Many eye diseases are dangerous because they are asymptomatic, do not express themselves in any way, and can remain invisible for a long time. Only after a few years does such a disease appear, but in an advanced form. Eye diseases are especially dangerous in childhood.
For example, a child rolls his eyes. This may have completely harmless causes or be a sign of a serious illness. Therefore, in each case it is necessary to understand why the child does this and what could be the reason.
When to worry
Concern should begin with frequent eye rolling from the age of one year. In this case, there should be no irritants in the form of a computer or TV. If rolling occurs in the absence of such stimuli, this indicates health problems.
Let's look at them in detail:
- The eye may twitch due to nervous tension. There are reasons of a psychological nature. The result of internal experiences is a nervous tic. And it is expressed in the form of twitching and rolling of the eyes. That is, in this case, there is a reason of a psycho-emotional nature.
- This effect can be caused by diseases of the ENT group. However, they will not be directly related to ocular function. Pain and general discomfort can be expressed in rolling the eyes. This is the child's reaction to the stimulus. Accordingly, it is necessary to influence the disease and treat it.
- Often, twitching of the pupil is a sign of epilepsy. This occurs before a seizure. Therefore, with frequent eye rolling, it is necessary to undergo an examination to identify epileptic pathology.
- Intracranial pressure can lead to the effect in question. In childhood, it can be congenital or acquired as a result of injury. This is a dangerous condition that sometimes leads to the development of vascular pathologies and glaucoma.
Dangerous reasons
Among the culprits of sleeping with open eyes are a variety of pathologies. This:
- Sleepwalking, or somnambulism.
- Lagophthalmos.
- Pathologies of the endocrine system.
- Encephalopathy and organic lesions of brain structures.
- Mental retardation.
- Increased production of adrenaline in the blood.
- Oncology.
- Spasms of the optic nerves.
Let's look at the most common pathologies and their symptoms in more detail.
Somnambulism
Or sleepwalking. This is a psychopathic condition associated with frequent awakenings at night, sometimes walking half asleep. The child can sit on the bed and get up without waking up.
Sleepwalking is rare before the fourth year of life. The peak occurrence of pathology occurs between the ages of 5 and 8 years. This may be a symptom of epilepsy. You need to do an EEG, seek help from a neurologist or psychotherapist.
Lagophthalmos in a child
This is a neurological disease associated with the quality of the facial muscles. The pathology may be congenital. Then the newborn is diagnosed with a shortened eyelid. Or acquired - paralysis of the facial nerve responsible for closing the eyes during sleep, due to injury or infection.
Encephalopathy
Brain pathology is accompanied by constant fatigue, impaired attention, and irritability. But a sick person, when he wants to sleep, cannot fall asleep for a long time, lies half asleep, his eyes are slightly open. Sweet sleep in the deep phase is very rare in young children with encephalopathy.
According to parents, babies behave strangely. The baby rubs his eyes, yawns, lies in bed, but constantly opens his eyelids completely or slightly, as if he is squinting. Insomnia has to be combated with sedatives and physiotherapeutic procedures aimed at correcting brain function.
Spasms of the optic nerves
Most often these are the consequences of emotional overstrain. The baby rolls his eyes as he falls asleep. Then the eyelids may slam shut completely, but only for a short time. In a dream, such a child actively moves his eyes, talks (babbles), and often wakes up. His eyelids tremble even in deep sleep. Tics and involuntary eye twitching are also observed during wakefulness.
Reasons why children under one year old roll their eyes
At this age, the eye muscles are just beginning to form. They are necessary for focusing the gaze on objects. The child needs time to get comfortable and learn to control his eyes. This is why infants and newborns often experience eye rolling.
Children from one month to one year
It is during this period that the child becomes accustomed to a new space and conditions. He learns to coordinate his movements to get the desired result. This applies to motor skills and eye function. Consequently, the formation of the eye muscles will be accompanied by their rolling. Return to contents
Therapeutic measures
If the baby is growing and the eye rolling continues, the doctor may prescribe therapeutic measures to strengthen the muscles. Diagnostic tests are usually performed when several warning signs are present or when the child is more than 3 months old. The eye muscles are strengthened without drugs using exercises and physical therapy.
Gymnastics for the eyes
The simplest exercises for the eye muscles are carried out for infants in the form of a game. The baby is taught to focus his gaze while following a toy. To do this, choose a bright rattle and slowly move it in front of your eyes, drawing attention to it. It is important that the baby is healthy, well-fed and in a good mood at this time. The distance is changed, teaching the child to find the object and not look away. It’s worth playing with your baby until he gets tired. This will be a complete workout for the eye muscles.
A mobile phone that is great for independent training attracts kids with a variety of bright objects and teaches them to independently choose an object to observe.
Massage and physiotherapy
Massage has a general strengthening effect and increases muscle tone in the baby. It is important to find a good specialist who knows how to work with infants. A special eye massage strengthens the eye muscles and improves coordinated joint movements of the eyeballs.
Self-massage will not give the desired result. Parents can invite a massage therapist to their home or visit a clinic. If there are indications, other physiotherapy procedures are prescribed - therapeutic baths with soothing phytocomplexes, physical therapy exercises for muscle development, reflexology.
Causes in children over one year of age
If after one year the rolling continues, this is a cause for concern. It is necessary to undergo a medical examination in order to timely identify the disease that is causing the child to roll his eyes. First of all, you should pay attention to diseases of the ENT group and examine intracranial pressure.
| If this is not confirmed, epilepsy must be excluded. If the result is negative, only a nervous tic will remain. Accordingly, treatment will depend on the cause of the eye rolling. |
ENT diseases
These can be any diseases of this group. They are not directly related to ocular function. However, they are accompanied by pain, difficulty breathing, and general malaise.
As a result, the child begins to roll his eyes involuntarily. This is a reaction to unpleasant sensations. Therefore, it is necessary to treat ARVI.
Increased intracranial pressure
This is a dangerous condition that can lead to chronic vascular diseases and glaucoma. If eye rolling is not associated with fatigue or acute respiratory viral infection, you should definitely get an MRI to check intracranial pressure.
If this is confirmed, then the cause of eye rolling is high blood pressure. Accordingly, it is necessary to take medications to reduce it and undergo regular treatment in clinics.
Return to contents
Nervous tic
Its etiology is not fully understood. This is due to its psycho-emotional nature. After all, any strong experiences can lead to a tic. For example, about appearance, relationships with classmates, and so on. All reasons depend on the particular child’s perception of the world around him.
Therefore, there is no need to scold or control every eye movement. We will have to deal with the underlying causes of the condition and act on them. However, as a rule, the rolling goes away on its own. After all, in childhood it is difficult to concentrate on the same experience for a long time. Therefore, the tick goes away and the rolling stops.
Epilepsy
Rolling your eyes may indicate an epileptic seizure, which will soon occur. Epilepsy is a severe congenital disease.
It is associated with damage to the nervous system and manifests itself in periodic seizures. A person with this diagnosis must take strong medications throughout his life to increase the interval between seizures and reduce their intensity.
Epileptic seizure
It is a complex condition when a person cannot control himself. If there is epilepsy and the child begins to roll his eyes, this indicates an imminent seizure. Accordingly, you need to put the child on the bed and take measures to limit his movements. Because they are uncontrollable and he can cause serious injury to himself. Return to contents
Pathological causes
Eye rolling is considered a normal physiological process in a newborn, but it can also be a sign of dangerous diseases.
It is necessary to study the reasons why a child rolls his eyes in order to react correctly to this phenomenon and, if necessary, consult a doctor. Immediately after birth, some of the newborn's body systems are not yet fully developed; their final formation occurs during the first year of life. This is also true for the organs of vision. Infants have poorly developed extraocular muscles, a small size of the eyeball, an underdeveloped retina, and a weak neural connection between the optic nerve and the visual nuclei in the brain.
Parents themselves may notice this, since the newborn is not able to focus his gaze on objects. This ability, like the friendly movement of the eyeballs, begins to form by the end of the second month of life. The functionality of a child’s eyes develops gradually in the process of strengthening connections between the organs of vision and the brain.
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The physiological causes of eye rolling are weakness of the eye muscles, which should hold the eyeball in its normal position, as well as poor development of the nerve centers responsible for their control. Since the muscles are controlled by the brain, you will most often see a newborn rolling his eyes when falling asleep, and this control is weakened.
Eye rolling is a normal state of a child in a borderline state of sleep.
Normally, when falling asleep, you can see the following: the baby blinks frequently, rubs his eyes and nose, fiddles with his ears, looks for his mother’s breast, yawns, his head falls back, the child rolls his eyes up. You can also see that when the baby sleeps, his eyelids open slightly and part of the white is visible.
If a newborn baby rolls his eyes, but does not have other unusual symptoms, then this condition is normal, corresponding to the level of development of his nervous system.
However, if the unusual position of the eyeballs in an infant is not associated with sleep and the child is older than three months, then you should pay attention to the possible presence of other symptoms. A condition is considered dangerous when a newborn child rolls his eyes down, there is nystagmus (involuntary small movements of the eyeballs from side to side), nervous tics (fluttering of the eyelids), convulsions and irregular breathing rhythm.
In neurological disorders, eye rolling is accompanied by nystagmus
Visual impairment in preschool children
- inflammatory or traumatic damage to brain structures such as the pons, labyrinth, cerebellum, cerebellum and pituitary gland;
- poisoning with drugs or toxic substances;
- neuroinfection;
- fever;
- genetic mutations;
- epilepsy or seizure disorder;
- hydrocephalic syndrome;
- increased pressure inside the skull;
- mental development disorder.
Nervous tension can also be expressed in children in the form of small epileptic seizures – absence seizures. In this state, the baby rolls his eyes and seems to “freeze” - all other mental functions stop (movement, humming, any reactions). After the attack ends, the child returns to his normal state. An absence seizure can turn into a grand mal seizure, so you should consult a doctor without waiting for it.
Also, the eyes may take an incorrect position if the child has pain in the eyeball or orbit due to various ophthalmic inflammatory diseases, adenoids, sinusitis, inflammation of the tonsils or otitis media, neuritis of the facial or trigeminal nerve.
The photo shows Graefe's symptom, the iris is directed downwards
An indicative appearance of the eyeball in children with hypertensive-hydrocephalic syndrome takes on pathological rolling. The so-called Graefe symptom or “setting sun” occurs when the eyeball is turned with the iris downward, so that a stripe of white is visible above it. This situation is caused by damage to the brain and the pressure of cerebrospinal fluid accumulated in its ventricles.
However, Graefe's symptom is not an accurate diagnostic sign of hydrocephalic syndrome. The reasons that a child rolls his eyes downward may be illnesses of the pregnant woman, rapid labor, birth trauma, prematurity or postmaturity, as well as hereditary predisposition.
Parental actions (treatment)
Treatment depends on the cause. For example, if tired, isolate the child from the computer and give him soothing drops. For example, Vizin or Tyfon are good options. For ENT diseases, take medications, do warming and other physiotherapeutic procedures.
A necessary element will be an MRI and a study for epilepsy. And the main task of parents is to consult a doctor immediately after identifying these symptoms.
Recommendations for improving the condition
If parents notice a decreased tone of the muscles of the child’s visual organs, they should:
- Exercise with your baby every day, why use bright objects and educational toys for games. They will help the proper development of vision.
- Sign up with your child for swimming lessons, baby massages and physiotherapeutic procedures.
- Buy baby rattles of various bright colors; they will help develop not only vision, but also hearing, and will also contribute to better concentration.
Additional Information. If there are neurological disorders in young children, independent use of nootropics or vitamins for brain activity is unacceptable. A neurologist can make a diagnosis and prescribe appropriate subsequent treatment and recovery.
In most cases, such a phenomenon as a child's eyes rolling upward is not a pathology or a symptom of any serious disease. This is an absolutely normal manifestation for newborns, since they are not yet able to control their oculomotor muscles.
