Son just diagnosed with Convergence insufficiency (double vision) what should I be doing?

[Helloall]

Hi there,

My 10 year old son has just been diagnosed with very bad convergence problems. He's 10 - great at reading. We did think he was getting a squint a couple of years ago and have been taking him for regular eye tests - which he's passed every time. New Teacher wondered if he had a tracking issue, due to him loosing his place on large body of text and watching how he moved his head. Took him to doctors who referred us on to hospital Opthamology dept.

Hospital have diagnosed convergence and squint. He has slightly enlarged Optic Nerves, but they think maybe this is the natural physiology of his eyes. They looked healthy, pressure absolutely fine.

We have been told to do pencil push ups, 2 mins, twice a day. We have a follow up appointment in 4 weeks to see how he's doing. He is also booked into to have full health assessment to rule out any underlying issues which may have brought it on.

Should I be doing anything else? Behavioural Optometrist? etc? Any advice greatly appreciated.

You don't need to do anything else, except keep him doing the exercises as prescribed.

I had double vision as a child, and after 30 years, 2 lots of surgery, so many exercises, I still can't converge properly, and have an unstable squint. But with prisms in my lenses I don't have any problems at all

Thanks for that. Im glad to hear you don't have any problems with the prisms. Both my parents had squints and we all have poor eyesight. I just feel so rubbish for not noticing sooner.

No no no no no to behavioural optometrist. They charge promise the earth with no evidence to back up a lot of their practice (IMO)

Convergence weakness is easily treated with exercises.
The only thing i would recommend (Im an orthoptist) is that he should be doing the exercises more frequently. We presrcibe pen to nose exercises 8-10 x a day for a couple of minutes at a time. This should be done intensly for about 2 weeks then reduced to 6 x day until his next appointment. If the exercises are working then patients tend to complain of sore heads sore eyes etc, as they are making the muscles work hard all of a sudden.

Found a website that has some pore information on it.

Good luck with the exercises