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Different sized pupils

18 replies

lolaVie · 14/04/2023 15:06

Hoping for someone has an experience that could help. DD 5 weeks had very noticeable difference in her pupil size on Wednesday evening. I’m attaching a pic. She was completely well within herself and the only thing that could have been a factor is that her right eye - which had the larger pupil - had a tiny bit of fluff stuck in it a few mins earlier. No idea if that’s relevant.

she’s seen the gp who checked her red reflection reflex and was satisfied nothing is wrong. He said this can be normal in young babies. He has made a non-urgent referral to opthalmology anyway. Since weds evening the difference seems to have settled down and I think today I’d say i haven’t noticed it at all. When it was noticeable yesterday it was more so in dim light. In bright light both pupils were equally small. The gp observed this too.

i have read lots online about how common this can be however the thing concerning me is the scale of the difference on Wednesday night. Everything I’m reading about what’s normal would suggest hers was too significant to be physiological (and therefore not a concern). So I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced similar. She’s had no droopiness over either eye and as I said is well within herself. I am most concerned about Horner’s syndrome as her birth was an elective c section which would rule out birth trauma as a cause and leave some scarier options - hence the worry!

Different sized pupils
OP posts:
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Tescoland · 14/04/2023 15:08

Sorry I can’t help but she’s frikkin’ cute!

coloursquare · 14/04/2023 15:10

I have different sized pupils especially in dim
light. It is physiological in my case - sometimes it looks quite extreme although nobody else has ever noticed.

Heaviestdirtyestsoul · 14/04/2023 15:11

Also can't help, but seccond that she is super cute 😍

lolaVie · 14/04/2023 15:13

@coloursquare have you had since since childhood? Would you say yours looks as significant as hers? I keep reading a difference of more than 1.3mm. I can’t be sure as all I have from weds night are the photos but it looks more than that to me.

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ChirpyChirpyCheepCheepBeep · 14/04/2023 15:21

DD has this and I mentioned it to the GP at 6 mo and she freaked out and did an urgent referral to the hospital.

We went and I pointed out that her Dad sitting next to me had exactly the same issue and the Doctor looked and said she probably gets it off him… and that was the last we ever heard about it or thought about it till I just read your post. I think is called Anascoria?

lolaVie · 14/04/2023 15:23

@ChirpyChirpyCheepCheepBeep yes that’s what I think it’s called. Would you say she has it as significantly as my DD in that picture or is the difference more subtle?

what did they do at the referral if you don’t mind me asking?

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coloursquare · 14/04/2023 15:23

@lolaVie I don't know - I only noticed it when I was about 30 and that's more than twenty years ago (sigh). Quite common apparently though.

I would try not to obsess over it. An ophthalmologist will get straight to the bottom of it.

coloursquare · 14/04/2023 15:26

@ChirpyChirpyCheepCheepBeep yes, anisocoria. David Bowie had it!

ChirpyChirpyCheepCheepBeep · 14/04/2023 15:28

lolaVie · 14/04/2023 15:23

@ChirpyChirpyCheepCheepBeep yes that’s what I think it’s called. Would you say she has it as significantly as my DD in that picture or is the difference more subtle?

what did they do at the referral if you don’t mind me asking?

When she was 6mo old I would say it was about the same as your DD. She’s 15 now and out with her friends so I can’t check!

I can’t really remember what they did at the appointment but it was nothing invasive involving drops or anything like that.

lolaVie · 14/04/2023 15:30

@ChirpyChirpyCheepCheepBeep oh that’s good to hear about the appointment. Does it come and go for your DD or there all the time?

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LetMeGoogleThat · 14/04/2023 16:05

Yep, my son had different sized pupils. He was diagnosed with ptosis as a baby and his eyelid would slightly droop when he was tired.

lolaVie · 14/04/2023 16:09

@LetMeGoogleThat did they ever test for Horner’s syndrome? Would you have said the difference in size was as pronounced as in my DD’s picture?

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LetMeGoogleThat · 14/04/2023 16:27

lolaVie · 14/04/2023 16:09

@LetMeGoogleThat did they ever test for Horner’s syndrome? Would you have said the difference in size was as pronounced as in my DD’s picture?

No they didn't test, he was under opthalmology, and it was monitored for several years. It is noticeable, but if in a dark room the other pupil looks so much bigger as they didn't react the same way.

MargaretThursday · 14/04/2023 19:23

I have uneven pupils sometimes. Particularly noticeable first thing in the morning, or maybe that's the only time I look in a mirror. They're very mismatched; you couldn't miss it.

As far as I am aware it's just one of those things that happens to me. I had a number of tests in my 20s and nothing came up.

lolaVie · 15/04/2023 10:13

It’s strange because it’s Saturday morning now and it hasn’t happened since. Also I’m as certain as I can be that it’s the larger pupil doing the wrong thing. At the time I remember thinking how big it looked and it stayed big longer than it should have in brighter light. It’s fine now though.
One weird thing is a couple of minutes before it happened I commented to DH how there was a piece of fluff or something in that eye. I can’t think how that would have caused the pupil to enlarge so much but at the same time it feels like it can’t be a coincidence. Unless the fluff was actually a scratch but even then?

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Newmum1345 · 21/05/2023 04:25

Lolavie do you have an update on what happened? I have the same thing with my 2 week old baby and the gp are being useless and asking me to wait until the 6/8 week review before they refer my little one.

i have looked online and I can’t sleep I am beside myself expecting the worst outcome

lolaVie · 21/05/2023 09:35

@Newmum1345 oh gosh I’m sorry you’re experiencing so much worry!
I don’t know how helpful this will be - we have a referral in with the hospital but haven’t heard back from them as it was a routine referral rather than urgent and I know the waiting times are very long at the moment.
It hasn’t happened again with her eyes - only one episode when she was 5 weeks old. She’s now almost 11 weeks. At her 6-8 week check her eyes were fine and so I’ve put it down to one of those weird baby things.

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ItalianMUM89 · 15/06/2023 07:31

Maybe is a bit late to reassure u but horner usually (not always) manifests with more symptomps than just different size of pupils at dim light, among which ptosis of eyelid , red eye, lack of sweat on one side of the face, if the baby is curly the hairs would be more flat on one side (all these symptoms would be on the side of the smaller pupil).
Anyway using drops to enlarge the pupils eyedoctors should be alble to role out horner (maybe not to confirm it).

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