Eye turn in 5yo - surgery??

[NortieTortie]

Hi,

Just been to an orthoptics appointment for my 5 year old son. Both of his eyes turn outwards on long distance. The doctor said the turn is quite significant. Normally they'd try and use glasses to correct it but he'd need negative ones and his current prescription is positive so that isn't an option. He basically said it's cosmetic but they can treat it with surgery.

They want to give him another eye test in January as Specsavers one wasn't strong enough, then leave him a couple of months to adjust to a new prescription before one more appointment where he'd be discharged if there's nothing further or move on to surgery. There is a significant wait time so he'd be 7, perhaps older by the time of the surgery.

We have plenty of time to think about it but I feel really torn. He seems so little, especially for a surgery that is mostly cosmetic. On the other hand, his classmates are starting to notice and make comments which irritates him as obviously he can't control it. If I choose to leave it until he's older to decide for himself, he'll have to wait and go back through the system (if the NHS is even able to still cover the surgery by then).

I feel damned if I do, damned if I don't. Any thoughts would be welcome.

That's an interesting one. Does he also have some amblyopia? (that's when one (or both) of the eyes don't see as far down the letter chart as they should do - even with glasses on.

What is the prescription?

Whatever the answer, I wouldn't rule out the surgery - it's very straightforward, with very little chance of anything going wrong.

I had that surgery many years ago!! 41 to be exact and had no problems. Turn was corrected and all was well. I’m sure surgery has progressed since then.

I had that surgery as a child, and I am so glad I did. I don't even remember it. My eye still turns a bit occasionally when I am run down, and I can tell in the way people treat me. Not meanly, but its definitely a distraction for both them and me.

I also have 20/20 vision (or did, mid 40s now and need an eye test as I need to use zoom on my phone a lot more than I used to).

Oops, sorry, name change fail. Will copy and paste my reply as have asked mumsnet to delete my previous one.

+1 and +1.25. The 1.25 is too weak according to the Dr. I'm not sure about the amblyopia - the first time he's read the chart with glasses on was today, and they didn't ask him to read past the second line. He did say U instead of Y though.

Thank you everyone for your answers. It has helped put my mind at ease!

Do it. My daughter had both her eyes straightened when she was 5. Then turned in badly even with glasses on. The difference was amazing. She's a teenager now and she has told me she's glad they were done when she was little.

My dd had an op for an inwards turn in one eye as her squint was still obvious with her glasses on (she's something like +3 and +5). She was 4 I think when she had it done. No issues apart from trying to put drops in afterwards.

@NortieTortie i totally understand. My son had a squint from a couple of months old (I had it from birth) from the age of 1 they said he would need surgery as he had it quite bad in both eyes, his eye would turn up and in.

they monitored it for a while and increased his prescription and then decided it would be good to get the surgery done before he started school. He had it done In August last year aged 4! I was really torn too but having had this surgery twice myself and growing up very unconfident due to my squint I didn’t want my son to experience this. He was a superstar and it all went very well. In surgery at 9:30am and we were home by 1pm. The first 48 hrs required lots of cuddles and Calpol. But once over the first 2 days he did very well, first day he wouldn’t even open his eye. His eye was completed corrected during the surgery, they did a longer surgery to cover what they would have done over 2 surgeries.
I would definitely recommend getting it done while they are young (even 7)

I see this thread is quite an old, but my daughter has the same, at 8. We were delayed with Ophthalmology appointments as it occurred during covid. Can I ask if you raised the possibility of surgery, or was it the specialist or your gp? Did you have to go private?
many thanks!

The opticians wrote a letter that we delivered to the GP, who then referred us to the orthoptics part of the (NHS) hospital. We're still no closer to surgery though, in Jan we were meant to trial a new prescription for 2 months and that's long been and gone. 🤷‍♀️ still chasing them up on it.

There's a young lady on tiktok - mselleymay2 is her username. She has very recently had this done and she is documenting it alongside her usual posts.
Maybe have a look at her page if you can.

Will check it out, thanks!
That sounds like the same as my daughter, and I had wondered if they are waiting for prescription to stabilise first. It makes sense to control one thing at a time.