Is It Just Bad Habit?

Yes. My brother-in-law and step-niece (his daughter) do the same thing - face squishing, rapid blinking. He told me he had it looked at when he was a kid and there was nothing the doctor could do. It's been going on since he was small and he's not on regular medication for anything. It showed up in his daughter when she was 5. I don't know if she was taken to the doctor about it or if they accepted it as genetic.

If I were you I'd take him to the doctor just in case, but it's probably really just a tick that he can't control. I would definitely not be punishing him for it or try to make it stop unless it's doctor's orders.

I would get him to a chiropractor and work on weaning him off the drugs and see if it all improves. Then I would have him tested for heavy metals and environmental toxins and work on getting rid of those if necessary. Does he have any cavities or fillings? Chiropractic literally saved our lives. It has my MS status nearly non existent and mostly symptom free except under times of extreme stress and my daughter has been off all her allergy and asthma meds for 5+ years now. This was from a child who since 2 months of age was in the hospital at least every other month for an attack that the nebulizer at home wasn't enough for, who now hasn't had an attack since January 2004 :)

Yea...okkkk. 1st-I can tell you he's on WAYYY too many medications for a kid. He's on 4? seriously? do you ever tell the dr no or just go along with it? there ARE sometimes when your DR is WRONG!! You're the MOM, you should know those meds are doing more harm than good. & then you get these ticks and don't get these taken care of? you should def take him to the dr asap. i believe that these "ticks" could be a first sign of terrets, or it could be anxiety, or just a pysical thing that you need to have checked out. ticking can be a sign of a tumor in the brain, or another disease affecting the brain's ability to send proper signals to the rest of the body. Not to scare you, but when something like THIS is happening, you should go to the dr. right away.

**& not to offend you about the meds, but my lil bro was on meds for awhile when we were little for asthma, etc...kind of problems and the only reason it started healing at ALL was because my mom started taking him off of it. he ONLY took his inhailer (SP?) when he was playing baseball or something. WHEN NECESSARY...ONLY!!! good luck

My son has experienced many facial "tic" versions since starting on flovent. It actually took me until tonight to look online to see if there were any resonant concerns. It dawned on me that we have seen him go from what we called a "rabbit nose"-- scrinching his nose like a rabbit in sets, to a kkkkkkcccccc sound like he is clearing his throat, to the latest, slow blinking many times in a minute. I will call the pediatrician on tuesday, but until then i have read enough online tonight to bet relatively certain, that it is a long term side effect of him being on this med for the first year long stint.

I know you've already gotten a number of responses, but this sounds exactly like Tourette's syndrome. Probably not related to his meds.
PLEASE DO NOT EVER TAKE A CHILD TO A CHIROPRACTOR!!!

Ask his pediatrician about it. When I was 8, I was having facial ticks and making a noise in my throat repetitively, which was also a "tick". My mother asked the doctor, and he did some tests and I had urinary tract problems and ultimately a bad bladder infection. He told her something like that could cause a tick in a child. I stopped doing it after I had surgery on my urinary tract and the problem was corrected. NOT to scare you -it was all minor and I was fine and am fine, but the ticks could be a symptom of something else you would never think about.

Have you had his eyes checked? He may just be dried out from the allergy medicines or possibly suffer from dry eye. Either way he may not be aware of what he is doing because his body does it automatically. Talk to his Dr. or an eye specialist. Hope this helps!

For peace of mind, you may want him evaluated by your pediatrician.

Your gift of loving God,life and your husband will sustain you no matter what the cause. Contiue to do so always.

God Bless!

I would definitely mention it to the pediatrician. It could be anything from seizures to Tourette's to nothing. If you, as a mother, are noticing it and have concern, listen to your gut and follow up. At the very worst, you "waste" an office visit copayment.

Just ignore it, he'll out grow it. My nephew did this. We all thought he had something wrong with him. It looked kind of funny, he did it for a few months and then all of a sudden it just stopped.
Kids will be kids and they always keep us wondering!

With all of those drugs that he is taking, and the allergies being a sign of an immune problem, I would take a look at his heavy metal load or chemical poison exposure. Pycnogenol's are good for taking care of pathogens in the brain.

Hi L.,

It's probably nothing to worry about but the worst-case scenario would be Tourette's syndrome so you may want to have him evaluated by a psychologist to be sure. There is a possibility the steroid medications for the allergies could be causing it but I am not a doctor so you would need to ask a doctor about that or do research on side effects. I know people who have had similar issues though and their kids just grew out of it. I myself have some mild facial ticks that have been noted by a psychologist, but they are not a big deal and have not negatively impacted my life in any way. Good luck.

There is a possibility it could be a bad habit, but it could be a tick, which he can not control. I have a friend whose child has ticks and his changes from time to time. He always blinks though...that's pretty normal. He'll blink more often with anxiety, but he always has these ticks. He also has sensory integration dysfunction as well as several other problems.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that even without anxiety, ticks happen. My friend's child that blinks a lot, wishes he could stop, but can't. He has even asked his mom why can't he stop. (They just recently had him evaluated...it was an eye opener for them.)

Anyway, just wanted to chime in and tell you this.