Squints!

[lucymum2four]

My DS1 has a appointment at the hospital on tuesday within opthamolgy.
Had been Refered by optician due to going cross eyed at times and having to sit close to tv ect. thinks he has squint/s.

Just wanted to know if anyone else has had this with their DC?. and could tell me what is done at hosp?

Just so i can explain to DS what they will be doing to him when we get there.

Thanks Guys. xx

[Seona1973]

what age is he?

I noticed dd squinting around 18 months and she was referred to the hospital. She had to look at varying sizes of pictures and say what they were e.g. house, car, duck, etc. She then had drops put in her eyes and waited 30 minutes for them to work (makes the pupils dilate). The back of her eyes were checked and then different lenses were tried out to work out her prescription. She turned out to be long sighted and has worn glasses since then. She has also had patching treatment as the sight in her squinting eye was worse than in her other eye.

[Oblomov]

Ds had a squint from a very early age. He has glasses for short sightedness and will always need them. We have patched aswell. Please rest assured that there is nothing to be frightened of.
Later they may have a minor op to correct the cross eyed'ness, as it were. But this is only a cosmetic thing. To make it look better. And it is only done if the cross eyede is very very bad. They are more concerned with checking the eyes, every few months to get the vision as good as it can be. That is always their primary concern,the actual vision, rather than how bad the cross eyed appears to be aethestically.

[lucymum2four]

Thanks.

He is 3 now. but had it for a while(long waiting times at chosen hosp)
but not since birth.

Did your dd sit extra close to tv ect?
or is that short sighted? (bit thick) lol

[Bluebella]

Hi,

I've just had to take my little one to eye hospital because he had developed a squint around 1 year old (he's 15 months now). He right eye looks upwards sometimes while other looks straight.

He has an unusual condition, called 4th nerve palsy.

Don't worry about the appointment, they will just show pictures, and get your little one to look in different directions etc... basically they will do lots of observations.

They may, as previously mentioned dilate the eyes with eye drops so they can examine the back of the eyes.

Squint surgery is, from what I have read quite straight forward and they are in and out the same day.

Let us know how it goes.

xxx

[lucymum2four]

thanks bluebella will do. x

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

DS1 (3.5) is wearing patches for 2-3 hours a day atm, since I noticed a squint in his right eye when looking at some photos of him taken in Feb this year. His appt was just as Seona1973 described - looking at pics, eye-drops etc. We were there about 2 hours.

He had a follow-up last week after 2 months of patching - vision has improved 50% since we started patching, and they are hoping that the eyes will have equalised after another 2 months. He is not long-sighted and I can't say I'd noticed anything about his vision beforehand - it was the turn in the eye (it turns inwards) that I first noticed.

If the patching sorts out the vision problems (which it looks like it will), we then have to decide whether he has an op to straighten the eye. Am currently undecided about that one...

[cheerfulvicky]

Just to offer a different perspective on this:
I'm an adult who has undergone the squint correction surgery about 6 months ago. I had it done for cosmetic reasons only as my eye was getting my down and affecting my confidence. It is a pretty simple procedure, afterwards they let you rest for a few hours and then you go home, with eye drops. Follow up appt to check all is well about a week later. It's painful for the first few days, but not unduly so - more really irritating, like when you have an eyelash stuck in your eye. The eye is puffy and sore, and I took paracetamol for a few days to help me sleep at night, not in the day. After that there is no pain, but they eye itself will be red for anything up to six weeks, this is normal.

For me it was too late to do anything about the vision in that eye, it is pretty bad. Can't read with it and if I was dependent on it I would be crashing into things when walking around etc! It's really important to try and get your DC's squinting eye to work just as hard as their good eye, as if it is not used the brain will start to disregard it and they eye will not develop vision as it should. Then the window for the brain to recognize and use the 'bad' eye in conjunction with the good eye is gone, and nothing can be done to improve the vision, or make the two work together. A bit like the speech learning window, kids need to learn to talk by a certain age or they never will, that kind of thing.

So, yeah - it's great you are getting it sorted. It's a pain not having binocular vision, and also being treated like a weirdo because one of your eyes is pointing the other way. People can be so insensitive, and it affects you a lot when you make others uncomfortable, it's horrible. As a child I wouldn't wear the patches and said I didn't want glasses or an operation at the age of 6 or 7. So my mum just went with that. I wish she had seen the long term and made me wear the patches, to be honest. I am still sad that she took the words of a child over medical advice. Too soft
Good luck with your sons appointment, I'm sure it will go fine!

[OurLadyOfPerpetualSupper]

Cheerful, your experience reminds me of mine - although my mum did send me for the op at 4, she says I wouldn't wear the patch once I started school, so although my eye has been straight since then, it is 'lazy' and I don't really use it at all.

I went through school hating games lessons as I couldn't catch or throw, and was generally a very clumsy child.

It wasn't until my late 20s that I discovered this was due to the lack of spatial awareness caused by my poor vision.

I googled this recently, and came across people who swear by Vision Therapy, which they claim can be used successfully for adults if they apply themselves properly. It's not one of those crackpot things like the Bates method, but is practised by conventionally qualified professionals. I don't think there are many practitioners as yet, though, and obviously it's a matter of £££.

I hope everything goes well with your DS, OP - I suppose the main thing is to adhere religiously to advice.