Blinking is a reflex contraction of the eyelids that every person has. This is carried out regardless of a person’s desire from birth and is considered natural. Normally, within a minute, the child makes no more than 20 blinking movements, moisturizing the mucous membrane of the eye, eliminating dust. But sometimes their frequency rises. The causes and treatment of frequent blinking in children are described in the article.
Why is this observed?
Frequent blinking of the eyes in a child increases concentration. This will allow you to focus your thoughts to perform any actions. With periodic closure of the eyelids, the nerve cells of the brain relax, which helps to focus the gaze.
Frequent blinking of the eyes in a child occurs from natural irritants:
- dust and dirt penetration;
- foreign body;
- strong wind;
- with long reading and watching TV.
Such a condition should not be disturbing. If these causes are eliminated, eye function is restored and blinking is performed as usual. But there are situations when the frequent blinking of the eyes of a child causes fear among parents, then you should not postpone the visit to the oculist.
Causes
Why does frequent eye blinking occur in children? The causes of this symptom can be ophthalmic or neurological. In the first case, an appeal to an ophthalmologist is required. By visual and hardware examination, the doctor determines the condition of the cornea of the eye, whether it is considered to be overdried. If the basis of the pathology that has arisen is established precisely this reason for the frequent blinking of the eyes in a child, the doctor prescribes drops that moisturize the cornea.
This phenomenon also comes from:
- microtrauma;
- hit of a foreign body.
Frequent blinking of the eyes in a child is also a neurological etiology. This is due to the psycho-emotional state, which is disturbed by a change in life circumstances - the first visit to kindergarten, school.
What does this lead to?
If the child often blinks his eyes and frowns, this can lead to the following negative factors:
- Visual perception worsens. If vision impairment is observed, a squinting symptom occurs. A blinking sign may be similar to convulsive squinting of the eyes. It is not worth treating this condition yourself, you need to visit an optometrist. If necessary, the specialist selects glasses.
- Dry eyeball appears. From the drying of the cornea, this unpleasant symptom appears. After using eye drops that moisturize the cornea (Vizin), you need to adjust the daily routine of the child. Another limitation is watching TV, working at a computer, reading books.
- Severe eye strain. This is due to the fact that the organs of vision are given little time to recover, the norms of daytime and night sleep are not met. Strong school workloads in the classroom cause chronic fatigue and overwork of the visual apparatus, headaches appear, and this leads to the fact that the child often blinks his eyes and squints. The reasons must be established for the appointment of treatment.
- The cornea is injured. This is another answer to the question, which means frequent eye blinking in children. A foreign body can get into the eyeball - dust particles, tissue fibers, hair. Even after eliminating them, a symptom of frequent closing of the eyelids occurs. This is because a foreign object damages the mucous membrane.
- Blepharitis. This ailment is able to develop with the appearance of a symptom resembling sand in the eyes. I want to eliminate this feeling, which leads to frequent blinking. This symptom with blepharitis can be a long time. It disappears a few days after the cure of the disease.
- An allergy develops. Growing houseplants at home is not always a harmless occupation. When flowering, pollen can penetrate the mucous membrane of the eye, leading to a burning sensation and severe itching. The eye gets rid of external irritants from the mucosa, which causes frequent blinking of the eyelids.
- Blepharospasm. This concept involves the involuntary contraction of facial muscles located near the eye. The symptom is similar to blinking, but is performed in a pronounced form and often looks like a long squinting. This manifestation may indicate tuberculosis-allergic conjunctivitis, keratoconjunctivitis, trichiasis.
- Ticks appear. To establish the causes of this phenomenon, you need to visit a neurologist. He prescribes the right treatment, which will help eliminate the ailment.
Tiki
If the child often blinks his eyes and frowns, this may be due to neurological processes. Often they occur naturally, which complicates the diagnosis. A nervous tick can be in one eye. There are 3 main reasons that lead to pathology:
- Psychogenic. A child can be very vulnerable, so stress can cause a similar ailment. The impetus for the development of pathology is conflict in the family, quarrels with parents, heavy workload at school, a feeling of oblivion and loneliness.
- Symptomatic They appear from transferred viral ophthalmic ailments, birth and head injuries.
- Inherited. It appears in the form of Tourette’s syndrome. Blinking is not the only symptom. There may also be motor, vocal or mechanical tics.
Whatever the reasons, diagnosis, treatment of frequent blinking in the child is required. This will allow you to quickly restore normal condition.
Diagnostics
It is important to distinguish nerve tics from frequent blinking, which appears for other reasons. Tics are able to have other manifestations, for example, motor (motor) and voice (vocal):
- Simple motor. They appear in the form of squinting, twitching the head, swallowing, gnashing of teeth, sniffing, shrugging.
- Sophisticated motor. There is bouncing, echopraxia.
- Simple vocal. This is revealed in the form of coughing, whistling, snorting, grunting.
- Sophisticated vocal. These are echolalia (reproduction of words) and coprolalia (obsessive obscenities).
When ticks can not only twitch the eye, but other movements or sounds occur. A child is able to restrain a tick by willpower for a short time, but with a weakening of attention, obsession returns.
With an ophthalmic ailment, frequent blinking is accompanied by:
- irritation, dryness of the cornea, pain, discomfort, sensation of sand or a foreign body in the eye;
- decreased clarity or visual acuity.
Whatever symptoms prevail, the child should be taken to the pediatrician. It is especially important to do this if the signs are present for a long time, pronounced.
What to do?
Please note that not all adult products are suitable for children. They have contraindications and side effects. It requires the creation of a good-natured atmosphere in the house, which develops positive emotions in the child.
To do this:
- Create trust, avoid quarrels.
- Alternate mental and physical work while relaxing.
- To diversify the leisure of the child.
- Do not impose on the child activities that cause him irritation and negative associations.
- Perform an analysis of the situation that leads to a nervous tic.
- Exclude comments to the child regarding frequent blinking.
- Coordinate with teachers and closest comrades so that they do not attach importance to the shortcomings of the child.
Therapy
There is no specific treatment for frequent blinking of the child. When the cause is identified, therapy is prescribed. Usually a correction of the psycho-emotional state is needed:
- If this phenomenon is associated with overwork, you should adjust the daily regime of the day, paying more attention to rest.
- When the onset of the symptom is caused by dryness of the cornea, eye drops are used. It can be Oftagel, Systeyn Ultra.
- It is important to limit your viewing of TV.
- Excessive consumption of caffeinated drinks is prohibited.
You can take medications that the doctor prescribed. Often, treatment begins with small doses of mild sedatives:
- Novopassit.
- Motherwort tincture.
- Valerian tincture.
Autotraining is great, which allows you to calm down yourself and be distracted from stress. You can learn it with the help of a specialist.
Gymnastics for the eyes
A set of exercises has a good effect (preschoolers should offer them in the form of a game in which the eyes will be like butterfly wings):
- Butterfly wakes up. Eyes should be wide open and sharply blinked. Exercise is done before the appearance of tears.
- Tears should be wiped with the index finger, gently massaging the lower eyelid.
- Butterfly takes off. You need to quickly blink eyelashes.
- Butterfly flew away. Exercise is done by covering the eyelids halfway. When they twitch, you should stop the trembling.
Massage
The healing, relaxing effect gives massage. It is performed in the face area. The procedure should be done by a specialist with experience in the treatment of such ailment. Facial massage should be performed according to the following rules:
- Movement should be slow.
- Start and end the procedure with a light stroking.
- All massage movements are performed along the lymph flow.
- Rubbing and kneading should not be boring.
- Do not use vibration techniques.
- You need to use massage cream or gel.
An excellent calming effect is the technique of therapeutic massage on the scalp. This type of massage is performed with a flat comb. His technique is taught to parents.
How is the massage performed?
To execute it you need:
- Set the child on a chair with a soft back.
- To stand behind the child.
- A hair parting is done on the head with a comb.
- After that, you can do massage movements with your index finger.
- On the parting made, stroking with one finger is performed, and then light spiral movements are made.
- With a light touch, a kneading technique is carried out.
- All massage movements alternate with stroking.
- Shock and vibration techniques are not used.
- After the cycle is completed, the next parting is performed, which is done with a 2 cm offset.
- For 1 procedure, you can perform 10-12 partitions with a comb.
- After the procedures, the palms are placed in the forehead and nape and perform gentle movements similar to compression (5-7 times).
- When carrying out head massage, ointments, creams, gels are not used.
What does Dr. Komarovsky think?
If the child often blinks his eyes, the reasons and treatment according to Komarovsky correspond to the above information. According to the expert, the ailment appears from an unstable psycho-emotional state. Pathology should be treated if 3 days have passed after detection, and frequent blinking does not go away.
According to the doctor, it is advisable to visit a neurologist and psychotherapist. This will help to objectively solve the problem. The doctor considers the behavior of parents who believe that this phenomenon is a temporary whim or mischief wrong.
According to Komarovsky, frequent blinking in children depresses the mental state, lowers self-esteem in front of other children and complicates the treatment of pathology. The doctor believes that you should not focus on this phenomenon. This is not worth doing, because the child is able to withdraw into himself, to leave communication, and this exacerbates the course of the disease.
A huge role is played by proper, healthy, homemade food. Nutrition should be rich in coarse fiber, include a lot of micro and macro elements. The daily diet should consist of fresh vegetables, fruits, products with vitamin B 6 - seafood, boiled fish, poultry.
Conclusion
According to the doctor, an important role is played by a healthy, warm relationship. They do not injure the psyche of the child, provide an atmosphere of peace of mind and well-being. An integrated approach will eliminate the frequent blinking of eyes in children.