Lazy eye, squints, glasses etc.....

[cheekyginger]

Im an orthoptist (binocular vision specialist) and a mummy.

I thought i would start this thread in case anyone was wanting any advice, re-assurance, opinions about any eye problems that you wee ones are having.

Hi issimma,

You should be able to get referred through any of these routes.

The one benefit of the optician is your LO can get the glasses check carried out prior to referral which means you will know if glasses will be needed.

Some hospitals have a 3 months waiting time. So if you go to the optician first you can get the ball rolling.

Hi playnicely are you a.k.a cartblanche (im easily confused)

The type of squint does matter as divergent squints are much easier to treat with exercises!

However, there are ways of improving the negative vergence of the eyes. Which is the fancy way of saying....being able to pull your eyes outwards (small amounts). There is a technique known as bar reading. But your LO has to be able to read before this will take effect.

Have you been told her diagnosis? Have you ever been told if she is a convergence excess esotropia or full accommodative esotropia? If you start to see the squint happening more and more often then i would suggest that she may need some intervention, as you don't want her to lose her binocular vision. But don't panic these things don't happen overnight. It would just be nice to know what they have in mind for her future treatment plan...

Yes cheekyginger I namechanged for a weightloss thread ! Sorry for the confusion!

I haven't been told the exact diagnosis. Am sure I could phone and ask if she is a convergence excess estropia or full accommodative estropia. I don't think the frequency in squinting is increasing. I always ask what the long term goal is and I get such woolly answers. They seem to be quite encouraged by her progress - the next visit in June will be with the orthoptist and the optician to check her prescription. If I find out anything before that I shall report back.

Hi playnicely,

If your Lo has 3D vision, then the goal is to preserve/encourage the 3D vision. If the orthoptist is worth their salt they should be able to give you a clearer picture of whats going on. If you live in dundee then that might be me...when im back at work!!!

Hi MrsPort,

Sorry to hear about your LO's vision. He has had his fair share of rare eye problems. Poor wee soul . Can they doing anything about the retinal pucker?

Hi cheekyginger - so am in Scotland but the other coast from you! From what I can gather, she has 3D vision, her eyes are working well together - the last orthoptist kind of indicated I should be delighted and that the squint issue is an aesthetic thing. She does go squinty-eyed rather too often for my liking but am reassured that her vision isn't suffering unduly. Having said that I would prefer her to not have this laxity in her eye muscles and if there was anything that could be done to help I would be up for it (obviously not to the extent of operating unnecessarily!)

Hi OP
My DD who has just turned 4 years has suddenly started turning her left eye in. I first noticed this in January and went to my GP. I have an appointment at the hospital next week with a consultant.
What is the likely tests etc they will carry out? is she likely to have glasses? my real fear is that there is a neurological reason for this.

Hi playnicely,

That is good if they are pleased with everything. Just hard to watch your wee ones with a problem like that and not be able to fix it for them!
You could ask if exercises would help when she is older...and see what they say.

Hi ladywithnomanors,

They will carry out a glasses check, to see if she is longsighted. This can go undetected and suddenly present itself when a childs eye starts to squint. If you have uncorrecred longsight, the eye has to constantly over focus to see clearly. This over focussing, can in some cases cause the eye to overconverge

Do you have a family history of squint, glasses or patching?
Generally there is no reason to suspect a neurological problem in a squinting child. If you have a healthy child then the glasses check is the first thing to be done.

ooh what a useful thread!

I have been wondering if I should get my DS's eyes checked and I wonder what you think? He is 20 months. I wore glasses from a very early age (about 2.5) and am short sighted and astigmatic, and because of this family history the HV has said he will be referred to the orthoptist at his 2-2.5 year check, but if I have any worries to come back and they will refer sooner. I haven't had any particular concerns about his sight myself but nursery mentioned that they wondered if he was short-sighted because he kept crashing into things. I think it's likely to be that he is/was just learning to run/walk rather than an eyesight problem, but then they are dealing with toddlers every day so they know what is normal.

Do you think I should ask the HV to refer us to the orthoptist now? Or should I perhaps take him to a high street optician for a check, since I'm not worried about a squint or anything? Or should I not worry for now?

Hi woodlands,

As you say its probably more to do with him learning to walk/run. However you might as well get the ball rolling and get referred. Some departments have a 3 month waiting list if it's not an urgent problem.
He is still quite young so i wouldnt advise going to an optician just now, you would be better waiting a little bit longer and get seen by an orthoptist. No point putting the wee man through unnecessary eye drops!

Thanks Cheeky! I will talk to the HV and see what she says (hate phoning people so keep meaning to go to a clinic at some point).

Hi cheekyginger, you posted on my other thread about whether I could take my nearly 3 year old DS to the optician to get his excessive blinking investigated. Well, we went today and the optician said he thought his sight was fine and that the blinking was just a habit.

DS co-operated well with the sight tests (was able to understand what was required of him), but I'm wondering what tests an orthoptist would do in a referral that would be different? If the blinking doesn't resolve itself in a month or so, I'm planning to try to get him a referral for further investigation. The optician today told us there was a 3 month wait, but do you know if that would be quicker going private? We have BUPA cover, but I'm not sure whether a private route exists for this kind of thing or not.

Just wondering whether I should start the ball rolling now for a referral and then cancel it if he gets better (if it really will take 3 months), or if I should wait for a bit and see whether it goes away on its own.

I've tried asking my HV, but she's not calling back (impossible to get to see her), so I'd be grateful for any light you can shed on things.

Thanks :)

Hi Doolally,

An orthoptist would investigate the binocular vision more than what the optician would.
However excessive blinking in itself generally doesn't indicate a vision problem, unless its associated with eye rubbing or complaining of sore eyes etc. If his eyes are red then this could be a sign of hay fever...?

The fact that the optician was happy with everything i would tend to hold off getting a referral. If it persists after a few months then get him referred, otherwise just try not to mention it in front of him.

Thanks cheekyginger. His eyes aren't red or sore, it is just blinking. We're trying to ignore it, but sometimes I've been asking him if his eyes hurt which would draw attention to it I suppose. I'll try harder to ignore now I'm happier that his vision is ok :)

Hello again!
DS got his first glasses today. So far he says everything is big and blurry, and when he read his story to us at bedtime it had to be very close for him to be able to see well enough to read. His prescription is quite strong in one eye- he's longsighted (also with a squint) and it's something like 5.5, and milder, 1 or so in the other. Will it just take him some time to adjust to the glasses? Also, what is the best advice, to insist/give him the message that he must wear the glasses all the time right away, or to let him wear them just for some of the day to start with? Should I warn his teacher that he may not be able to see so well with them on for a while?! Thanks so much for your help.

Forgot to say he is 5.

Hi Tggr,

Aim to have him wearing them full time by next tues (i.e a week). Gradually try and increase how much he is wearing them each day. It will take his brain a while to realise that if he just relaxes his eyes and lets the glasses do their job, he will see better! They often find their vision blurry at first with the glasses. This just takes a wee while for them to adjust. Unfortunately i cant tell you how long this will take as all children are different.

Just plain old bribery might be your best option. By the end of the week if he is wearing them then he can get a toy or a cool day out somewhere.

As for school. Just let them know it will take a wee while for him to adjust but that he should manage fine with any visual tasks that they will be getting a 5 year old to do. All there text etc is a good size. Just encourage the teachers to get them on him all day at school, as there will be plenty of distractions.

Good luck

Hi
Dont know if this is your field but my daughter has bilateral cataracts caused by her T1 diabetes. Her unaided vision has been assessed as right eye 6/36,n12 difficult, left eye 6/60, n12 odd words.

Does this mean she could be classed as VI ? I believe technically your are only VI if it cannot be corrected (and cataracts can be removed) but whilst we are waiting can I expect help from her school as if she were permanently VI?

I ask because so far they are not doing the things they have asked to do by the local Vision Support advisory teacher.

Sorry if asking something outside your area but have a meeting at school Friday and don't yet understand the assessment.
Thanks:)

Thank you so much OP for this post :)

I wanted to ask about (prescription) sunglasses, hope this is an appropriate place.

DD, 4yo, has worn glasses full time since she was 2. I think her prescription is +3 in each eye, she also has an astigmatism which the glasses are trying to correct

I was wondering whether it would be advisable to get her sunglasses for when the sun is bright? Does she need sunglasses more than children with good vision, to protect her eyes? She is very good about always wearing a hat in the sun, but I worry it isn't enough.

We don't live in the UK and the sun is brighter here, and we are frequently beside water too. There is no way she could just wear standard kiddy sunglasses, she'd need prescription ones, but I've been told that our insurance might not cover the cost.

There's a 3 month wait before we can get an appointment with her eye specialist to discuss it. I'm wondering if I should just take her existing prescription to a shop and get her some sunglasses. Or am I just being paranoid, and a hat is enough?

we just got the optician to make up prescription sunglasses using dd's existing prescription for her glasses. We had to pay extra for them. We used them for when we were abroad on holiday

Thanks cheekyginger! As it's end of term on Friday and he had a big wobble about wearing them to school we've decided he wears them after school at the moment and then full time in the Easter holidays and full time at school after the hols. Think this was a good compromise. Hopefully by the end of the Easter hols he will have got so used to them it won't be a problem wearing them to school. He agreed on this compromise anyway!- and if he kicks up any more fuss after the hols (hopefully not) then bribery all the way I think!
Thanks again.

Also to previous person on sunglasses, we were really lucky and specsavers were doing a promotion on prescription sunglasses making them free for DS, so we've ordered sunglasses to pick up next week too- you could check out any promos in your area?

Hi CalicoCathy,

Prescription sunglasses can make kids feel more comfortable in the sun. But she does not need them more than children that do not wear glasses.

She could wear just cheapy kiddy sunglasses for short spells in the meantime. But i would just take her prescription to your local optician and get her prescription sunglasses made up.

But saying all that a hat will suffice!!!

Hi, my DS has just turned 5 and had his eye test done at school. The nurse referred him to the Orthoptist at the hospital who did some tests and managed to get us an urgent glasses test done with the drops in at a local opticians. Not knowing much about eye tests and all that goes with it as neither I or my Husband wear glasses I didn't really know what to expect. She looked visibly shocked when I said that I hadn't noticed anything untoward as the prescription she gave him was +7 and +8. I am feeling really bad as apparently that is really bad but he is doing really well at school, in the top 5% in his class, has never struggled with reading, writing, lego or anything like that. How can Neither my husband or I, his teachers or nursery nurses not have not noticed it if it's that bad? Is there any chance it could be wrong?