My son has allergies and asthma. He uses Flovent, Flonase and Zyrtec daily. He has been using them simultaneously for around 2-3 months. About three weeks ago, he started blinking his eyes really hard and sort of tilting his head when he does it. I ask him if they burn or itch and he always says no. I have noticed that he has days where he doesn't do it as much, but it is always there. I have looked up his meds online and some side effects show that they could cause dryness of the eyes. I am worried, along with my family what this is. I have a call into the doctor for advice and also made an eye doctor appointment. Has anyone out there had anything like this happen to their child?
Does he drink a lot of soda? My eye doctor told us that my son's blinking or eye ticks were probably due to too much caffeine.
Hmmm.
He won't need to use his meds as often if you clear out the chemical cleaners and things like fabric softeners (big culprit), and replace them with natural cleaners. Also, of course you want to keep out any body product that has any kind of fragrance in it. Check out http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php?nothanks=1 to find products that are safe.
You will be AMAZED by the difference in your son's health within probably just a few days after you make the switch. Oh, and consider getting a HEPA filter. Gaiam has them, or Real Goods.
Good luck. I hope you will give it a try. It will not only resolve his blinking issue, and minimize his allergies and asthma. It will have a huge benefit on his (and the family's) health, overall. They just don't tell you how bad those products really are. Less than 1% of all chemical products on the market have been actually tested for safety! Believe me, vinegar, baking soda, lemons and the natural cleaners on the market are just as effective, and so much safer (cheaper, too).
L.
My son was just six when he started having episodes like this. it took months to dx as he did not have allergies that they could see...he was dx with a mild case of Tourette Syndrome. As he got older it got more moderate and vocal sounds became apparent and arm and leg jerks etc. We all got though this and his puberty bout when it gets real testing. he is almost 17 now and is off all meds that he had been on for years for it and is fine. they are back to being mild movements and he went through school just fine too.
Our grandson does and he had his eyes checked and he has severe dry eyes. He has to have eye drops to relieve it. I have it and pain with it because of my disease and it is nagging. Restasis is great but your physician may have something else in mind. B.
I did the same thing when I was around 5 years old. I couldn't help it. I wasn't on any medications or anything. It was a phase I went through I guess. I couldn't help it either. It was wierd. I remember wanting to stop but I couldn't. It was like a reflex or something. It went away over time. My mom thought it was a nervous habit or something. I'm not sure BUT I don't have anything remotely like that as an adult.
Could be a tick, meds bring out funny things especially if your child is highly sensitive pscyc wise. No comparison but my now 14 has been taking some form of stimulants for 4 yrs and if to much is given he gets motor tics, so we take very small amounts not to push him over the edge of the circle which he is already on.Your child might be having a reaction that is not common but still can happen. Hope that helps.
M.,
Our oldest son used to blink his eyes like that but not because of allergies. He did it because at age 5 or 6 he'd get into these odd, repetitive habits such as coughing, chewing on his toenails and blinking. No matter what I did he kept these up for at least 6 months at a time then as quickly as they appeared they were replaced by some other tic. I just had to grit my teeth and ignore him as best I could.
K.
Remember of course, every child is different, but my son now 6, then around 4 did the same thing. He doesnt have any allergies or recurring sickness, but he would be watching t.v. or playing or talking to you and he'd just blink hard like his eyes were bothering him or something. If he was asked, he'd say they didn't bother him though. I made him a eye dr. appointment and fully expected to be getting glasses for him. We were out in the waiting room picking some out, but fortunetly they said he has great vision. For some reason, he had done it a time or two and it became a habit he didnt even realize he was doing. So hopefully thats all this is with your child, but it could be that they are dry as well. By the way, he doesnt do it anymore at all. Kids are so funny, huh!?!
M.: This sounds exactly like what my nephew does. The fast blinking of the eyes--he does it allot and he takes meds for ADHD, along with a slight case of Tarots (sp?)..I'm not saying this is what your son has, but you might bring it up with the doctor when he sees him. It could very well be the mixtures of medications you have him on as well.
Good Luck!
S.
This sounds like a tic - which would have nothing to do with an eye doctor. It could be related to his medications or a totally separate issue. You should see your dr. (or another dr. if he doesn't want to address this). But research eye tic online and see if that doesn't more closely match what is going on and then call your dr back and ask for an appt to discuss.
not to scare you but to save you the time i had to waste
get your ped. to get you into a neuro. and have them do an eeg while he is asleep. i just thought my son had a bad attitude he started the blinking thing some and that can be a sign of a seziure (sp) turns out my son has sez. in his sleep and we go for an MRI on 2-4. he started doing things at 18mths old and i NEVER NEVER NEVER would have thought about them being sez. related. blaine is now 3 1/2 years old. my daughter is 17mths old and started doing some of the same stuff, after the 4th i'm going to have her checked.
just check into it
My nephew started to that when he was about 4. He would do it when he was upset and sometimes when he was watching tv. He stopped doing it about a year later. it was a tic that he just picked up but it went away. He mostly did it when he was stressed...maybe getting punished at the time or watching tv and the cartoon he was watching may have been a little wild. Crazy.
Hey, M.! Yes, we went through that. My oldest son was on meds for ADHD and allergies meds as well. He wasn't aloud to drink soda, so caffeine wasn't the issue. When he started the blinking I thought he was doing it on purpose to irritate me, but that wasn't the case. He could not stop doing it! Turns out that he had developed tics from his meds. We had changed meds so often trying to find the right thing for his ADHD, nothing worked for long, and in the end we found out that he's bipolar and we were treating the symptom instead of the actual problem. I took him off all his ADHD meds and the problem immediately went away. He's been on meds recently for the bipolar and I haven't seen any blinking. Considering that you are using all three meds, I think that is the problem. I wear contacts and take allergy meds and was recently told by a doc that the meds would be what is making my contacts so dry. Good Luck!
