10 yr old son says he feels he is floating when trying to sleep?

[gviv123]

When my son was 8, he use to say the words were moving when he was reading.  He also said I looked small when I was standing on the other side of the room. We had his eyes checked and they were fine.

He now says he feels like he is floating when he is in class looking at the board or when he tries to go to sleep at night.  He watches TV or does his DS/Lite Video game, then reads before going to sleep.  The lamp is 60 watts.

I give him Hylands Motion Sickness Tabs and sometimes they work but, other times, he gets back up.  He says he is so tired but, as soo as he lays down and closes his eyes, he is floating?

Can you help?

[Lim_Yee]

This reply is late, but if you get to this message you might want to have your son's inner ear(s) tested. The symptoms described sound similar to cochlea problems. Often the cochlea will cause visual disturbances when it even becomes slightly impaired. This could cause a floating sensation or off balance feeling along with various visual disturbances. This can be very hard to diagnose in milder cases, even for many ENT's, so be persistant. This may not be the reason for your son's symptoms, but this may be of some help if ocular causes are ruled out.

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

The motion sickness tabs don't sound like such a good idea to me.  Please ask his pediatrician before using that product.  You haven't said anything that sound particularly worrisome or dangerous but I understand your concern and agree that something seems to be going on.  I would have his eyes checked with a pediatric ophthalmologist, talk with the pediatrician and see where to go after that.  Sometimes further testing and referrals are appropriate and sometimes they can just lead to dead end streets for a short term problem that seems to just go away as the child grows a little older.  I certainly don't know exactly what is going on here, but a basic baseline workup with a pediatric ophthalmologist is entirely reasonable.

MJK MD