Do squints (in eyes) get better?

[Effjay]

DS is 4.10 and has just been diagnosed with a squint. It's a relatively mild one, but he now wears glasses. The NHS doctor was really unhelpful and gave mono-syllabic answers to my questions, which were 'Does he now need to wear glasses for life?', 'Will it improve?', etc.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Do glasses 'correct' squints so that they are not needed any more? Would love to hear your experiences of how this may pan out.

Yes glasses may correct, it worked like that for my brother, although his squint eye is also the weaker eye and always will be.

I needed surgery to correct my rather more severe squint.

i had op too about 35 yrs ago - they tried glasses first

It depends on type of squint, is it muscular or cognitive?

I don;t know, but I think DS (2 last week) is squinting and we are waiting to be refered to the paediatric opthamologist. DH and I are both very short sighted, so we thought DS would have to wear glasses, but that so young.

DS 4.7 has a squint and is long sighted in his left eye and has been wearing glasses since he was 2. We also have to patch his good eye to make his left eye work.

Although we were told that the glasses and the patch would only correct the vision and not the squint we are seeing a gradual improvement. DS's squint always looks worse if he is poorly or tired. We are hoping that it will correct itself over time.

hobbgoblin Not sure ... I didn't realise there was different types and the information I received from the doctor was v. limited. But I'll ask that question next time.
Neither DH nor I had squints, but I'm mildly short-sighted and needed glasses from age 15.
DDS is a rough and tumble boy so it would be ggreat if he didn't need them in the future.

I believe squints can be fixed but only with intervension (eg eye patches, glasses, surgery if v severe)

dd's squint was not fixed by glasses or patching and she had an eye op when she was 4 which corrected it quite a lot. She has had glasses from the age of 18 months (is now nearly 7) and is long sighted in both eyes - the squint was in her left eye.

p.s. it depends on your lo's glasses prescription as to whether he will need glasses in the future e.g. dd is around +5.75 in one eye and +5 in the other eye and will probably always need glasses.

Seona1973 Can I just ask how your DD coped with the surgery? The orthoptist has told us that surgery is the next step for DS and I'm worried about how invasive and painful it will be for him.

also you say that surgery has corrected your DD's squint quite a lot so its still not completely corrected. i suppose what I'd like to ask is, Is it worth having it done.

I really don't know what to do.

Sorry for the thread hijack Effjay :)

as far as i know the squint op is really for cosmetic reasons - the glasses will help to correct the vision.i don't recall any pain or discomfort with mine.

dd was sore for a few days and we had calpol and ibuprofen prescribed to help with the discomfort. She also had eye drops which we had to put in a couple of times a day which was a bit of a nightmare as she wasnt very co-operative. She was back at nursery within 1 week. Her eye looked red for a wee while longer than that but the worst of the discomfort was in the first few days. Her squint was very noticeable even with glasses on but after the op it is only slightly noticeable when she is tired or when her glasses are off.

dd2 had squint surgery this summer. (she's 6). she had calpol for two days, and apart from being off swimming for two weeks, was fine. it's not pretty for the first few days though - very red and swollen. yuk. but she wasn't bothered.

she had (very very funny ) mad double vision on the afternoon of the surgery though. she kept saying 'i can see two of everything' and needed a really close eye as she would miss the table she was putting her cup on, and couldn't hit the button for the lift etc.

we're very pleased with the results though. she's worn glasses since very tiny, before 2 i think.

she had a very bad alternating converging squint (these can't be patched as they swop), which is now slightly diverging. this is likely to correct a little over time.

Our DD had a squint from age 2 caused by long sightedness. We were told if she wore the glasses it would correct the squint but not the long sightedness (she is 6+ in both eyes). But if she didn't wear the glasses enough we would have to consider patching then surgery. But I think we were lucky in that both her eyes are the same - I think it's more complicated if the sight in each eye is different.