Ds eyetest-urgent?

[pyjamaramadrama]

I have posted this elsewhere also but after some quick advice from anyone with experience of this.

My dad noticed a few years ago that ds (now age 5) was going a little cross eyed in one eye. The HV said at his two year development check to get it looked at asap as eye problems untreated may result in vision loss. I know this as I had untreated amblyopia (lazy eye) and now have little vision in one eye.

I got a referral to the children's hospital who did thorough tests and said ds had perfect eyesight and it just appeared he was going crossseyed due to an extra flap of skin over the eye.
And he was discharged

Now he's at school he had another eyetest and has been referred for the same problem. No loss of vision but a slight problem with eyes turning inwards.

I cancelled the first appointment two weeks ago as it would have meant him missing sports day. But we can't get another appointment until the end of Sept.

I'm now noticing that the problem seems to be getting worse. My sister noticed it last night too his eyes seen to be all over the place and not focusing at all.

Not sure if I should wait for the appointment, or perhaps go to an optician?

i would go to an optician
it will be free anyway and can't do any harm

Go to an optician. You can get an appointment really quickly to put your mind at ease.

You can ask him/her if you need to keep your hospital appointment.

Hi pjrama, did you go to an optician?

Did he see an ophthalmologist at the hospital?

Hi Cheekyginger, we went to opticians today, been trying to ring clinic all week but have since discovered that the number on the letter was wrong, I have now got through and left a message for the orthoptist to call me back re possibly bringing the appointment forward.

Optician did tests with ds and I explained history and about being concerned appointment was too far away. Basically, optician said it's not a squint or a lazy eye, and there's no reduced vision, but she said the cause of the eyes turning is weak muscles which are causing the eyes to strain, she said it's very slight and in both eyes.

The next step she said was to get some eye drops in and get a prescription for some glasses. I asked the optician if she felt that it would be ok to wait for the September appointment, if she thought that anything would change between now and then, and she said no, it would be fine to wait, or that they could get him glasses and and see how he's getting on with them by his September appointment.

My question would now be, is it probably worth just waiting for the clinic appointment now in either case and have them do his prescription, as they specialise in children's eye problems (I think). I could have misread, but I didn't feel that the optician was entirely confident in what she was saying, as she said that the problem wasn't really apparent today, she also seemed very sure that he should keep clinic appointment as she said that's where she would refer him anyway (bit confusing).

My other question is, and I''m probably going to make myself sound really ignorant now. But is it likely that the glasses will be for life? The optician said she couldn't say until eyedrops were in. But she seemed to think it would be a very low prescription. If this is the case will the glasses themselves make the eyes lazy? I hear a lot of people say that you become dependent on glasses, I know dp was given some as a child (not sure what for) but he's never worn them and his visioin is fine. I suppose technically it doesn't really work like that?

But any advice much appreciated...

I've sort of come away even more confused. As everything I can find online suggests that this condition is called Strabismus, and that glasses are only needed where there is far sightetness, but this isn't apparently the case for ds, so what are the glasses for if he can see well?!

I'm also confused as to why the hosptial, who were very thorough, discharged him and said it was a psuedo.

Also the optician said it was weak eye muscles, but everything I'm finding online is saying that this is a myth, and it is a brain signal problem.

I recently went with dd2 to have her eyes checked at the hospital because she was getting migraines.

I mentioned that she'd had her eyes tested at an opticians and he said that he was checking more her eye health, with equipment that they wouldn't have for children at the opticians.

Also dd2's friend was diagnosed at an opticians recently with "weak eye muscles" and given glasses (at expense shall we say...) and when she went to be checked at GOSH shortly after (GP referal) has come back with eye exercises, and told the glasses were positively bad for her eyes-I'm not sure what they said it was but it wasn't "weak eye muscles" either.

I'd wait for the hospital.

Thanks Dewe, I've always been a bit suspicious about opticians giving out unecessary prescriptions. Especially with children, but I wanted a quick appointment as I was quite concerned that the problem was getting worse.

I'm sort of back to square one now though, hopefully the orthoptist from the clinic will call tomorrow and be able to offer some advice, but I'm now also thinking to just wait after all.

Its very possibly an esophoria (googling will give you a bit more information), a latent squint - which is a squint or turn in the eye which you can only see when one eye is covered.
They can decompensate into a squint you can see when a child is tired or ill.
The most usual cause for an esophoria is needing glasses for longsightedness (hyperopia).

Personally, I would have put the drops in myself and prescribed the glasses, but it depends on the Optometrist. We all have equipment to test young children (over 2), but it depends on what level of experience he/she has. IME most optoms err on the side of caution when it comes to giving out prescriptions especially for children.

If your DS's vision isn't affected, he'll be fine to wait for the appointment in September.

Thanks karolean, the optician did say his vision is fine. How would this tie in with farsighted ess?

Just to update.

Had a callback from the orthoptist today from the clinic.

She's realy put my mind at rest, she said it was only a very slight eye turning that was picked up on & in both eyes, not a lazy eye or squint and she said if there was any urgency they'd have got him in quicker. She said going by the eyetest ds had at school it's quite likely that there will be no treatment needed anyway and referral was just to double check.

She's now also going to get medical records from his referral to the Children's Hospital too just to see what tests were carried out there.

So I'm now confident that it's fine to just wait for this September appointment.

Thanks

Glad the orthoptist put your mind at ease pj. Shame the optom left you feeling more confused . As karoleann said it depends on their experience in these matters.

Good luck in september

Hi, update and also a bit more confusion.

I took ds to his eyetest today, he was seen by the orthoptist first, she said his vision was still fine and equal in both eyes, however she could spot some slight eye turning so gave ds eye drops and sent him through to the optician to have a further look at what's going on.

Opticians diagnosis was that ds is very slightly long sighted with a slight astigmasism. He said good news he does not need glasses as problem is too slight to warrant a prescription.

However he has predicted that ds will eventually become short sighted.

I left so confused. I did ask questions and he did explain but I think what he was saying was a bit beyond my understanding.

He was basically saying that a normal eye will reach zero at the age of 21 but that unless ds eye stops growing he will go beyond zero before 21 which will mean that his long sightedness will become short sightedness. He explained that it's about genetics from myself and ds dad, but I am long sighted with a lazy eye and ds dad has 20:20 vision, noone in either of our families has short sightedness, so where do genetics come into it?

He said that there was no way of knowing how quickly ds eyesight will deteriorate or how severe it will eventually become as it depends on the rate of growth.

So, I am to take ds back in 6 months to see the orthoptist, then in 12 months for drops again.

I'm probabl being very thick, but can somebody dumb it down for me a little as I don't understand how far sightedness can turn into short sightedness. And how can they be sure that this is what will happen?

He seemed to think it was good news but I am not so sure.

Oh and they've said absolutely not a lazy eye, vision is equal in both eyes.

py - its normal to be longsighted. Babies are born with a prescription of about +2.50/+3.00 (so significantly longsighted)
At this age the only thing they need to be able to do is look at their mother's face when feeding - at a distance of about 30cm - a +3.00 prescription is ideal for looking at this distance.
From birth - 5-8 they undergo a process known as emmetropisation where their prescription goes from +2.50/+3.00 to (hopefully) zero.
Although 99% of people will still have a "prescription" but most won't need glasses.

Anyway the main point is that your DS has equal vision in both eyes. His eyes have developed normally and he doesn't have a lazy eye. Its very good news - he doesn't need patching or surgery or even glasses at this point. He may do in the future - there's no way of telling.