Optician, GP or health visitor for a possible squint in a 7.5 month old?

[AreWeNearlyHairnet]

I hope I'm not stressing over nothing but I've been looking at recent photos of my 7.5-month old and I've noticed that one eye is often turned in.

I'd never noticed it as I was taking the pictures but it's definitely on several, most notably ones I took near bedtime or when he was tired.

I noticed at bedtime today too that the same eye sometimes seemed to turn in.

I'd like to get reassurance about this but should I ask my GP, go to the optician or ask my health visitor? (I haven't found the health visitors to be particularly helpful if I'm honest, I'm just concerned about wasting my GPs time.

Thanks!

I seem to remember it was the HV that referred dd. It turned out not to be a squint just quite wide set eyes that made it look like there was one developing.

Your GP can refer to the orthoptist to have it checked. DS just looked like he squinted due to the shape of his nose (apparently v common), but as I have a severe squint they wanted to double check it

OK thank you, I'll ask my health visitor then. I don't think my next drop-in is until next week though, so that's me stressing for the next week then.

Health visitor referred our dd.

Get a referral to an orthoptist.

You can ring the HV and dicuss it over the phone.

I'd prefer to go to my GP to be honest. I just feel that my health visitors are afraid to commit to any definite answer and so have been very vague in the past. Thank you both.

We went to GP and they referred our daughter

I hadn't even thought of ringing the health visitor. I'll do that tomorrow.

I took my baby son and the optician was about 12, and kept asking him to do things! In the end he gave up and wrote “patient non compliant” on his notes!

@Kerrygeld that's ridiculous!!

Gp but you might have to push for a referral.

Ds has one and we were fobbed off with 'just the shape of his nose' despite me looking at mine in the mirror every day for twenty odd years and a strong family history.

Then had to push for referral to children's hospital as was still noticeable with glasses at five years old. (wearing them since one). Ophthalmologist at the clinic in the gp surgery was taking a wait and see approach and I and everyone else in my family had had corrective surgery before five years old.

We are now waiting on a surgery date from the consultant who was pretty appalled at the constant dismissal, as I well and truly spit my dummy out became quite assertive with the lot of them

I got referred to the hospital orthoptist via the HV. Dd was long sighted and got glasses at 18 months old. Still has them now age 15

Dd had a squint op age 4 as her squint was still noticeable with her glasses on

Haven't rtft but I went to the gp and got referred to paediatric opthalmology when ds was 6 months old for the same exact thing. He didn't have a squint it turns out that babies noses are wide so sometimes it just looks like that however he was identified as being likely to have myopia in the future (not a huge shock as I'm pretty mole-like with my vision) so we still have appointments to get him checked every 6 months or so.
Best of luck for you!

GP. The others will refer on to the GP anyway, so you may as well skip a stage.

I never went through a GP and wasn't referred to one either with dd. HV did the referral straight to the eye department at the local hospital

Thank you so much everyone. I'm going to give my GP a call in the morning. Hopefully this is just me being overly concerned about my PFB!

From 2 DD had noticeable squint in photos but not much in RL. I mentioned it to HV at 2 year review who brushed it off. Few months later it seemed increasingly obvious so had to fight for referall to specialist from GP. Although the letter was incredibly patronising ‘mum is concerned so would appreciate it you could look to reassure her’ it turned out she has very little vision in her left eye and is now on a patch 4 hours a day with surgery looking likely. Not saying to panic you as have also heard of squints being common in toddlers; just wanted to encourage you to make a fuss if you genuinely have a concern. Specialist said that with any eye issue the sooner it’s identified, the better.

We went via the gp for a referral for my son, he was 2 at the time and nursery picked up on a squint. He was prescribed glasses and patching, unfortunately neither worked after some time. He had the squint corrected by surgery last week and it's already noticeably better! It's worth chasing the referral though if particularly bad, it can take some time and past a certain age the eye sight can not be properly corrected. We ended up going privately so it's best seen to early!

You've got until age 7/8 ish to correct sight issues.

Hv did referral for all of mine because I had a squint - none of them do - so threshold can’t be that high. I’d approach hv first it will definitely be something they see often.

My daughter was diagnosed with a squint at 18 months old. She was wearing glasses by this age too. I took my son to the gp a couple of times because I thought he had the same. Each time they referred me and each time they told me that the bridge of the noses of babies isn't as well defined as they are in older children so this often gives the impression that the eye is turning in.
He is 10 now and doesn't have a squint.

See an Optometrist first, who can refer you to an Opthalmologist quicker than a HV or GP can.

Optician here - referral can be done via GP or Optician or HV and needs to be done to an orthoptist at the hospital.
They should just take your word for it that its turning in as many squints only appear intermittently at first and can often happen when they're tired.
Say to your GP, I've noticed that my child's eye turns in sometimes, especially at night.