3.75 year old child with eye pain

[angelaem]

My daughter is 3.75 years old.  She has been having this for almost a year now...  She seemed to have pain when she had fevers, or was sick (predominantly right eye, but seems to occur in both at times).  It also seems to have been triggered in some cases, or made worse, by light - sensitivity.  Howevery, in the dimmest light, she will still get upset if there is an episode. She has long eye lashes as well, but she is able to tell us if there is something in her eye, as opposed to this issue, which she cannot quite explain, but is quite frantic about the level of pain.  

Since her last cold end of January 2012 when she had a fever and eye pain, it has continued past the cold.  She will rub her eyes and scream, telling us to turn off her nightlight (which is a clear sign to us something is up as she will not normally tolerate going to bed without it - has a fear of the dark).  That all said, when she is fine (no episode), the sunniest days do not bother her.  She is now resorted to licking her hands and then rubbing her eyes to try and help it - which it doesn't.  From this, we thought it might be lack of moisture in her eyes, but the optometrist said her levels were fine.  We have tried giving her eye drops when she does complain, but it does not help.  I thought with the colds, that perhaps it was sinus pressure (esp if lying down, pressure may distribute differently), but her pain/episodes have carried on beyond her cold, as mentioned above, and bending over with head below hips does not bother her (as sinus cold/infection would probably build pressure and make the pain worse).  

Just last week, after seeing the optometrist twice, our GP, we got in to see a pediatric ophthalmologist.  He has chalked it up to "Blonde Retina".  From the very little I can find out about it, it doesn't match.  I am of Japanese decent, and my husband is Caucasian. She is fair (light brown hair, but has brown eyes, brown hair etc.)  Still, I guess she could have it, but everything I have read says she would consistently be sensitive to light.  She is not.  

Wondering if this may be some kind of migraine type thing, but do children of this age get migraines?  She rarely complains of headaches, but perhaps it is just the visual disturbances?  

Family, who are in the medical field are suggesting that we see a neurologist.  If her eyes are fine, then we probably should rule out that there are no impairments neurologically.  Kind of scary sometimes because it is ongoing and if it isn't the eyes, then what is going on?  Any insight greatly appreciated.

[JohnHaganMD]

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[Jpena4]

Hi, my daughter just started complaining about her eyes hurting. She also has a cold it seems, mostly coughing. But she uses the iPad/iPhone quite often. Is this the case with anyone else?
I plan to limit the amount of device use and see if that would help.

[matti35]

Hi did you have any follow up result for this ailment? my three year old has the same problem. She has been complaining of a sharp pain in her left eye.  It's everyday and it waters after she complains of the pain.  Sometimes she is screaming in agony.  The general doctor has examined her and says there is nothing wrong as far as she can see, but what causes the pain?

Thanks

[clueless44]

Was wondering if you found out the cause of your daughter's symptoms? I hope she has recovered. I found your post as I am dealing with similar symptoms with my 2 year old daughter. Started at one year old, I noticed she would squeeze her eyes shut and cover her face when we would lay her down to changer her diaper or her clothes. Slowly, she would seem to get more and more distressed when doing this. Then she became sensitive to bright lights, both inside and outside. She has a chronic runny nose that goes along with this, and i can't help but think the two are related. this past month, she has been waking up at night with the eye pain, and has episodes where she can't even stand having her eyes open in the dark. This past week it progressed to having periods of time where her eyes were watery, puffy, and red rimmed for a while. She also has begun to rub them, which is also new. So what have we done? More like what haven't we done...neurologist did an MRI - normal. EEG...normal. Pediatric opthalmologist exam...normal. She seemed to be in such distress this past week i demanded the pediatric opthalmalogist see her again. He is going to exam her while she is sedated to look further after my badgering.
Just wanted to know if you had any better luck as you seem to have had a long road of this too...

[angelaem]

The opthamologist said he saw no indication of uveitis, iridis or one more thing... He said the eye looks healthy and has referred us to a pediatrician perhaps for neurological follow up since the frequency is increasing.

[angelaem]

Thank you so much :)  We are playing phone tag.  Hopefully will talk to him tomorrow.  My daughter was again having an episode tonight to turn all lights off (only night light was on). It seems to be when she is overtired, or sick.  

Your insight is greatly appreciated.  

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

It depends on the individual physician.

Dr. O.

[angelaem]

thank you so much Dr. O.  Would the pediatric opthamologist that we saw not have checked for this or seen it if it were the case?