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.

Kirsty2010 no idea re intermittent turning in and out of eyes but I think you should see specialist in eyes asap from my experience (with my eyes).

I am I'm under moorfields there just mointering her at the moment I go to see them every 3 months I'm worried if her eyes get worse or can't be treatable x

cheekyginger thank you so much for this thread, it is really very generous of you!

I have a question which is about me though, not my DCs so I hope that's ok. I have always been short sighted and had an astigmatism. Had eyes lasered in 2005 and had no problems since. Lately found vision slightly blurry when watching tv at night so had eyes tested. Optician says I need slight prescription (-1.25) but that I have vertical double vision.

I've never noticed any double vision but now have these glasses with prisms which are impossible to wear. Fine if all I do is watch tv but if I focus on anything else or god forbid -look down- left alone walk around, then I feel terrible/dizzy/fuzzy head. I tried them last night and still feel strange today.

Is this right? Thanks so much!!

wishing chair - optometrist here. Its quite unusual to prescribe a prism (which is what we put in glasses to help with eye muscle imbalance) in people who are not getting any double vision.
I would certainly return for a retest - the practice won't mind at all and wouldn't want you feeling uncomfortable in the new glasses.

kirsty - its been a few years since I worked in a binocular vision clinic, but the probable reason that your LO's eyes are being monitored is that about 1/3 of intermittent squints just get better by themselves.
How old is your DD and does she wear glasses at the moment? Is it generally one eye that squints or is it alternating (either eye)?

Hi she's 3 1/2 years old and she's started to wear glasses as soon abit long sighted she has an outwards turn in her left eye but doctor said she has a squint in the other eye aswell which I can't tell of it but that eye corrects it wen the left eye goes wrong Somethink like that. Thanks 4 getting back to me :)

karoleann the vertical double vision thing came from the tests with the red light dot and the horizontal and vertical lines. But I don't see things in double - he said my brain is probably compensating. I'm now analysing everything I'm looking at and it's giving me a headache!

Think I def need to go back. Plus he mentioned a brain scan if it got worse and that is really worrying me (DH and his family have many neurological issues).

Thanks for your reply by the way!!

Hiya, i would really appreciate any advice/information you could give me.

I recently took my 7 year old to Moorfields as she suddenly started complaining about blurry vision with reading her books. (She is an avid reader) The optomistrist did the tests and said her eyes were normal and will return to normal? Her eyes are still blurry and she is struggling with reading and school is on Monday. Should i still continue to wait or seek a second opinion?

Hi,
I'm just looking for some advise really.....
I'm now 26 but at the age of 3 I had an accident and as a result to that I now have a lazy eye (left eye) as a child I was given patches and my parents were against an operation at the age of 18 I seeked advise and was told if my eye was operated on my brain wouldn't be able to cope with the change? Is this correct?
My eye only turns in if I'm under the weather or tired. Would glasses straighten my eye out when it does decide to creep inwards?
Look forward to hearing back.
Thank you in advance

Hello, can anyon help or give advice please? We noticed our little girls eye would go slightly outward and fix almost looking. Bigger. It only ever happens when she 's tired and not all the time. When it does we know she will fall asleep within half an hour! She looks like she is day dreaming and when you call her she snaps out of it and the eye returns to normal. Anyway we mentioned it to our gp and she refereed up to the hospital. The first specialist said she had a squint the second said she did not? On both visit we met the samegentlemen after win failed each time to carry out a complete eye examine as she would not sit still - she is only two!! After the first failed test he said nothing after the second he said she might have a stigmatism but is not sure he did not know if she was long or short sighted so has prescribed the strongest glasses for both eyes!!

I am really not happy about this how can if prescribed glasses without carrying out the test properly? If would not listen when we said it only happens when she is tired and insists she bumps into things! She does not ! It eels like we are a round reg being pushed through a square hole!!

Can we refuse the glasses and wait until she is a little older and has a better vocabulary so can tell up if anything is wrong during an eye test?

Thank yet all for any help so confused right now!

Mylittlebear Im new to all this but my advice is dont ignore it go see some1 eles sounds like your little one has a squint which my daughter has the same it will need to be monitored and if she she needs glasses its better to catch the problem at an early age then later as they say once you turn 8 years old there not much more improvement

Thanks Kirsty we are going to go to the opticians and ask them as we cannot understand how one can say she does have a squint and the other she does not! Then for the consultantt on the day we are told she does not after admitting he could not test her properly suggests she may have astigmatism and prescribed the strongest glasses! He does not know if she is long or short sighted!! He wants us to right down how often her eye squints in the day, we told him we could answer then - it only happens just before she goes to sleep we have just been on holiday with Eriee

*sorry message posted to early what I was saying was we have just been on holiday with friends and they never noticed and we asked them to look out for it, no photos or video show a squint it only appeared once as she fell asleep when her daddy was carrying her!

Wearing glasses if she needs to is totally understandable and we are fine with this if it means better vision for our daughter but I do not want her to wear glasses just because they are unsure especially if she has to endure the strongest lenses and it turns out her eyes or one eye is perfectly fine!

Just to update we went to the opticians yesterday and. They refused to test her! They said she was to young for them to test her and in any case they would not go against the doctor. At the hospital! They did however state that 'her eyes must be bad' as the prescription is the highest they have ever seen!! Not exactly reassuring to hear, so I asked if there glasses could affect her sight as the prescription in the hospitals words were just a guess basically! The optician at spec savers said it should not but cannot hubs it!! We have ordered the glasses as we were pretty much forced to give them the hospital voucher. I have this morning changed gp booked an appointment to see our new gp and I am requesting to change hospitals as I am Fed up with no one giving up a straight answer!!

Also to add all this time it was said her eye went outwards and it was her right eye yet yesterday the optician said her left eye went inwards!! 4 people have now seen her all giving different answers we are at our wits end Stevenage hospital and spec savers should be ashamed off themselves!

mylittlebear - you can get a alternating squint - that's one that can be seen in either eye.
Personally, I would ask for a referral to Moorfields Eye hospital.
What prescription has your daughter been given?

Did they give you an explanation for the eye appearing smaller sometimes? Its either the eye lid closing slightly (called a ptosis ) or the eye itself being pushed outwards - exopthalmos and both need further investigation.

MKbarrett - it depends on how badly damaged your eye was due to the injury.
I would certainly go and get a second opinion now as things have changed a lot in the last few years.
I would ask your Optometrist (Optician) as a first port of call and then ask for then to refer you via your gp if a possibility.
Several years ago eye people were very worried about the possibility of intractable diplopia when treating patients with squints. (basically that's double vision that you can't get rid of)
Its been found to be very very rare and so ophthalmologists aren't quite so conservative about squint procedures as they once were.

Hi Karoleann - Thank you for coming back to me I am so worried now i just cannot think straight. We received a letter from the hospital, yesterday and again the same letter today!! ( I think it was meant for our GP but cannot be sure as they have entered the incorrect details for our GP!!)

Before I write what was in the letter I would just like to clarify that my husband and eye with our daughter have been to the hospital twice and seen three different people, one stated she had a squint, the second she did not and then the ophthalmologist (seen her twice) both times he said he was unable to test her correctly so would put her in the strongest glasses and take it from there!! We also went to an optician who refused to test her, they said her eye went inwards whereas the hospital said it went outwards!!

Anyway below is the contents of the letter we have just received, if you could explain what it means to me I would really appreciate it as i am baffled/confused/worried and now very scared for our daughter!! I have booked an appointment to see our GP tomorrow to discuss what the hospital have sent as and to see if I can have her refereed to Moorfields as you have suggested.

Diagnosis:
Noticed to have alternating distance exotropia
Bilateral likely reduced visual acuity
Difficulty testing
Hypermetropia and myopic astigmatism

Visual acuity was 0.4 with both eyes open. Unable to perform uniocular visual acuities. Near exophoria with distance exotropia was noted. Further ocular examination revealed white eyes,clear ocular media and no obvious Fundal abnormalities on gross examination.

Cycloplegic refraction was performed and again was quite challenging, but did reveal a prescription which we have given.

We will review in 3 months time with orthoptic assesment and hope for uniocular visual acuities with and without glasses.

This letter was sent by the Locum Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmologist.

The only thing in this letter what was discussed with us was that she possibly had an astigmatism but he was unsure as could not perform the test correctly.

We have the glassed now and the eye that does not wander is the lens our daughter chooses to scratch at and closes the eye. In the last couple of days her right eye has started to wander more and we have noticed she is rubbing it alot and making it very red and puffy!!

Please help what do I do do i keep her in the glasses although she is now closing the left eye when wearing them and the right eye is becoming red?

Also I am scared re the 'white eye' comment I have looked at hundreds of her photographs and I cannot believe I never spotted it but every and I mean EVERY photo her eyes are white, she has never had a photograph show 'red eye' or even pink eye.

Re the prescription all I can remember the optician saying was the lens where at the maxium distance for both eyes??

my little bear.
So starting the with white eyes - the concern with seeing a white pupil in photographs is that the child could have a very rare childhood eye tumour called retinoblastoma.
The white eyes mentioned in the letter simply refers to the whiteness of the conjunctiva/sclera, so the bit of the eye that is meant to be white.
In this case white = healthy!
The have checked the back of the eye for signs of retinoblastoma - (no fundus abnormalities on testing) and there is no sign of this.
The other reason children have a white pupil on photographs is due to a squint - which your daughter does have.
So basically you don't need to worry about that at all.

I forgot to ask how old your daughter is - I presume she is quite little still and it can be quite difficult to get an exact prescription for them.
There is no strongest lens - if you would like to know her prescription, I would just take them into a local optician and ask them to measure the glasses for you - its very easy.
I suspect by maximum distance the optician just meant they are designed to give maximal vision at distance.
Depending on her age her actual vision may be quite good, but she will need the glasses to help her eyes to develop naturally.
The letter you have received says she is hypermetropic - so long sighted and astigmatic. Astigmatism is a normal part of 90% people's prescription, but again if it is a very high level then it can affect normal visual development - but that is why the glasses have been prescribed.
Orthoptists at the hospital are usually very good at obtaining prescriptions for very young children. We and they use an instrument called a retinoscope to obtain a prescription, so all your daughter needs to do is look at something in the distance.

The other thing is the squint. An alternating exotropia is an outwards turning squint that can be in either eye. The good news again here is that it is only at distance and not when she is looking at things close to.
A exophoria is a latent squint - so one the child is able to control by using her eye muscles.
Because she only has the squint at distance it is more likely that her binocular vision (3D vision) will develop normally.

Anyway yes, I would keep her in the glasses, are they fitting correctly? Maybe they are rubbing against her eye lashes and that's why she's rubbing her eye. I'd take her in somewhere locally to get the fitting checked and you can ask at the same time what the prescription is.

Anyway good luck

Hi today I noticed my 18month old son's left eye was turning in. I am going to get him seen by the doctor. In the meantime is this possibly a phase, a new thing he has learnt to do or is this a sign of further treatment?

I've just had surgery on my lazy eye and for anyone contemplating it I would recommend in a heartbeat.

I have had a lazy eye since I was 10 months old (now 26). It turned in but was corrected with patching and glasses. Then as a teenager it started to turn outwards.

Over the last year or so I had become very self conscious about it (people facing job role) some of my customers couldn't work out if I was talking to them or someone behind them! Embarassing.

I had the surgery last Saturday and other than a day of discomfort it has been fine. It looks worse than it feels. It is slightly over corrected at the moment but the orthoptist told me this should settle down soon. Only wish I had done it sooner.

Hello,

Just come across your thread. Fab
I hope you can share your opinions on this. My 4 1/2 son just got his prescription, very longsighted in left eye, +5 with -2 astigmatism and 10 cyl. Had no idea about this until his screening. The dr did not explain much to us, exept that he might need some patching. His right eye is normal.
Just wondering about outlook, we have no history in our family,myself and his dad never worn glasses.
Thank you

Hi, my son is longsighted in his right eye. And wears glasses to correct this however he also has an intermediate divergent squint (with glasses on and off) he has been referred to a specialist at the hospital for more test. Do you know what I should expect and is surgery the only answer?
Thanks

hello im really glad to have found this thread hope someone can help. my littleboy had a squint in his left eye from 8 weeks old & I noticed it really early on as I had one as a child and my father too. so I asked for my son to be referred to an orthophist he got seen about 4 months old & the orthopist confirmed he had a squint they said it was congential estropia & suggested early surgery before the age of 1. my son had the surgery at 9 months old to straighten the squint but unfortunately it didnt work the eyes went back to how they were before surgery. The orthopist kept seeing my son every 2 months & said that it was cosmetic & his eyes were cross fixatating & that the squint was alternating so he didnt have a lazy eye but was too young to give vision tests. my son is now 2 & half & is just starting to give vision tests now the orhopist is now sure hes got a lazy eye they have given me patches to try for 6 weeks which went ok he did nearly an hour a day which is what she told us to aim for. I went back to see the orthopist the other day & he gave the best vision test hes ever given before but they done a glasses test & have said he needs to wear glasses all the time and see how he goes with them. im just puzzled as to why he would need the glasses if he gave a good vision test & also if you could give me any advice please.

Hi Karoleann

thanks for replying to my previous post, since then we have taken our daughter to a new private consultant in london. He confirmed that the letter made no sense, our daughter cannot be long and short sighted at the same time!! Several tests were carried out as she was in a good mood that day!! The outcome - she does not need glasses, in fact the consultant we met with was very concerned at how strong the lenses were!!

we have made a further appointment just to check everything is ok, but her eye has actually has improved dramatically - We will never return to the previous hospital!

Thank you again or your previous post.