Involuntary eye rolling/blinking in 21 month old toddler boy

[Anonymous]

Hello friendly Moms & Dads -

My son has recently (a month or so ago?) started to do this little series of involuntarily eye rolling and blinking. For example, at the dinner table, he will do it several times in a row. It doesn't bother him and there is no other obvious problem associated with it. We thought his hair was in his eyes for a while. I mentioned it to a friend who said her son did the same thing at the same age and she took him to the ER for CAT scans, MRIs, etc and nothing was wrong and it went away. But the Dr said it had to do with neurological development.

I looked online and was relieved to see that alot of kids seem to do this and it does seem to go away. One (online) diagnosis was Benign paroxysmal tonic upgaze of childhood with ataxia (ataxia is motor loss and he does not have that). It seems harmless. But I also read that some form of epilepsy is *possible*

Here is the problem and why I am asking "Have you experienced this?" and "What would you do?"

We live in Alabama. I am not super crazy about the peds in my area. (We moved here a 1-1/2 yrs ago for my husbands family. We are moving back to the DC area end of May.) He turns 3 in early June and will have a routine appt then. My health insurance is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive and quite frankly, there is no way we can afford to pay for the endless CAT scans, MRIs and extended hospital stays that I have read about online that all these other parents put their kids through only to be told everything is fine and it will eventually go away. Because of this poor insurance coverage for diagnostic exams, it will literally cost us thousands of dollars we don’t have. (did I mention I *hate* our insurance industry? ? )

But what if.......? Epilepsy? But, on the other hand, at 18 mos we had a ped in Chevy Chase recommend us to a surgeon for a little belly hernia who told us he needed surgery. He didn't and he is fine now. (Did I mention I don’t really trust doctors, though I badly want to?)

What would you do? I am worried and frustrated (and overwhelmed with work and trying to move and feeling far from support.)

Thank you for your thoughts.

[Anonymous]

I would assume it will get better with time and do something later if it does not, post-move. I've known of kids who did this and it went away. None have any problems. If he is developing and gaining skills I would not worry. Even if it was epilepsy, in many cases they would not recommend medication in a child so young as long as their development was on track.

Try to relax, and good luck with your move.

[Anonymous]

thanks for responding. it was actually so bad last night, i did almost take him to the ER. a friend that has a son with epilepsy actually talked me out of it. we are seeing a ped on monday. i'm hoping just motot tics that go away but they are getting worse and worse.

[Anonymous]

How long has this been going on, OP? My just turned 3 year old daughter did the same thing 4 or 5 months ago. It lasted maybe 3 weeks and then stopped. I did a good deal of research at the time and found that, as long as the duration isn't excessive, it's very, very common.

[Anonymous]

Definitely see the doc. Could be seizures, but hopefully not.

[Anonymous]

My 3 1/2 year old also had a sudden onset of upward eye rolling to his right as well as a involuntary blink/tic with it. It developed while vacationing and seemed to occur often when fatigued (not many naps happened on vacation). It actually worsened for the first 2 days after getting home so I called my regular peds who referred us to a ped nuerologist. Of course in the mean time now he has stopped doing it. Neuro appt not until 4/15. I think I will wait and watch. If no other symptoms perhaps you might do the same. Seems like there are more toddlers out there doing the same thing without much reasoning behind it. I will ... and you should... immediately take child in if off balance, dizzy, complaints of head aches, spiked fever, etc in the meantime.

[Anonymous]

To the first anonymous, curious what the outcome has been, since it was over 2 weeks ago, guessing you've been to your local ped, and have some results?

[Anonymous]

two thoughts: one/ tourette's syndrome commonly presents like this and this is exactly how my in-laws describe how my husband first started with tourette's... he, thank goodness, has a pretty mild case, but they also tried waiting to see if it would go away, and thus was treated/diagnosed much later in life, which is well-associated with a worse prognosis as an adult. My husband definitely wishes he'd been diagnosed and treated earlier.

the second: seizures. why would you want to miss this? what if its hurting your child? or his development?

[Anonymous]

I agree that it sounds like it could at least possibly be seizures, and I'm glad you are getting it checked out OP. let us know how he's doing.

[Anonymous]

My ds did that EXACT same thing right about 22-24 months. Freaked me out, but thankfully dh talked me off the ledge. It eventually stopped and now he enjoys rolling his eyes as a joke, which still bothers me. I think it's really common, but good luck OP.

[Anonymous]

I'm so thankful to find this thread. My 2 year old DD just started doing this over the weekend. Actually this past February she started blinking hard/fast and we took her to the ped. whom thought it was a benign tic. I took her to the opthamologist and her eyes were fine, they said that it's most likely a habit that 98% of the time goes away. It did go away within 2-3 weeks but now this past weekend she started moving her eyes as if she were looking at something at the corner of her eyes. It's freaking me out and I haven't called the ped. yet. She did it maybe 5-6 times yesterday. I have to say she just started becoming afraid of incests, monsters, etc...and i'm wondering if this causing her to stress over it and maybe this is her way of reacting?? i don't know. I'm really worried and freaking out right now. I remember she did this a few weeks ago once to me and started laughing..she was doing it on purpose. Last night when I was putting her to sleep she was overly tired and wanted me to hold her..she said she was scared and I noticed she did it once then too. Any insight?

[Anonymous]

anyone have updates on their kids?

[Anonymous]

My 17 month old daughter started doing this about a week ago. It started on Friday, only a time or two. By Sunday night she was doing it so much I was ready to take her to the ER. Made it through the night and went ot Dr first thing Monday morning. They sent me straight to All Children's ER for a CT. Came back normal. Now waiting for nuerologist appt on Tuesday. She is doing is ALOT less now.

(Her eyes roll upwards for a slpit second, no other symtoms)

[Anonymous]

Get a test for strep. DS (almost 6) has had this happen several times. We were convinced he had Tourettes. Last go round, pediatrician tested for strep and he was positive even though the blinking was his only symptom. Apparently, some kids are predisposed to these types of tics and they tend to become pronounced by strep. We have also discussed the possibility of him having PANDAS which is a relatively new diagnosis that is still being researched, but we are monitoring to see if it happens again before pursuing that possibility. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PANDAS

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting this. My 19 month old son did this a few times over the past week, and then suddenly started doing it several times a minute during dinner, as we changed him, and then bathed him last night. He has the classic paroxysmal tonic upgaze symptoms (sudden upward eye rolling with corresponding downward head movement and the appearance of squinting as he tries to cope with the sudden visual change). It was alarming to see it happen so much, although it doesn't seem to affect his personality or appear to be painful in any way.

We took him to the doctor today and immediately received a CT scan which came back negative. He'll meet with a pediatric neurologist this week and also get an EEG.

He's otherwise perfectly normal, talking like crazy and loving life. He's always been a little wobbly on his feet, so the neurologist will evaluate that, too.

I'll try to report back here on how this progresses. Thanks for the comments, everyone.