Eye squint

[jarox]

My dd 20 months was referred to the eye specialist because she has an eye squint.

They did the tests and said her vision was fine but the squint would most likely need surgery and won't correct itself. They said to come back in 2 months to check the vision again. We did and they said she still needs surgery and want to book her in.

Now what I'm not sure about is that this came on so suddenly about 6 months ago. Before that we hadn't noticed any issues with her eyes. When it first started it was all day every day. Her left eye would always turn into her nose and in almost every picture we have it's like this. Over the last few months the turning in happens less and less. Usually just when she is over tired. Everyone has commmented on how much better her eyes look. I said this to the specialist who said well that's not possible as it's not the type of thing to correct itself.

The last few weeks we have also noticed that her right eye is occasionally turning in instead of the left. When I mentioned this they said no the right eye looks fine but it definitely has been turning in.

I'm worried we are going to put my dd through surgery at such a young age and that it could perhaps be treated in a different way. Has anyone been through a similar thing? Is there nothing we can do like pitching or glasses to try and retrain the muscles without surgery? Is it true that it can't improve at all?

Patching is used when the eye sight is worse in one eye than the other as it encourages the other eye to work properly. If the vision is equal in each eye patching wouldn't help. The same is true of glasses

My dd wears glasses and had done since 18 months old. She did have patching treatment as one eye had worse sight than the other. She had an eye squint op at age 4 as she still had a squint even when her vision was corrected with glasses

DS had patches from 2 til 4 then operations at 6 on the squint eye, and 9 on the other eye as the squint returned. It's come back again slightly, mostly when he's tired, but now he's 17 he isn't so bothered about it.

I had a squint. DM didn't do anything about it until I was 3 had measles and it became a lot worse. DM didn't want me to have surgery either as she thought it was cosmetic. It was explained that unless I had surgery I would go blind in my left eye and that changed her mind.

I also had patching. Surgery was carried out late at 7 years old, it should really be done at a younger age. My eyes are straight. but patching failed and I have little 3D vision. I never had blurred vision as my right eye did all the work until I was in my thirties and sight in my right eye started to deteriorate. Now I need separate glasses for distance and close work , my vision is very blurred without glasses now.

I think you need to accept the surgeon's advice.

My understanding - having had our son in glasses from 7 months, patched, surgery and later more patching (but he's had a bunch of problems)... is that patching can be done about up to the age of 7/8 but not later. Our son still has a residual squint & we were told that he could have surgery for that even as an adult. I am sure i remember that after patching initially for some time, his squint started alternating and that's when the ophthalmic surgeon wanted to do the surgery, because she felt his eyes were of a similar strength.

If in doubt, get a second opinion.

Patching won't help if the sight is ok though. Same with glasses

Thanks for the responses. I think what's confusing me is that the other eye is turning in now. Are they saying that if they operate on the one eye that won't happen anymore or do you think she would have to have both operated on?

I really felt confused after talking it through and although I kept asking for it to be explained she just kept saying he same thing over again without actually explaining!

I'm thinking of getting a second opinion just so I can understand it all a bit more!