What to do about a squint/lazy eye?

[MissKittyFantastico84]

Hello wise MNers!

I have noticed recently that my DS, nearly two, might have a slightly lazy eye - you can barely notice it and sometimes not at all.

But a few people have mentioned it, including my DM and his childminder, so I want to get it checked out.

Would it be best to go to our trusted family optician or the GP?

Does anyone have any experience of this? What might the treatment be if it is a lazy eye?

Is it urgent? (we're in the process of moving house, so it might be a few weeks before we can get him seen)

Thank you MNers! All advice welcome xx

We had the same with our son as his eye turned and he has a family history of a squint. I mentioned it to his HV at an appointment and they referred him to the Orthoptist at the hospital. I don't think the Opticians would be experts on a squint or would see an under two, not sure though.

I'd recommend the GP

I would go to the optician. the main way to treat it as far as i know is with glasses and an eye patch over the stronger eye, so that the weak eye has to get stronger. x

GP due to age, I'd say. My optician says they won't do anything under five. I had a severe squint as a toddler and had to be referred to a hospital-based optician. I believe the first line of defense these days is to see if it corrects with glasses. I had surgery for mine, but it sounds like your son's is not as severe, so may well be unnoticeable with glasses.

Yes, it’s urgent. Untreated it can mean loss of vision in the eye (brain stops paying attention to it). This happened to my DD even though she was under treatment and it took two years to retrain her eye/brain.

Go to your gp. Your optician is unlikely to be able to make a direct referral to hospital (which is what u need). They just refer to gp - so cut out the middle man to get faster treatment.

Also, it depends what you mean by a squint/lazy eye also.
A squint is when the muscles in one eye don't work as well so the eye seems to turn, normally in.
A lazy eye is when one eye has worse vision than the other, this wouldn't often show obvious symptoms and would normally just be picked up on an eye test.

Both would be dealt with by an orthoptist at that age so deffo the GP route

My neighbours DD had a lazy eye and is under the hospital team. She wears glasses with a different lense to try and force the other eye to work( I think that’s right!) gets seen every 6-8 weeks and they change the glass as required . Definitely should get seen now

my son had the same, I went to the opticians as didn't see a need for the doctors, he was prescribed glasses as he was short sighted and because that eye was working so hard it caused it to turn in especially when he was tired.
he still has a slight squint when not wearing them but no squint when he is.
I went as soon as I noticed it and they told me the quicker they get glasses (if needed) the grater the chance to rectify it

Ds 3 had a squint which has been corrected by surgery, you must go to the gp so they can refer you to see which treatment is required.

Go to GP. He may need occlusion therepy. (where you cover the goos eye) Or sometimes treated with drops, or glasses or operation depending on what the actual problem is. May take some time to correct.

Thanks everyone - I have a GP appointment this Friday for him.

Will get it looked at ASAP!

Knew I could come to MN for good advice.

xx

Either optician or GP would be fine OP. They generally all refer now anyway to a triage centre, so may get seen a bit more quickly if you go through the opticians as the referral will have more detail, but as a PP said, not all opticians are good with under 3s.

At the hospital they'll check his vision using special picture cards and then put some drops into his eyes and check his glasses prescription. If he's not verbal they will use some cards with special lines on them.

Many children with squints that turn in are longsighted and often just wearing glasses is enough to stop them squinting.

Turning out squints are not usually as correctable with glasses.

You'll then be checked after wearing the glasses for 8 weeks or so.

It's important to get it checked out as squinting eyes don't develop good vision as then brain "switches them off" to prevent double vision.

My dd was referred through the HV. She is long sighted and has worn glasses since she was 18 months old. She had patching treatment too and then an eye op as the squint was still noticeable with her glasses on. Still has glasses now at nearly age 16

Take him to the specialist at the hospital and I'm sure they should be able to 100% correct or make massively better. They will carry out many tests if not probs with sight eg glasses needed but don't worry as it's standard practice and usually nothing too much to worry about. My toddler nephew has a squint more noticed when he is unwell or has been and hspt specialist reckons weak muscle will operate close to 5 will monitor and can only have 2 of these ops. However, most squints if tackled early are easily resolved. ATB

Please go sooner, rather than later. My squint wasn't diagnosed (decades ago) until I was about 5 and the eye patch etc never really worked for me. It is fairly pointless throwing a ball or a bunch of keys at me in the hope that I catch it/them.

Interestingly the eye that I rarely use has much better vision so I probably use it more now than I used to.