Help, newborn with crosseyes / squint- anyone experienced this?

[ilikeyoursleeves]

hi, apologies for all lower case, baby on boob!

i have a nearly 6 week old ds2 and at times his eyes appear to be quite cross eyed. they sometimes come together like he is trying to focus on something very close (even if he isn't) and at other times one eye looks at you and the other wanders off somewhere else! but there are also plenty of times where they both work together and he looks fine.

i mentioned it to the hv and she said she had noticed it too. she said to wait til his 8 week check with gp as the eye muscles can take a while to develop. however ds1 never had this and i've not seen it in other babies.

just wondering if anyone had experienced this with their dc's and if so do the eyes rectify themselves once they strengthen or did your dc need intervention? thanks x

Yes, I had this with my DD. All sorted out by about 8 mths. I just put it down to weak muscles when young. She's 3.10 now and it isn't there at all.

Many newborns appear to squint, as the eye muscles are weak and also the bridge of the nose is wide, which can make a squint appear worse.

It might be that the GP refers him to opthalmology at your postnatal check just to keep an eye on things. (no pun intended )

DD1 had this and we had it checked (I think) before she was 12 months the optometrist? said it was just the shape of her face. Then I mentioned it again in her 2 year questionnaire and it was therefore checked again at about 2.5. Both times they said it wasn't a squint, just that the bridge of her nose that would narrow as Sidge said. It has almost gone now (3.6) and no-one has noticed for months but me.

Interestingly my BIL who is a GP had passed comment quite early on that, in a "red eye" photo, both eyes were affected which indicated that there was no squint as both retinas were exposed at the same angle - if that makes sense.

Yes, dd2 had this. It was gone by about 8 weeks iirc. I wouldn't worry about it - I think it's very normal.

dd2 had it at 6 weeks but it's gone now (10 weeks)

Yes my ds had/has it. It can be very common for all baaies but they keep a closer eye on my ds as he was prem and more prone to eye probs.

The squint was really noticable for me in photographs more than anything. He's seen the optometrist twice and both times she told me he is still using his 'apparent lazier' eye so it may well be a false squint ie the shape of his nose changes so the squint appears to sort itself out.

He's to go back in 2 months when he's 2 to get another assessment but I have noticed myself although it's still there slightly, it's getting straighter as time goes by.

Very common as they try to focus and get control of the eye muscles.

hiya yes dd2 had this and had to have patching amongst other things, dt2 also has one i think he's 9 weeks and he's just been referred to eye clinic to get it checked.

With dd2 they said much easier to treat it earlier and you get better results. She is 5 and has perfect eye sight now.