Child may be cross-eyed.

squire1

At a recent check up for our six month old boy the local district nurse said she was concerned our son my be cross-eyed. (I think the medical term is Strabismus). I cant see it myself but we said we would get it checked out anyway. It turns out that there is a 10 month waiting list to see the specialist. We are making enquiries about going through BUPA but not sure yet if this is a runner.

I was just wondering has any other parent gone through this with their kids and what sort of correction procedures are used if there turns out to be a problem?

I apologise to the mods if this seems to be borderline medical advice seeking but I am just looking for practical advice as to the best way to proceed with getting him checked out properly. I am presuming here that early detection and treatment is the norm rather than wiating until the child is older (2 or 3 years) to treat.

Thanks.

Trinity

My nurse said the same about my son although i couldnt see it at all.

It took a long time for us to be seen but when he was it turned out he was just slightly short sighted (as am i - i had a 'lazy eye' as a kid but i dont think this was ever treated) and he needed glasses for reading and tv etc, that was the only treatment he needed.

My neice had a severe turn and had to wear a patch and glasses.

I dont like to give advice as i am not an expert obviously but unless it is severe then its glasses and even at 6 years of age it is a struggle to get kids to wear them.

squire1

Thanks for your reply Trinity. Hopefully it will come to nothing.

Just as an aside, we rang the specialist and for a fee of €80 we can skip the 10 month waiting list and he can be seen next week. Does anyone else think that this is a disgraceful way to run a health system, especially where children are concerned?

deisemum

My son now aged 11 had a squint. He was 2 or 3 before we occasionally noticed it and it was only slight. My first reaction was to go private and thought I'd get an appointment within a week or two. However there was a 4 month waiting list to go private which shocked me. Obvious market for another consultant to open a practice. I expected the public list to be a lot longer.

Fortunately for me I met my PHN at a function and told her about the squint. This was on a Thursday, she wasn't back into her office until the Friday and my son got an appointment for the following Tuesday. Just shows it's who you know.

It took 3 visits to the public clinic before they could see his squint and it was only mild. The eyesight was perfect in each eye it's just a bit of a weak muscle in one eye. He went through phases of patching for short periods, glasses, bifocals but doesn't need anything now. He did eye control exercises for a while. The easiest way to get them to wear patches/glasses in at playschool or school and in most playschools or classes because there's normally other children doing the same.

I can only praise the public clinics because we found them very good. By going public it's free and they get free glasses which are very colourful and have great child appeal. If when baby is older and has to wear glasses just be aware one chain of well known opticians may try and get you to buy frames not covered by the health board and opt for the ones you pay for even though they're normally very plain anyway. Even if you get the health board ones they'll try putting the hard sell on you to buy a spare pair, but if you need a replacement pair you just get a repeat perscription from the clinic and get another free pair.

My son's squint isn't noticable unless he's extremely tired. Earlier this year after reading some online threads on another site I got a bit worried by some peoples suggestions and went to a private consultant who assured me that my son's eyes were fine. She just said that he had very good muscle control but to bear in mind that when he's extremely tired or drunk (when older) that he may appear to have a squint but that's nothing to worry about.

I was wearing glasses at 11months. They were the John Lennon type with loops in the arms that a ribbon was threaded through. I had the operation when I was nearly 5.

deisemum

Sometimes babies and young toddlers may have a small fold of skin between their inner eye and their nose. That can give the appearance of a squint but as the child grows this normally disappears. No harm having it checked out anyway

squire1

deisemum wrote:

Sometimes babies and young toddlers may have a small fold of skin between their inner eye and their nose. That can give the appearance of a squint but as the child grows this normally disappears. No harm having it checked out anyway

Spot on deisemum, we had the appontment today and it turns out he just has a wide nose . So no squint. As it happens he has a stigmatism (?sp) in both eyes so he might need galsses when he is older for short sightedness. He will be checked out every 12 months from now on. The doctor put drops in his eyes to dilate the pupils so he looks a bit zonked at the moment. We will avoid bright lights for the next 12 hours.:cool:

Trinity

squire1 wrote:

Spot on deisemum, we had the appontment today and it turns out he just has a wide nose . So no squint. As it happens he has a stigmatism (?sp) in both eyes so he might need galsses when he is older for short sightedness. He will be checked out every 12 months from now on. The doctor put drops in his eyes to dilate the pupils so he looks a bit zonked at the moment. We will avoid bright lights for the next 12 hours.:cool:

Ah i am delighted it was nothing more!! You must be relieved.

Yes i remember having to guide my son to stop him from walking into walls after those drops. He has big brown eyes so it was difficult to get them to dilate!!

davidoco

This is not medical advice, more of an old wives tale

Do not (excessively) throw your babies in the air or let anybody else do it. The excitement for the baby can tear or stretch the mechanisms that hold the eyes straight and lead to lazy eye.

Blush_01

squire1 wrote:

Spot on deisemum, we had the appontment today and it turns out he just has a wide nose . So no squint. As it happens he has a stigmatism (?sp) in both eyes so he might need galsses when he is older for short sightedness. He will be checked out every 12 months from now on. The doctor put drops in his eyes to dilate the pupils so he looks a bit zonked at the moment. We will avoid bright lights for the next 12 hours.:cool:

Just in relation to your son's astigmatism (I know, this is probably unnecessarily fiddly, but it's kind of interesting) - astigmatism is blurred vision due to the eye's inability to refract light properly. I'm a long sighted astigmatic - unless your son exhibits signs of short sightedness, they'll just be correcting the refractive deficiencies in his eyes, not giving him glasses for long/short sightedness (although short sightedness is often attributed to muscle strain, which could be possible if straining to see due to blurred vision, I guess). Luckily, toric contacts mean that astigmatics can now wear contacts to fix the blurring. Although, it's sometimes pretty to take off the glasses and watch lights splinter like stars. Can lead to a godawful headache though!

Glad all is ok with him.

Billiejo

An eye check is part of all babies developmental assessment - not usually carried out by a District Nurse but by a Public Health Nurse (Ireland) and Health Visitor (UK) This type of problem is not usually dealth with privately as all 'child health developmental issues' come within the community public health system. ('Best Health for Children' HSE.)
In young babies the 'epicanthal folds' (as mentioned above) may be quite impressive and give the appearence of a squint. This should be noted and followed up to exclude the possibility of a squint so that corrective treatment is decided (surgery to strengthen the muscle on the weak side or simply wearing an eye patch) asap, preferably before child starts school.
The simple test to check ocular alignment, is to shine a torch directly into the pupils. Using the time clock model as a guide, the light reflections should be at the same time in both.
If they differ, say at 3 o'clock in one & 7 o'clock in the other, this needs to be checked out at the child health clinic by the PHN.

Hobbes

yea see an optician tbh. It could just be a lazy eye. I had one when I was around 4-5 and all they did was give me an eye patch for a few months.