Squints

[thisisyesterday]

Hi all, hoping someone with experience of this can advise me.
nursery said a while ago that they think DS2 has a slight squint. I'd never really noticed it before, but now I can see what they mean.
Anyway, I asked my mum (on account of her being the Queen of squint-spotting) and she says yes, yes she has noticed it ages ago!

apparently she didn't tell me because she didn't think I needed another thing to worry about, bless her. he is also being seen for his hearing and slow speech development, and his brother has just been diagnosed with asd, so we've had a lot going on!

anyway, I guess I need to take him to the health visitor or GP? which one? and what are they likely to say? It's not that severe, so is anything likely to be done about it? and if so what?

tia!

How old is he? Take him to an optician - they should know more about eyes than GP or HV, and will refer appropriately if required

Both mine have squints. DS's has corrected itself (he's 6) and DD will have to have surgery at some point. First point of call will be GP. They will refer you to the children's orthoptics dept of your local hospital.

IME the hospital really do have a 'wait and see' attitude so don't panic! They will also get your DS looked at by an optician to check their sight (neither of mine need glasses).

Any other questions, feel free to ask.

he is 3 and a half

we do have a nice optician i could take him to although i'm not sure how co-operative he would be? (ds2 i mean, not the optician lol)

Just to let you know thisisyesterday that I have the same issue with my DD1 (age 3) and have received some useful advice under the title 'squint' on this thread. I took DD to GP who asked me to return in 6 months if it hadn't improved or had worsened (she was age 2 at that stage). The squint did become more often noticeable so the GP referred her to our local eye hospital. We have had 1 initial appointment to confirm the squint and are due to return in august to see if it has deteriorated and to discuss what happens next.

my hv referred dd to the orthoptist at the hospital when she was 18 months when i noticed her squinting. She ended up being long sighted and had glasses prescribed - she also had patching treatment to improve the eyesight in her left eye as it was not as good as the sight in her right eye.

DS was referred by the HV to the hospital at 2 1/2. His squint didn't look too bad but it turned out he was long sighted, needed glasses and has spent the last year being patched. After a year of patching we are now weaning them off of him, his eyes will never be the same but there is now a significant improvement and they are as close as they will get. He will need the glasses for life though.

He looks at picture cards and has to name what he sees. The worst part for us is that they use drops once a year when measuring his glasses prescription, if he knows theres no drops he's as good as gold when we go every 3 months. I think it's because he gets ice cream after :)

Forgot to add, he's 4 1/2 now :)

thank you all for the replies, they're really helpful

how did you react when you found out that your children needed glasses? (those of you that did)
i don't want him to need glasses

i know that's very silly really, i just hate wearing mine and don't want him to be all irritated by them if he needs them.

am over-thinking it

I was a bit shocked that dd needed glasses as none of my siblings or I wear them and dh's family dont wear them either. Having worn them for so long now (from 18 months onwards - now 7 1/2years old) her face now looks naked without them. They dont seem to bother her and there are lovely styles for children these days.

I was gutted :(

Now he looks wrong without them. They suit him completely and he loves them too :)

DD was referred by hv at 2yo. We saw opthalmist who kept an eye on her for 12m until they could test her vision more easily. She has worn glasses since then.

It's not like when we were kids... big, hideous NHS frames. My DD has had some funky specs over the last three years, they really suit her and she looks funny without them now. No issues at school either - in fact, the other mums say their dds want glasses 'just like fjl's dd' :)

The other thing was her complete change in personality once she got her glasses... she stopped getting so tired in the afternoon, her confidence soared (I expect she could see properly at last!) and she just became a happier, more content child. She must have been struggling before, poor thing :(

Please don't worry about glasses - they do their job, and are a fashion accessory these days!

thank you all! I have found out when our HV's run clinics so I will take him along this week and see about a referral

it's good to hear that glasses haven't been a big problem and that the kids don't seem to mind wearing them, although obviously ds2 may not even end up needing them, but I like to think everyhting through!