Anyone experienced sudden double vision and a squint in a child?

[Lunchtimehelp]

I have posted before but I am so worried!

My child 6 years old has seem to have developed suddenly double vision.
I took him to the opticians and they think he has a squint and has made an urgent referral to the hospital. Unsure what's causes it. The opticians thinks he may have had it for a while but I can't see any evidence why he thinks that.
I have now since noticed his eye isn't quite right , I didn't notice this before.

I am so scared, what if it's something bad?
His vision is actually good, he can read. Failed the stereo test which apparently is common In people with squints.
He had the photo of his eye that the opticians do, all looked good.

We have been told to look out for seizures, muscle loss etc, if that happens then a&e.

Urgent referral could take 1-2 weeks.

Has anyone has experience with this?
Thanks

I’d go to A & E or ring 111 for a walk in appointment. An “ urgent” referral could take ages. Don’t wait.

We were up there Monday and they told us to go to the opticians!

i spotted my dds squint age 7 nearly 8. It turned out she thought double vision was normal :((( I now look back at photos and can see her eye turn from around age 4. So it hadn’t come on suddenly for us (which is obviously much more of an urgent situation) but sharing this in case you helpful x

After attending a hospital optometrist (where she was diagnosed as long sighted and strabismus and given glasses) which didn’t help much and seemed to cause a lazy eye (including a quite renowned place) I took her to a behavioural optometrist who was amazing. She had bifocals and lots of checks on the squint every 6 months and slowly her sight improved. They also offer vision therapy.

I remember reading that it really needs to be addressed before age 8 as can leave long term issues otherwise. She is now 15 and wears glasses and squint mostly gone and double vision gone too.

Couldn't read and leave! Yes and all was fine. Can't remember the age exactly (DS now 17) but about that age he had some headaches and I noticed the worsening squint which had not been apparent before. (He thought double vision was normal too as PP said). Anyway, opthalmology sorted him out, tried various things and had surgery in the end. Now all good. Please don't worry and good luck with sorting it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story. That does help me.

Thank you as well for sharing your story too. Glad all has worked out well.

I feel bad as I keep asking him if it's worse , same or better than the day before. It's not been better. I'm just trying to assess him.

I wouldn't expect it to change without treatment IME. Best just monitor him as A&E suggested, no more questions needed - difficult I know!

Yep, one day DD had binocular eyes and the next day she had a very obvious squint, one eye was looking directly at her nose. We are years down the line in glasses, seen regularly, it’s not noticeable in her glasses and barely noticeable without unless she is tired.

That's interesting, thank you.

DD started complaining about headaches and double vision at about 10. She had a squint caused by lazy muscles in one eye. She was referred to an orthoptist and went for 18 months. She was given focusing exercises to do and a prism lens for her glasses. She’s now 19 and has no lasting squint or double vision.

That's very positive! Glad she is doing well now.

I didn't realise I had double vision until I was 10.

My eyes can work together but that takes a lot more effort and energy. The more intensive activities I have to do with perfect alignment of my eyes the more strain there is on them and the double vision gets worse and it is then so much harder to keep the alignment. The brain can then start to ignore what it is seeing through one eye to remove the doubling.

It feels to me very much the same as when you are driving a car whose tracking is out. I can constantly feel my eyes pulling in the wrong direction. It was as I moved up the school that it was really being more noticeable.

I was given exercises to do as a child which never did much. At 21 I was finally given prism lens and they were brilliant. They took the pressure off my eyes. I was warned that I would probably need them for life if I started wearing them and my double vision would get worse as my eyes would be more reliant on them. The opposite happened, I can now go weeks- months without using my glasses. There are weeks where I have to wear them all the time for close work and intensive computer work.

My dad had a squint as a child and had an operation to fix it in the 60s. His optician is amazed just how well he's eyes are still doing and that he must have had a very good surgeon. In people of his age they are more deterioration of eye sight compared to those that have had it done with improved methods.

That's amazing :-)