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.

I'm obviously super keen!!! I've just answered a post that have already answered!!!!

Thanks. She loves her new glasses. I meant will she always require glasses, you answered this :) thanks x

Hi cheekyginger - back again (was also playnicely on this thread back in March). Just thought I would update. My DS (nearly 5) went for another check with the optician and orthoptist a few weeks ago (she has been wearing glasses for 1 year after I noticed that her left eye was turning in). They put the drops in, checked the vision and said that the vision was more or less the same as it had been. The squint was slightly larger and they did note that her right eye sometimes "goes in" but that that was a good thing because her eyes were trying to work things out (?) When we went through to the optician she very quickly checked her and then said, let's leave off with the glasses! She said she wasn't promising that it would be forever and to see her back in 3 months.

Good news I thought. The thing is though I feel that her squint is worse now without the glasses. When I see her at the dinner table her left eye goes in in a very pronounced fashion especially when she is picking up a sandwich or using her fork. Her glasses must have hidden this to an extent but she goes cross-eyed quite a lot to my thinking. She's also closing her left eye and sometimes putting her hand over the eyelid to stop her eyes "going Fizzy" which is her way of saying fuzzy or double. This has calmed down a bit now so might have been her just adjusting to not having glasses again?

In my year at the hospital I haven't seen the Consultant (our appointment with him never happened because he was running late and was unable to see us after waiting for hours!). I would like to ask some questions before the next appointment just so I know the exact picture with her vision. I am going to phone them and ask for her exact "diagnosis".

My question to you is, what is the exact information I need - what questions should I be asking so that I can come back on here and give you the clearest picture? Is it standard for them to be able to look at her notes and then give me this information over the phone? At the appointments they always seem to be reluctant to go into the technicalities with me and fob me off with stuff like "she'll be fine but there are some things she won't be able to do like be a pilot!".

Sorry for the longwinded post especially as you are probably back at work now - hope it's going well!

Hi cartblanche,

It's tricky for me to know exactly what is going on.

The two things that would be useful for me to know is the prescription of her glasses and her diagnosis?

If its a weak prescription then that might be why they stopped the glasses . However if you feel you are seeing the squint alot more/getting bigger, then i would be thinking that she should be back in her glasses. Our protocol for convergent (turning in) squints are basically:
-Give them there maximum prescription if they are longsighted
-See what affect this has on the angle of the squint
-If it makes it much smaller/straight then glasses should be continued full-time
-If the glasses are really weak but make a diff to the squint then we would be aiming the discard the glasses but operate on the squint if it is cosmetically unacceptable.....

Shame you arent getting a clearer picture from them (pardon the pun).

Im such a loser. Im really enjoying being back at work. My DS has taken to nursery really well so that's helped a lot.Thanks for asking

I don't think you're a loser for enjoying being back at work! It's evident from this thread that you absolutely love your job. Your DS is happy, you're happy EVERYBODY'S happy

RIght, yes I do need to get a clearer picture. I might leave it until the next appointment as it's not that far away. I will come away from that appointment with precise information and get them to write it down for me.

Thanks again for all your wonderful advice and information.

No probs cartblanche...... x x x

My son is 3 and he has a squint. Basically one of his eyes looks straight and the other one turns outwards. He alternates between both eyes. He's been going to the hospital for a year they have said he will need the operation but because his eye sight is good they don't need to do it quickly. In your opinion when should they do it? It worries me that they are leaving it longer. Also my dd has astigmatism and she is a pain for not wearing her glasses any tips would be appreciated. Thank you

Hi Afsana1,

With divergent squints it will really depend on his control. If he is squinting less than 50% of the time then it is best to leave it till he is older. The reason being that the orthoptist can get more accurate measurements when your DS is older. Surgery can be tricky for this type of squint as it is easily over or under corrected so accurate measurements are really important.
As for your DD. Bribery im afraid . Some kind of reward chart.....whether the prize at the end of the week is a sweet treat or more pocket money that's up to you! Wearing them at school and for all closework is especially important. But as long as she is wearing them the majority of the day she will be fine!

Thank you cheekyginger I am trying with my daughter!

Hi Cheeky, not sure if you could help with this question but I try anyway. My 7 yr old dd has a few tiny grey spots on the white part of her eyes. I don't know how long they have been there. I can only see the spots if she looks up. She had an eye test at the optician last week and I mentioned it. The optician said they are just a bit of pigmentation and nothing to worry about. Please reassure me. Thanks for you help.

I remember seeing them on my other two dd's when they were little but they the spots disappeared now that they are older.

Hi there ladies (and gents if there are any)

What a great thread. I wonder could I butt in and ask a very needy question about glasses and the social implications at school?

My ds has inherited the family astigmatism (i have squint so he may end up with that too) I'm worried that he might be teased or even bullied for wearing them. I didn't have to wear glasses when I was little just a patch, and I can't really remember any teasing. My dad and my brother though had horrible experiences (specky four eyes etc) and I'm really worried! He's a shy boy who talked late and won't be good at sports by the looks of it. He also overpronates with his feet making it difficult to run. I'm just thinking not sporty/crap eyesight/bit shy is making my poor lad into a bit of a lame duck!

Will he be ok? I think society is a lot different know but my precious boy starts school in september and I'm keen to bolster his confidence but I'm struggling as my own has taken a bit of a wobble :(

dd has had glasses since she was 18 months and is now nearly 9. She has never had issues with name calling/bullying due to wearing them. There are lovely frames for children and quite a lot of children now wear glasses so he probably wont be the only child in the class wearing them

Hi there,
Can anyone advise about squint surgery? What are the results, risks .. what should I expect?
How long does it take to recover, what should I be looking out for?

Up-date!
Went against all recommendations and bought transition lenses! They are working quickly and ds loves them! The plan is to have 6 months of transition lenses for the summer, then 6 months of normal lenses for the winter.
Ds very happy to have sunglasses at last!

Queenmarigold, my dd had squint surgery at the age of 4. She had about a week off nursery and two weeks off swimming. Her eye looked red for a couple of weeks but stopped being sore after a week - we had to put eye drops in a couple of times a day as well (That was a bit of a nightmare!). Her squint improved and its unlikely she will need further surgery (she is now nearly 9)

Hello. Dd been referred for a retina scan at specialist children's hospital, and MRI, for pale optic nerves and deterioration in vision.

Do you have any idea what to expect, particularly at the retina scan thingy? She's ten, btw. Am worried.

Hi cheeky Ginger what a great thread. My DD is 8 months. I have a divergent squint, when I was 6 or 7 I had glasses with a plaster over my good eye. I had an operation on my lazy eye, but I think it was more cosmetic than functional. If I close my lazy eye, what I see doesn't really change.

I'm worried that my daughter has a squint too, but it's hard to tell. Her hair is really long and I've finally managed to cut affronts, but I'm worried her hair in her eyes might have stopped her brain using her eyes together iykwim?

I feel stupid about going to the doctor for what feels a bit like paranoia. Is it worth getting her checked??

Thanks in advance.

Hi cheekyginger I've just done a search for squints and this thread came up...very useful!

My Ds2 is 15 weeks old. I have noticed a squint since birth, initially it was difficult to tell as he didn't have his eyes open much. I didn't mention it to anyone but at 6 week check GP asked if I had noticed a squint so clearly she had seen something too. GP said wasn't a problem unless continued past 10 weeks. At 10 weeks I spoke to HV who said (without seeing ds) that it was probably an optical illusion so leave it until 6 months.

I would now say that it is less intermittent and pretty much always his left eye is slightly turned in towards his nose. He does move his eye around well and will focus on an object but does not reach to grab things yet.

My family have been quite blasé about it and saying he's fine, don't worry about it etc. We had some family photos done last week and the squint was really quite apparent so DH is now noticing it all the time too. What should I do, if anything as I don't want his vision to deteriorate any more than it needs to.

Thanks

it could be a pseudosquint but it is best to get it checked out. DD was referred (by the hv) to the orthoptist at the local hospital when she was 18 months as she had a squint. I would contact your hv again and arrange to see her and she may be able to do the referral for you. A GP may be able to refer as well.

p.s. the proper name for pseudosquint is Pseudostrabismus if you want to look up more info (I am not an eye expert btw but my dd had a squint and wears glasses)

Thanks seona will look it up!

Had DD at the hospital today to see the consultant for the first time since she got glasses a year ago, she is now 2.1 years old. She was much better behaved this time, so they feel they good a good idea of her eye sight and she got a new prescription, +5.5 in one eye and +6.5 in the other. What does that mean in real terms? Is that a high prescription?

She has a squint and the lady we see in between the consultant appointments thought that they would operate, consultant says no, not required at the moment, it would only be for cosmetic purposes and not help with vision. Is that likely to change in the future and she will need an operation?

Hi Cheeky Ginger, what a fantastic thread! I wonder if you could provide some insight into my son's vision issues. He is currently 6 and about 6 months ago, due to slow progress with reading at school and a casual remark he made about seeing four eyes on my face rather than two, we took him to the optician's. She prescribed glasses for slight longsightedness and also said he had a lazy eye. His right eye goes out to the side when he tries to focus on a pen being brought into his nose. She sent us away with eye exercises to do every day (practising bringing the pen closer to his face) and asked to see us again in 8 weeks. We had problems doing the exercises as he justs shuts one eye, moves his head back, closes his eye and struggles to keep his eyes focused on the pen without the right eye turning out. I took him back 2 weeks later and asked for a referral to the eye hospital, as I didn't want to wait 2 months and then longer still for the appointment.
At the start of July we got the appt and my partner took him to the hospital. We were told he didn't have any vision problems at all and they wouldn't have prescribed glasses as he is only slightly long-sighted and therefore we should no longer bother with the glasses. They also said his eye wasnt turning out and therefore the exercises we'd been doing must have worked and so we shouldnt do the exercises any more.
We still noticed he was misreading words ('It' instead of 'I' is common for him) and the right eye still turns out when he tried to focus on the pen coming in close to his nose. He complains of seeing double close up.
I took him back to the optician's who agreed that he does have a lazy eye, and his longsightedness is enough to warrant wearing glasses for reading. The optician was surprised that the hospital didn't put drops in his eyes when we went.
I feel a bit back to square one... He has written a letter to our GP who will then get a referral back to the hospital, which all takes time.
What would you suggest we do in the meantime? Should we start doing the pen exercises again? Am I right in thinking that by age 7 my sons squint is harder to treat?
His prescription btw is:
Sph. Cycl. Axis
R. +0.75. +1.0. 180.0
L. +0.50. +0.75. 15.00

Many thanks for any advice!

Stupid MN.

Just sat a wrote a giant msg, and then i lost it all.

I'll be back soon to reply!

Here's one for just now........
Hi nixpix, sounds like your DS has an intermittent divergent squint rather than a lazy eye. A lazy eye is when the vision is reduced in one eye. The exercises you describe are to improve convergence of the eyes. Your son is really quite young to be doing exercises. Not impossible but hard to motivate a 6 year old and get them to understand what they are doing. The prescription isnt huge so thats a bit of a tricky one. If your son likes wearing them then that suggests they help so let him keep wearing them. If your son has an intermittent divergent squint, then you will always see the eye drift out now and again. As for the misreading words....that may have nothing to do with his eyes, it may just be a developmental phase.

Not sure how much use my response was , but it all seems a bit odd. You shouldnt have to be re-referred. Were you discharged from the hospital? If not then you should be able to phone and ask to be seen again.

Many thanks Cheeky Ginger for such a prompt reply. I hate it when you lose a long message, it's so frustrating.
Whenever we've done the pencil focusing exercise at home the eye drifts out. The one time it didn't was at the hospital when they used a ruler type instrument. I will try ringing the hospital tomorrow to see if we're still on the books so to speak, but I assume we were discharged. It's definitely worth a go though.