Eyes Roll to the left

[HJK]

I have a child (4 years old) who rolls his eyes to the upper left corner.  He does not lose consciencesness while doing it, and it is only for a split second, but yet is very repetative.  He will do several in a minute, and then may not do it again for several minutes or hours.   At it's worst, I counted almost 50 times in a ten minute span.  I have noticed that when he is tired, it seems to be more frequently, but will also do it during the day.  He is developmentally normal and does not seem to have anything else wrong. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this?  He has seen a neurologist who is going to do an EEG and an MRI to make sure his brain if fine.   I had an opthomoligist tell me kids do things like this for attention, and to completely ignore it and it will go away.  I did what she said and ignored it for 3 weeks, and am still noticing it.  We are now going into our 5th month of seeing it.  Has anyone ever notice a child doing something like this and then just stopping for no apparent reason?  I'm starting to get concerned about Tourette syndrome?  Any information would be helpful.

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-PW]

It is important to rule out a seizure in this case and the eye movements should be captured while hooked up to an EEG. This may necessitate more prolonged EEG monitoring than just a routine EEG if the movements do not occur during the routine EEG. An MRI is also important to rule out a structural lesion. It is encouraging that his eye exam by an ophthalmologistm and his development are normal  -it may just be voluntary. This does not sound suggestive of tics or tourette syndrome, unless other movements or vocalizations occur (he is still somewhat young for Tourettes). Other than seizures, in a normal child, nothing else sinister somes to mind.

[aussie99]

You are right to have it checked out, I had a 5 year old and oddly enough he did the same thing with his eyes and it scared me alot. I also took him to the eyes doctor, and he eventually grew out of this habit.

[aussie99]

You are right to have it checked out, I have a 5 1/2 year old and oddly enough he did the same thing with his eyes and it scared me alot. I also took him to the eyes doctor, and he eventually grew out of this habit.

[chickadeedee]

I have a 15 month old son who is doing the exact same thing. I luckly caught it on video to show the Dr's. When my son is walking and it happens he stops for a second and sometimes turns his head to the right as his eyes go either top left or just left. It is desturbing to see him do it because it's not normal at all. Totally not voluntary, I think it's nuts a Dr told you to ignore it? Is he for real?? What kind of answer is that? I would get a second opnion. I'm going to take him to a Neurologist and they can perform any tests they need to. I would rather try everything to find out it is nothing then "ignore" it and hope it goes away.

Please don't be offended I'm not saying you are going to do that but I think it's crazy for a Dr to tell anyone to do that. I know you would do anything to get to the bottom of the problem. If I find out anything more I'll post it here.