Excessive Blinking

[5918]

Our four and a half year old daughter, otherwise healthy, developed excessive blinking with some lip licking around December of last year.  She had just tested positive for strep throat (based on a swab, not culture) and recieved treatment a week prior.  We speculated whether the stress from a christmas party at our home or the glue used in the hardwood we had installed or the strep was the cause.  We also had her checked out by a pediatric opthamologist, pediatric neurologist and her pediatrician.  Each said their tests on her were normal (i.e eye, neurological assessments, etc).  It eventually resolved on its own after six weeks or so.  Exactly a year later almost to the day, the blinking is back but not with lip licking.  First, she developed a low grade fever prior to onset (below 99.9) then started blinking a few days later. So far, strep swab negative but has been sent for culture.  Is this due to seasonal allergies?  Does anyone have any information at all that might help?  

[5918]

Thanks so much for your comment.  I will post if anything new comes up.  My prayers are that it will be nothing remarkable and will go away for good.  Have great holidays!

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

I wish I could offer some real substantive help but I can't.  It sounds like you have done an excellent job of trying to find the answer.  Perhaps her eyes are bothering her for some reason (allergies, atopic conjuctivitis, headache due to viral illness or strep throat, dry air from heater in house, other????  As she gets older, eventually the ophthalmologist will be able to get a better exam and possibly discover some problem causing eye irritaton.  Sometimes children blink a lot for no good reason or some reason that you can never discover.  Will she grow out of it??? No one knows.  Some good news in that now only eyelid blinking compared to last year and it went away on its own last year.  Pediatric ophthalmologist would be your best bet now for evaluation.  Have her checked there again.

MJK MD