to the DR.

OP here: Thought I'd give you all an update. Went to the pediatrician today, who thought we should give it a lot more time before pursuing the next step, which would be a neurologist. He said these motor tics can stop as abruptly as they come, and the is otherwise looking perfectly healthy. He was not adverse to the pandas theory, which I brought up, but he said the blood test would only show if strep is or was recently in the body and antibiotics don't help for such type of strep (where there are no other symptoms other than a confirmation that strep was recently in the body). I did note this on the Wikepedia article some of you linked to above - where there is no treatment of pandas, even if confirmed. He was certainly willing to go along with the blood test, which I would have to get done at a lab, so given the inconvenience of it (I hate to sound so callous, but it's not a perfect world....) and the fact that the doc thinks it's highly unlikely, and the fact that we wouldn't treat it in any case, makes me think I'll hold off on the blood test for now. But the doc said I can change my mind at any time and he'll send a referral for the blood work. Any PANDAs moms out there, care to comment?

I have 3 family members who had undiagnosed strep which did show up in a blood test, one of which led to lifelong heart disease, and two were more behavioral - ie pandas. In all 3 cases, antibiotics were used to cure the strep, which was active in the blood. It didn't take away the behavioral symptoms- once they started you have to deal with them separately, but IF it's strep, dealing with the tic won't help until the strep is gone. Another sister of mine just gets tics not related to strep at all - specifically blinking, when she hasn't had enough sleep and they can take months to go away once her eyes get into the habit - even if she catches up on sleep. So I guess what I'm saying is, it's not necessarily a strep thing, but if it is, I'm pretty sure it is treated with antibiotics, since in PANDAS cases the strep is still there, it's not just that you had it recently.

treatment for PANDAS is controversial - some say that long term antibiotics are the way to go. If the strep test comes back positive you may wish to do your own research to help make the right choices for your child.

Thank you both.

If one is giving long term antibiotics for this, how can they ever tell if the antibiotics cured the tics or simply passage of time? Since time would not be a variable in this case?

I hope this can help you...

My son has a history of sudden blinking episodes. They are all caused by stress, usually something going on in school. When he was bullied, he was particularly stuck in blinking--and he knew it. Now, if he blinks rapidly, I'll say, "What's going on? You seem a bit anxious". He needs to talk things out. He needed help, of course, with the social stuff going on in school. But it did pass. This same child actually had the onset of a sudden stutter when he was younger, which came one day (after several years of clear speech). We were concerned, but the doctor said it was probably stress-related and sure enough, it disappeared.

Is your son the nervous type? If so, I think you can probably safely go with the stress part. My husband had a flickering eyelid for awhile, which was also from anxiety. See if he blinks on the weekends or if the blinking subsides after he comes home from school and relaxes a little. Hatzlacha!