Left eye Squint

[AJA108]

Hi All, we are waiting for confirmation to see an opthalmologist as my sister who is a doctor noticed my 8 month old has a squint in his left eye. I am very worried about this as it is not something I have come across before especially as it is about the eye. I have read that if we did not do anything it could lead to a lazy eye. We did not even notice ourselves as he is clearly looking around and can see he eye moving to look at things. Does anyone have any advice on treatment and what we can expect...most of all success stories of treatment. I have read that an operation may be required and can't imagine my little baby having to go through that.
Thanks for help

This has just been spotted in our almost 7 yr old. He wears a patch on his right eye 2 hrs a day to train his left eye.
Its no bother really but we won't know until autumn if it has worked.

DS had one. I noticed it at around 7/8 months and he looked around and his eye moved to look at things too but it happened more & more when he was tired. Our health visitor messed up the referral so he wasn’t referred for around four months, and he was then under the hospital for regular sight tests for a few years.
He was prescribed glasses and, for a while, an eye patch over the good eye to make his other eye work. He is long sighted & still wears glasses but the squint was corrected pretty quickly. If you hadn’t noticed it then it probably isn’t too bad so try not to panic about him needing an operation at this stage.

I wouldn't worry too much, especially if the eye is pointing inwards. Sometimes it's looks as if small children are squinting when they actually aren't, especially if they have prominent epicanthal folds.
It explains it quite well here:
www.moorfields.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/Pseudo-squint%20%28for%20parents%29.pdf
Probably half the babies I've ever seen in practice have it rather than an actual squint.
You could ask your sister to google "corneal reflexes/hirschberg" and she can check herself with a light.

Sometimes though squints are intermittent and only happen when the child is tired or looking in certain directions. If this is the case, take a photo of their eyes when they are squinting as it will reduce the amount of time at the hospital.

Otherwise, if it's a normal inwards squint (called a comitant esotropia) it's probably a case of extremely cute glasses, which your baby will take off constantly for the first few days and then get used to.

If the eye is turning outwards, it may be a little more complicated.

All four of my children wear glasses due to long sight and three of them have a squint. All of them either still are or have been under the hospital for all their sight tests and I'm told only one of them stands a chance of not wearing glasses permanently.
My youngest son wears very strong glasses and has done so since he was 1. Like another poster said, it took a little getting used to for him, but quite quickly he adapted to wearing the. As he could quite literally see the benefit! He may need a patch in the future as his head and eyes grow but that is fine. One of my other children wore a patch to correct a lazy eye for about 9 months- a year and it worked well.
Please try not to worry, it's been picked up extremely early and there is plenty that can be done about it. 😀

My dd had a squint and got glasses at 18 months old as it turned out she was long sighted. There's plenty of time to work out what the issue is.

Thanks all. We do have an appointment with a specialist in a few weeks. From the info sent it does seem to be a pseudo squint we can see his little eye moving about looking at things. And it is turning inwards. We will see what the specialist says. Appreciate the support