2 Yr Old with Excessive Eye Blinking.

Hi A.,
When my youngest was 2, he would periodically start blinking both of his eyes at the same time and completely freaking us out. I thought he was developing a twitch and I was really worried. He did this for a day or two and then it would stop for a couple of months and then he would do it again. His pediatrician found nothing wrong with his eyes other than he has allergies. His eyes did itch but he didn't know to rub them and show us they itched. Now that he's 3, he's able to tell us when his eyes are itchy and he either rubs them or he verbally tells us they itch. We and his pediatrician don't believe his allergies are bad enough to illicit medication at this point. We've recently purchased a home air purifier which has helped tremendously for both my little boys who suffer from allergies. Wishing you and your family the best.

Are his eyes red? Has he been itching them or have they been watery? If not, then I would imagine that the blinking is not due to allergies. He may have some senstivity to light or possibly he may have a tic of some sort or may just think it is cool to see what things look like when you blink alot. Definitely take him to see your doctor or maybe a pediatric optometrist to have him checked out just to be on the safe side. And just pay a little extra attention to to see if there are times of the day that he doesn't do the blinking vs. when he does and what is happening in his world just before he starts the blinking to see if there may be a common trend going on or if there's something that may be triggering the blinking episodes.

At this age, kids are discovering body parts which they weren't aware of before and also body functions. Try ignoring it for a while, by son did it at 2, plus a month or so of sticking his tongue in and out, and some other "twitch" like things.

Anxiety?
Stress?
Dry eyes? this can also cause a lot of blinking.

Simple motor tics are common in about 1/4 of children and often pass. Chances are that its nothing to be concerned about. Maybe his eyes were a little dried out or irritated.

If you notice it continuing over the next few days, start keeping a little log of the occurances. Check out tic disorders (there are a few different kinds) on webmd.com and it will give you other things to look for if it could be something more than excessive blinking.

My daughter has Tourette Syndrome, which combines motor and vocal tics. Looking back she showed symptoms at 3 years old. My son also has symtpoms of Tourette's as well.

Has he been sick lately? Motor and vocal tics can be heightened with strep infections.

I hope me mentioning this doesn't cause you undue worry. Just wanted to give you a little info.

Hello,
I am going through this with my 2 year old child at the moment,
Just wondered since it was a while back if it stopped?
Thank you.

My son did the same thing around the same age. It turned out to be a tick that went away in less than a month. Try not to mention it to him. We constantly asked our son if his eyes were okay because he was blinking so much. We learned to ignore it and it just went away. We did see his doctor and she helped us a lot.

My son is 2 years a month and he does the same exact thing! I assumed it was allergies--but he, too, does not have red or itchy eyes. He seems to do it most when he watches TV (he loves Curious George so we let him watch it). He only gets an hour of George every day (spread out over the course of the entire day) and he still does it, though it's not constant. Please post what you find out as I've run into everything from allergies to brain tumors on Google. Deep down I think it's our couch--it's secondhand, cloth, and has definitely seen better days.