Children blinking hard during meals may be related to foreign body irritation, inverted eyelashes and childhood tic disorders.
1. Foreign body irritation: If a foreign body enters the eyes when the child is eating, it can cause the child’s eyes to experience discomfort such as photophobia and foreign body sensation, and in order to alleviate the discomfort, the child may blink hard.
2. Inverted eyelashes: due to lid trauma or inflammation and other reasons, eyelid inversion is caused, resulting in part of the child’s eyelashes inverted to the eyeballs, constantly stimulating the eyeballs to produce discomfort, and the child may appear to blink constantly.
3. Childhood Tourette’s Disorder: Children with Tourette’s Disorder may have symptoms of involuntary, rapid muscle twitching in one or more parts of the body, such as blinking and shrugging their noses, which are mostly related to psychological factors.
It is recommended that children who blink hard should seek medical attention to assess their condition and follow the doctor’s instructions for treatment.