i feel for you, that is hard to see. i have to say i would seriously look into sensory/bio treatments or ideas. Maybe something in his body is agitating him? i would look into sensory issues. My son, who doesnt really hurt himself, does things like that on others and has his own quirks. i would also think about your response to him, in case this is a behavior issue. good luck.Jessi, my DD who's 2, does this. SHe pokes her fingers in her eyes. Her bigger thing though is biting adn hitting herself. Those things she does when she's stressed out or if a situation gets to be too much for her.
She also pokes her finger way up in her nose until there's blood all over the place. She doesn't cry at all when this happens. She seems oblivious to it.
I would be interested in seeing when he does poke himself whats been happening right before it and what his response is after he does it. and then trying to figure it out from there.
Reason I say this is I have heard of kids who bite, pull out their hair, gouge their eyes etc.(1 person I spoke to their child is partially blind in their eye from doing this) it could be soe sort of calming thing... or sensory related, does he have an OT you can consult with?
HeyNikki,
I'm on the same page as Michelle, i would first call your son's dr, see if the can arrange a functional behavioral analysis, to see what's causing your son's distress and the adverse reactions( self injurious behavior) I too know a child that is considered legally blind due to extensive damage caused by himself. also, you may want to look into allergy testing, my son was pressing rather deeply on his eyes and the ot thought it was a stim, we had it checked out, used an over the counter allergy med and the behavior disappeared, seems he was having seasonal allergies and his eyes, like mine, were dry, itchy and basically stinging. I think that's the hardest part, our kids aren't ablt to tell us what's going on.
Best of luck with this!!
I'm not sure about playing or poking his own eyes, but my son loves to touch other peoples eyes, mostly me or my hubby...he even kisses us on the eyes and will look at me right smackeroo in the eyes (something I LOVE) but I always say he has a real fascination with eyes...it does sound like a form of stimming for both of our guys.
Nicholas had phases where he would play with his tounge then when that got old, he'd play w/ his ears, etc...so it may just be them aware of their different body parts and investigating too...Its really hard to tell...I wish you luck w/ it though, it sounds like he could hurt his precious eyes, poor guy, and I'm sure they are just gorgeous!
hugs!
Ali
Noah, who is my higher functioning kiddo, has started poking himself n the eye VERY hard. He will also punch himself in the eye. It diesn't seem to hurt him, but it should since his eye will get all red and puffy when he does it a lot.