What should I do if my child always blinks frequently?

Recently, I found that the children at home like to blink frequently and for no reason. This makes parents worry whether their eyes are uncomfortable or injured. Generally, children blink frequently because their faces are fat, causing their eyelashes to roll into their eyes and causing discomfort. There are also eye diseases such as keratitis. Generally, people with keratitis will blink frequently, and at the same time, they will have symptoms such as red eyes and tears. Therefore, if you find that your children have these symptoms, you should go to the hospital for treatment in time.

I checked the Internet for information and found that there are several reasons for children's frequent blinking:

1. Eyelashes are mainly seen in obese infants and young children. Due to facial obesity, the lower eyelashes curl inward, causing friction and irritation to the black eyeball. 2. Viral keratitis often occurs after a cold or fever. The child suddenly starts blinking frequently, and may have symptoms such as red eyes, tearing, photophobia (fear of light), or there may be no other eye symptoms. However, examination under a slit lamp may reveal lesions infiltrating the surface of the black eyeball. 3. Television image stimulation: This is because the TV screen flickers and changes rapidly, causing over-excitement of the child’s visual center. 4. Mental stimulation is more common in children aged 5-13 years old. When blinking, the children often squeeze their eyes hard, or have spasms and twitches in the facial muscles, or twitches in the shoulder and abdominal muscles. Most of these children are scolded by their parents, have academic pressure, or are in a bad mood. Eye examination revealed no abnormalities.

Blinking caused by the above reasons can all be treated. Eyelashes can be corrected surgically. Viral keratitis can be treated with medication. Children should be strictly prohibited from watching TV to prevent them from blinking due to stimulation from TV images. For blinking caused by mental stimulation, we should help children relieve psychological pressure

After eliminating the above four factors, I think the third factor should be the stimulation of TV images. After the weather gets cold, outdoor activities are basically cancelled. I go to the kindergarten to pick up Pippi at 4:30 every afternoon. After returning home, my husband or I cook. In order to avoid the little guy causing trouble, we turn on the computer and let him watch cartoons. After dinner, we continue to watch cartoons to kill time. I calculated that Pippi's eyes are fixed on the screen for at least three hours from school to bedtime, and this also ignores the time he spends watching TV in kindergarten during the day (Pippi's mother deeply reflects on this). The appropriate time for children to watch TV is about half an hour, but ours is already five times this standard.

Relevant information also says that if a child is found to have a blinking problem, it should be treated and corrected in a timely manner, because over time even if the eye disease is cured, it may become a habitual blinking. Once this habit is formed, it is difficult to correct, especially for such a young child.

Pipi's mother was really scared and blamed herself. Fortunately, the problem was not discovered too late. After checking the information, I immediately decided to reduce Pipi's TV watching time from that night, setting the time between 30-40 minutes, and the rest of the time was used for reading, listening to stories, and playing with toys.

While reducing his TV viewing time, I also appropriately extended his sleep time. Three days after taking this measure, my son's blinking symptoms completely disappeared, and I finally felt relieved.

Pi Ma has two more words:

Children of Pippi's age (around 3 years old) love to imitate others the most, and it is possible that they learned the habit of blinking from others. But no matter what the situation is, parents need to do more than just give the right medicine.

Don’t scold or make fun of your children

Your scolding and teasing may very likely cause fear and inferiority in the child's young heart. After all, such a young child does not have a thorough understanding of right and wrong. If someone laughs at him when he blinks, he may think it is a very funny thing and may deliberately perform in front of you.

Don’t always give verbal warnings

I think blinking is not the same as other bad habits, and it can be corrected by rewards and punishments. At the beginning, when Pippi blinked, I always told him not to blink, because it was a bad habit and looked ugly. Who would have thought that every time I said that, although he agreed with his mouth, his eyes would blink even more violently involuntarily, like a conditioned reflex. I felt that every reminder was equivalent to indirectly telling him - it's time to blink, so later I changed to observing quietly and never mentioned the word "blink" in front of him again.

The above is summarized by Pi Ma based on Pi Pi’s actual situation. Although there are no professional terms or clever tricks, they are all experiences summarized from examples. I hope it will be helpful to everyone!