sudden onset lazy eye

[Lj8893]

Am going to take dd (15 months) to the gp tomorrow but want to know if i should be worried, and to push for further checks depending on what the gp says.

over the last few days dd has suddenly developed a severe lazy eye, its a little bit bulgy too. She is fine in herself otherwise.
i first noticed it Thurs, her nursery noticed it Fri and my mum noticed it Sat. So its definitely a new thing.

i don't know if its connected but she did have mild conjunctivitis a week ago but that cleared up on its own within a couple of days.

I would get her to a GP tomorrow. Sudden onset is worrying because it could be somehing neurological. I don't mean to scare you, and it's probably something far less worrying, but you should get it checked out for peace of mind.

Do you mean the eye is turning or the eyelid is drooping (am an orthoptist) can then give you a more detailed answer. You should definitely take her to the gp as the first step

Its slightly turning in, its not drooping. Its her left eye and is slightly looking inwards.

Squints can develop very suddenly in children so , your doctor should refer you to your nearest eye unit. Given the sudden onset they are likely to want to see you fairly quickly and examine her with her pupils dilated. Most children who develop a squint do not have anything serious causing it even when it appears suddenly like this but you are doing the right thing taking her straight to the gp

The size of a squint is irrelevant a slight squint needs investigating as much as a marked squint

Thanks all, sorry haven't replied sooner, ive been working this evening. It doesn't seem to be any worse when shes tired. I will phone the gps first things tomorrow and see what he says, hopefully it will be nothing serious!

Yes you should push for further checks, in our case it was the first sign of a serious problem but no other symptoms at that time - my DD had her squint treated, including surgery and the real issue was not diagnosed until much later. Hope all is well.

charlie what was the serious problem if you don't mind me asking?

Just to update you all if your interested, gp has made her a specialist appointment but wasent too concerned that it was anything too worrying. Shes got a lovely pirate patch to try for an hour or two a day in the meantime, i might have to get an adult sized one for me to wear to encourage her to keep hers on!!

it could be a sign that she has a lazy eye i.e. poorer eyesight in one eye (lazy eye does not mean a squint). It is often caused by being long sighted. My dd developed a squint around that age and ended up with glasses for long sight. She is still long sighted and still has glasses at the age of 11. She did have patching treatment but not until after she had her glasses for a wee while. Seems strange you have been given a patch before any diagnosis has been made.

A squint is when the eye is turning, a lazy eye (medical term amblyopia) is when an eye has reduced vision and can be caused by many different things a squint being one of those causes. Some people use the term lazy eye to refer to a squint or ptosis (droopy eyelid) and that causes confusion. You wouldn't normally be advised to patch her eye until she has been properly examined and she has a diagnosis. squintclinic.com is a really good resource for parents to look at which will give you lots of information about what you can expect from her hospital visit.

Lj she had a brain tumour - which is obviously the worst reason, and why I didn't say. She developed a pronounced squint very quickly and although I emphasised to the GP that I was extremely worried due to the rapid onset, I was brushed aside, because it was rare and there were many much more likely reasons. As I said she had surgery, it didn't really work and then she developed further symptoms. She is fine btw.

I wouldn't be happy with that response and would suggest taking her to a local independent optician, who can at least check pressures, dilate her pupil and have a look at her retinas. I waited 3 months to have my son's squint assessed after GP referral, but as our v thorough optician had already ruled out anything sinister. I suspect the GP is not equipped to judge and should not be patching without a diagnosis.

I don't think most high street opticians would treat a child of that age (mine only deals with them from age 3)

Please don't try your high street optician, in my experience they really aren't geared up towards working with very small children (primary school age they've been fine).

Fingers crossed you have a quick appointment at the hospital - if it is a long wait, ask the hospital for a recommendation if they can.

Second the advice not to go to high street optician. Dd was treated for a squint from age 4 and was only discharged from the orthoptist age 8 after 4 years of being under their care.

I would also try to push for a specialist appointment sooner rather than later, not because there is necessarily anything seriously wrong, but because they are the best people to treat her squint. I'm surprised tbh that the GP has just given a patch to 'try'

I phoned nhs direct with dd's sudden onset squint (it happened over the Xmas period so getting to see a gp would have been nigh on impossible!!) and went to the hospital that day. They gave her a patch to wear full time for 3 months. After that she was given a prescription for glasses and had to continue to wear her patch. This was gradually phased down in terms of hours wearing it and she now has no squint and even vision in both eyes (her vision at first was very poor in one eye, she also had no 3d vision in one eye). The orthoptist worked wonders with her and at age 8 she was finished with her treatment programme. It's incredible what can be achieved if problems are discovered early so good luck.

Exactly this happened to my DD, she was a little older than your DD (3/4) her squint was and still is severe, she to had conjunctivitis and a cold the week before. We were referred to our local childrens eye clinic and were seen within 3 days, they did an eye test with drop and found she was very long sighted, they also sent her for an MRI scan to rule out anything serious, we were told that it was highly unlikely to be anything serious, but because she'd been poorly the week before they needed to be sure (scan was done within 48hrs!). The scan was fine, she's now 10 and still has the squint but her glasses correct it. Her squint can't be corrected by surgery, without her vision also being surgically improved first.

I'm not suggesting the optician treat the squint, I'm saying they are better placed than the GP to say if it needs urgent referral. It took us 3 months to get a orthoptics referral from the GP (3 weeks for them to write the letter) and I was only ok with that because the optician had already checked intraocular pressures, vision and dilated the pupil to examine the retina, and had not seen any worrying signs.

Sorry, I'm repeating myself...

If your referral is 'go to the eye hospital at x time this week' all well and good, if it's 'try a patch, come back if it's no better, I'll write a letter sometime in the next month' then push for another opinion or a more urgent referral.

my dd was referred through the hv too (it was about 10 years ago now though)

Oh wow lots of replies since i last looked!
i wasent very clear in my last post, the gp made an appointment with the specialist there and then, but the earliest appointment is April but at least it's booked in.
he didn't give her a patch, just recommended i buy one and try it casually (1-2 hours a day if possible) in the meantime to try and strengthen and train the weak muscle.

He did also say its not uncommon, and dds squint was not severe in his experience and probably not as sudden as seems, but rather its been a weak muscle for a while but been working harder to face forward, and has just given up a little a few days ago which makes it seem sudden.