Anyone’s child have a squint?

Normal for them to monitor for years and see if glasses/patches strengthen the muscles. My dsd is 8 and developed a squint aged 1. She actually has surgery this Monday to correct it after years of glasses and patches because her muscles never strengthened. They did at first with glasses to the point glasses made her eyes look straight then they just became ineffective to the point you could start to see the squint even with glasses on and they said surgery was the next step. Of course she ended up on the nhs' waiting list for 3 years.

I was patched as a child and had to wear glasses for a few years.

Cosmetically my eyes are now straight but in reality I have monocular vision which means I have no depth perception as although I have good sight in both eyes, they don't work together. My brain compensates by totally supressing the images in my right eye unless I close my left..

It does mean I am terrible at sports but other than that it hasn't really had much impact on my life other than the fad of 3D movies was totally wasted on me.

My child is seen by moorfields . His squint is very severe / rare . I had to fight for anything but monitoring. Could you see them privately and pay for your son to have an op , failing that ask the nhs for surgery for the cosmetic aspect ?

My daughter has a squint and a different prescription in each eye. We noticed it at age 3 as well. She hasn’t been patched or had surgery because the glasses correct her vision and she doesn’t squint with them on. She is now old enough for contact lenses which also correct the squint. Since she was three her glasses have stayed on all day. Does your son take his glasses off? Do you feel the glasses are not working? I was beyond delighted that my daughter’s squint was corrected with glasses and that she was able to avoid surgery,

Do NOT leave it! I had one as a child and my DM was told ‘I’d grow out of it’

Bollocks. I am in my 60s and it is getting worse, particularly when I’m tired. I really thought things had improved with treatment of this. Scandalous.

CMOT above is correct - lots of people with squints don’t need patching.

The RNIB have a good webpage on the difference between squint and lazy eye and the treatment for both.
People with a squint like me don't necessarily have a 'weaker' eye, any sight problems are correctable with lenses and patching doesn't do anything. Its a muscle imbalance that causes it.
Patching is for amblyopia where the brain isn't processing the signal from the eye properly, so the patch makes it listen to that eye and use it.

If he is still squinting in his glasses then yes he needs to patch the good eye to make him use the weaker eye and get it stronger. You need to get a referral back to the hospital. Why did they say they were discharging him? Vision therapy will also help if you can find someone to do it - you would need a behavioural optometrist. You must keep on it to make sure he gets this resolved because a squint will interfere with the development of binocular vision. It won’t go away by itself, no.

I have a squint, I am very short sighted, I have a stronger prescription in the eye with the squint (-11 and -9). It is corrected when I’m wearing glasses and I only notice it when I don’t have any glasses on which is rarely.

My niece has one. It tends to mostly go when she has her glasses on & is miles less noticeable now (age 10.5) than when she was younger.

They don't rush to do surgery for things that are largely cosmetic because its a pretty big risk to take & it can even wind up worse.

DS is 20 now but had squint surgery in reception year and then again at 17 as is often the case that it's needed again when they're older. He had patching when young. We were told it's important to improve the vision as best as can be incase there's ever an injury to the best eye. If he'd only ever looked through his good eye, he could have lost the vision in the other.

My DD had this and the Doctor, overseas, said use patches on the other eye when not in school. I can’t remember how long it took but it did fix it.

Yes my child does have a squint , surgery is the only treatment for it and it’s only going to improve the cosmetic aspect .

OP , you need to see a ophthalmologist. Perhaps a specialist in your area. Have you seen one ? Not an optician or a gp. Both will be useless/ clueless .

It really depends on the cause of the squint . My son was born with his.
If he’s getting bullied you may need to consider surgery if glasses do not control the squint. Tell the consultant you NEED to get some treatment for your son . That’s what I had to to do. other wise F all was going to be done , just pointless monitoring .

I had a squint. My parents decided against surgery as they were told it could recur. I went through my childhood and twenties with it. I then had surgery as an adult at Moorfields. Best thing I ever did and I wish my parents had made a different decision.

My son is 21 and he had an operation on the NHS on both eyes for a squint when he was 5. They said that the squint could come back, but it hasn't so far.

The glasses are to help resolve the squint over time - he has these and it is being monitored. What more are you wanting? Several people - NHS, private and optician have said that he just needs monitoring. What else can they say?

I had a DD like this with glasses from about 18 months. It took time.

A few questions, OP-

-is it still the case that it could be either eye turning out? (I know you said mainly the right)

—do his glasses stop his eye(s) from turning (or improve things) or do they just make his vision clearer?

—does he get double vision?

-what kind of optician do you go to? (eg, high street chain or independent)

—did they ever talk about surgery at the hospital?

I have some experience in this as I am an optician and also my child has a squint from age 3yrs!

I had one and had surgery aged 2 (in the 80s). Also wore patches but I don’t think this element ever worked. My eyes have always focussed independently of each other and have opposite sight - one long sighted one short sighted (short sightedness didn’t develop until later). But to look at me you wouldn’t know I’d ever had an issue - if I focus through the eye with the squint though, my other eye turns inwards, but I don’t do that without meaning to as that eye is much weaker!

The surgery can be risky. My dc only had it done when his eye turned permanently inwards and experienced double vision

DS is 14 and has - 16 in both eyes. The doctor's say that his squint is more to do with his extreme short-sightedness rather than being an actual squint needing patching. The squint occurs when he looks closer at things. Given that both his eyes have pretty much the same script, and have continued this trajectory his whole life, we are satisfied that it is more cosmetic, if that makes sense.

My 13 year old is very short sighted and has an alternating squint....he squints in both eyes, but not at the same time. He's worn glasses since being 2 years old, never had patching, and we considered surgery but we were told it would only be cosmetic and only a 50/50 chance of being successful.

Now he's a teenager and his eyes are pretty stable with his glasses on (unless he's very tired or ill). We've been reminded a couple of times that the option for cosmetic surgery is still available to him, but we'd rather him have a say in that decision than force it on him.

I had a squint in one eye as a child which was operated on when I was 7 I still have it a bit but I am able to stop it if I realise my eye is drifting out. It hasn't caused me any real problems since.