# Squint (lazy eye?)



## daisyday

Hello, 

i went to the hv today for a weight in for my 3 month old son.

We noticed when he was a few weeks old that he has a squint. 

She looked at it again today and she said that she is sure that it will not correct itself and even thought they usually only refer babies at 6 months she will refer him early. 

Has anyone else had this with their baby and what should i expect? 

I didnt have chance to ask the hv as there was a que out the door!!


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## freckleonear

I had a lazy eye when I was younger. I didn't know they could diagnose it quite so early but that's great as it will be much easier to treat.

As well as glasses, I had to wear patches on my good eye to strengthen my lazy one. I wish my parents had made me persevere with the patches more as the sight in my left eye is still a lot worse than my right. I didn't really need to wear glasses by the time I went to secondary school though, and I don't wear them at all now.

The patches really make a difference, so definately persevere with them if that's the treatment he is given. Having caught it so young hopefully it'll all be sorted out in a few years! :hugs:


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## mari72

When you go to the hospital a specialist called an orthoptist will assess your babys eyes, they are experts when it comes to eye muscles and will be able to tell if squint is genuine or a pseudosquint-depending on babys cooperation. baby may then have drops put in their eyes to enlarge the pupils and allow an ophthalmologist to examine the back of babys eyes. most of these procedures are painless although the drops are a bit stingy-babies tend to be ok its the older kids who freak. Assuming eyes are healthy and its just a squint babies as young as yours are usually followed up for a while before glasses(if req) or treatment initiated. hope this helps


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## Caroline

It also depend on type of squint. Some can be corrected with specs, some require surgery to the muscles.

Some squints can correct themselves by 6 months.

The hospital will assess your lo & decide if they need any specs & or patching too.


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## Tam

Alfie has a squint and is currently under the hospital. 

I noticed if for the first time around August of last year so took him to the Doctor's after a few weeks, who referred him to the hospital. We had to wait 3 months for the appointment but went along to see them in January. (Over this time it has got worse without a doubt). 

He was seen by a nurse just to assess him before going on the orthoptist. The nurse was using toys and a toy light to try to get him to follow it just so she could write down her initial report - which did not prove easy and was not really complete as Alfie was not having any of it. 

We then saw the orthoptist who was trying to use lenses over each of his eyes whilst trying to look inside the eyes to determine if he was longsited to a certain degree (which is very normal for babies until they reach around 3 I think they said), but if he was more long sighted than normal, he would have to start with glasses to try to correct it.

Well that didnt turn out very well either as the woman doing this thought he was 15yrs old and would do as his told and not a 23month old! :hissy: The boss came in after a while and tried to passify Alfie and have a look and he was brilliant! He couldn't get to see exactly what he wanted but he thinks as things stand from what he has seen, there is a 66% chance Alfie has to have an operation. But he wants to see him in June again in the hope that Alfie will be a little older and therefore understand a little bit more that they are not trying to hurt him and he can follow simple instructions, so that we know exactly what Alfie will need doing.


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## ALY

my little girl ad to wear glasses from the age of 5mths 
they will prob just check the back of his eyes then they will decied on wat to do hun x


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## RugbyMum

Tam

Don't rush into surgery!
 
This is my story - it has a great ending:

It was obvious our son had a lazy eye which he was not going to simply outgrow by the time he was 18 months old. The degree of squint was pretty severe. 

We were referred to the hospital eye clinic where a woman attempted to assess his eyes using completely inappropriate 'patient skills' for an 18 month old, shrieked at him, waved cuddly toys in his face, put a card with a picture 3 inches from his face and demanded 'what is it?' then tried to manouver his head into a contraption. When our son objected she said she couldn't assess him unless he would behave!

Once I persuaded her to back off and calm down a bit, I managed to get our son to cooperate by using gentle explanation and play and she was able to get her assessment. Her verdict: 'Your son is virtually blind in one eye - sufficiently so that he could be classed visually impaired. He does not have and will never have stereoscopic vision. His depth perception will be impaired and he will never be able to do things requiring good hand - eye cooperation such as bat a ball, catch a ball, kick a ball, hit a target etc. He will need an operation - probably several operations before he reaches maturity (to correct the squint) and he will have to wear an eye patch over his good eye at least 8 hours a day. 

When I recovered from my upset and shock I did some research. Armed with this research we attended our appointment with the consultant who carried out the test with the eye drops and confirmed what the nasty woman at the first appointment had said. He also confirmed that the operations would NOT correct or attempt to correct our son's sight, they were merely for cosmetic effect - to make the eye appear straight. To the consultant's disapproval we turned down the surgery point blank - why would we subject a baby to general anaesthetic purely for aesthetic purposes?

Back for another appointment with 'nasty woman' and I shared my research with her - all from latest university research in the field of behavioural optometry. The research said that it was possible to correct the degree of a squint AND improve vision in the eye through specific eye exercises (using patches and both eyes) and that continuous patching / surgery was unnecessary. Nasty woman laughed at me and pointed to all her old, dusty books on the shelf, saying 'are you questioning my years of knowledge and experience?' I replied that not only was I doing just that, I was also removing our son from the care of this hospital. Chew on that, you old bat!

Eventually, after more research we made an appointment at 'The children's opticians' in Cardiff who it seemed were making great headways with behavioural optometry. Our son was by now aged 4. What a difference! Our son was assessed in a large, bright, comfy room full of interesting toys. The Optometrist got down on the floor with him and was crawling round the room cleverly using things like torches on walls and ribbons on the floor to assess his eyes and his ability to follow / track. Her assessment was that yes, he had a very deep squint and his eye had practically switched itself off in order to improve his vision by using just the other eye, BUT improvement was possible. She also prescribed him some glasses - clear glass for one eye and a really thick lens in the other and gave us specific eye exercises to do.

In the years that followed, we worked (played!) with the eye exercises we were given and invented a few ourselves. Our son only wore a patch when we were doing the exercises and the last few exercises each session were done with both eyes together (to encourage them to work together). Each time his eyes were tested (at the local opticians now) they were amazed! In the first year his sight in his bad eye improved by 3 lines on the chart - another 6 months added another 3 lines. To add to this his school photo each year showed the squint becoming less and less noticeable. 

Now he is eleven years old, no longer wears glasses, has better than average peripheral vision in both eyes, is captain of his school and county rugby teams and also plays cricket for his town U11s. He has been ear-marked as an outstanding sportsman and has recently won a generous sports scholarship to a great school. 

His eyes are completely straight.

Don't rush into surgery!


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## daisyday

Wow thats brilliant!!!

Im glad you told me that. My hv has mentioned they can correct it cosmetically with surgery but he hasnt even been seen yet. 

If i can avoid it i will and by what you have told me i now feel that surgery should only be a very last resort and hopefully will not be needed.

His squint has been obvious to me since he was born, and hasnt even slightly improved since (he's now only 13 weeks).

I dont like the thought of such a young baby undergoing all of that just because some people might think he doesnt look right.


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## Linzi

I had a squint when I was little, it got diagnosed when I was about 5. I had to wear patches sometimes but it didn't do the world of good, so I had a small operation to correct it :)

Only problem Ive had recently is Ive been loosing some of my sight out of that eye any my optician hasd told me it could be damage caused by the operation thats got worse as I got older, but I think its very uncommon.

I know its a scary thing to think about but I got teased something awful at school because of it and Im sooo pleased my dad made the decision to get it sorted for me.

xxx


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## Caroline

I wouldn't rush into surgery. If the eye is lazy & the squint can only be corrected by surgery, depending on how lazy the eye is, patching post op can give significant improvement to vision. 

Depending on which research you go on, the critical period for improving vision in a lazy eye is upto 8 years old. I don't like to leave referrals that late & like to ensure they're seen by 6.

If surgery is only going to be for cosmetic reasons, personallly I'd prefer & would recommend that you wait until your chils is old enough to make the decision themselves on surgery. Often in there tenns they decide they want it doing but other times its adulthood.

If you have any questions feel free to pm & I'll do my best to answer them.


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## mari72

Its incredibly unlikely that an infant would be given squint surgery, certainly the hospital i work in wouldn't entertain the idea. A babies eyes are still developing at this stage so no dr would interfere unless there was a sight threatening problem causing the squint i.e a cataract (don't panic,this would've been detected by dr at initial post natal check in hospital) and then the op would be to remove that problem not correct the squint. At this stage the drs will be more interested in the health of your babies eyes and ensuring they are healthy and developing normally. The best thing that you can do just now is keep an eye on the squint,does your baby fix and follow with only one eye or does he alternate which eye he uses? Does the size of the squint vary? Is it less in the a.m-getting worse when he is tired etc? All this is good information which will be a great help when you see the specialist, and for the moment forget about operations. 
Rugbymum had a very unfortunate experience, the orthoptists,optometrists and ophthalmologists i work with are all very adept at assessing children and use age appropriate methods-and if baby isn't in the mood to play/cooperate they will usually bring you back at a later date. Please don't get too anxious at the moment. Especially as sometimes you can get a condition called pseudosquint which is when a wide bridge in babies (called epicanthel folds) gives the illusion of a squint, this disappears as the baby grows.


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## lcside

We have just been referred to the orthoptists as they think Erin may have a possible squint (only slight I think). Her left eye turns in more to her nose. We are currently waiting for an appointment. xx


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## mrso

I had a lazy eye when I was little. Mine was caught when I was 2 and it was almost too late. I started with glasses and have worn then ever since (now 26). My left eye was lazy and as a result the vision is very poor. I had to wear patches when I was 6yrs old to correct the lazy eye but I will forever have to wear corrective lenses for vision loss.

With my son I had him checked when he was 10 months old. Lucky he doesnt have it as it is typically a genitic problem. The doc also told me that the bridge of a childs nose isn't completely formed until they are toddlers. This makes the nose appear a bit wider in the bridge. Because of this a baby's eyes may be normal just appear to have a lazy eye but they are perfectly normal. 

Yes some children can grow out of it but if your child doesnt then I would go for the best treatment available. I wish that my parents could have afforded surgery when I was 2 because I will forever be in corrective lenses and NO lasic surgery is not an option because there was so much vision loss in the left eye. Plus I have no depth perception.


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## Tinax

my son who is almot 11 now had a squin from 3months, it never corrected it self he had corrective surgery in both eyes when he was round about 6, this still never helped and still has squint xx


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## Angelica

Im glad I found this thread as my LO also has a slight squint in left eye. It occasionaly turns in more...
We have had an initial consultation at hosp (am going private) and he wants to see us again this sat... We will be putting drops in her eye an hour before hand & then he will do the neccessary tests. 
He wasnt overly nice to be honest... he dived straight in & said she may need glasses/surgery or he may just refer her to the optomologist for eye excercises....

Im really worried at the moment as i dont want her to have surgery or have to wear glasses... ( i have worn them since 15 & HATE them)

Do u ladies know if they give LO's glasses even if they are a little bit farsighted or do they give u patches & wait to see if it sorts itself out??


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## DizzyMoo

Just wanted to add i don't have a squint but i do have a lazy eye which does affect my vision, Mine was diagnosed during primary school but was nothing they could do about it as apparently it should of been noticed sooner. Nobody looking at me can tell BUT i know when i look at certain photos of me 1 eye is slightly off centre & i've always been conscious wearing my hair over my left eye just in case. I also have a little trouble seeing 100% if i close my right eye & just use my left i can't focus properly, i can see the outlines of things & colours seem to blend together but that's all. I could wear a patch it would be to dangerous for me, My right eye on the other hand apparently is perfect vision if not better ( if there is such a thing as better than perfect hmm )& makes up for the fact my left is poor . I have regular checks with the opticians & i'll soon be needing glasses ( i should have them now i'm just stubborn & don't want them he he )
So if they have noticed it soon on your son then i'd be glad at least it means he will get sorted out soon, If they can fix it without an op then that's good but i guess that depends on the op & whether its quicker & you get quicker results .


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## anonnymouse

My oldest son, had patches & glasses from an early age. We noticed that he was looking a bit cross-eyed when he was about 15 mths & I think it took about 3-4 months for a consultant appt at the hosp. He got his 1st pair of glasses at about 19 mths after them doing the looking into his eyes/eyedrops thing & watching the cuddly toy. He is long-sighted with a squint & astigmatism.He also had to wear patches for 3 hrs a day over his bad eye up until year 1 at school I think. He had an op to correct the squint when he was 3 (he's 11 now) & it was just day surgery with a week off playgroup to make sure he didn't get anything in it. it only looks turned in a bit if he's really tired. I don't think his eyesight has held him back in anyway & I'm glad we got all the patches & the op over at an early age.


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