Anyone have experience with toddler vision issues, lazy eye, crossed eyes, etc?

[ChristusG]

I've noticed that my just-turned-3-year-old has a "wandering" eye. One eye will look straight at me but the other one will drift in another direction. Sometimes I have a hard time knowing if she's looking at me or past me. I took her to the pediatrician today and they referred me to a pediatric opthamologist at the local childrens hospital. The quickest appointment I could get is still over a month away though. So I'm not sure whether she has strabismus (crossed eyes....but it doesn't necessarily mean they are crossed inwards....it can mean any direction), a lazy eye, or what. I know that the first can cause vision problems.

 

I'm just kind of wondering what to expect? Does anyone have any experience with this? The lady who set up the appointment told me to expect to be there for two hours and that they would be dialating her eyes. Ummm....that should go over well. I'm envisioning this horribly awful experience where they will strap her down and tape her eye lids open or something. How in the world will they get a newly turned 3 year old to cooperate for any of this?

[Tap]

Dd3 has eyes that sometimes seem to not track together due to having and epicanthic fold and wide set eyes.

 

I took her into be evaluated and the physician put the drops in her eyes. It was quick and simple. He did the exam, ruled her eyes normal and we were done. It was less than an hour. If there had been an problem, I would have expected a longer visit.

 

The dr said the eye shape, distance and bone structure around the eye gave the illusion of a problem because the normal markers we use to asses issues as lay people were indeed not there. Medically she was fine.

[HerdingCats]

My brother had a lazy eye. This was years ago when he had to wear a patch. He also had surgery. I don't know how treatments may be different now. He was never able to fuse the images together and has to use one eye at a time, but you would never know there was anything wrong with him. In fact he has exceptional vision.

 

I've taken a three year old in for drops and exam when he had a scratched cornea. It was not the tortuous experience you might imagine. If I remember correctly, he was really quite cooperative and the staff worked well with kids. Good luck!

[klmama]

Wow, you can get in within a month? That's great!!!!!

 

Probably they'll dilate her eyes (and it may take a day or two for them to get back to normal, depending on the type of drops they use - be sure to ask what to expect). Take sunglasses to the appointment for her to wear afterward. The drops won't be a big deal - the child can even have eyes closed, and the doctor will just pry open the lid and squirt it in. Pediatric opthamologists are great with little kids and their quirks.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

This is a family trait for us. My mother, my cousin, my brother, two nephews, my son...

 

If you are within driving distance of Central Indiana, I can tell you who to see! Our eye doctor has specialized in this for 35 years.

[cyndyinohio]

I took my 2 year old in for the same problem. My pediatrician told me that I didn't need to, but that advise didn't sit well with me. The optometrist was specially trained in working with children and was amazing. She kept his attention using different methods and had him point to things and so forth since he could not read or say any letters. She diagnosed him with a lazy eye, and said that if he had not had treatment for it then that eye would eventually become blind! If you are anywhere near Dayton, Ohio, you have to take your child to Dr. Cara Frasco...she is so great with children (and adults!)

[redheadeddaughter]

I am so glad to hear that you spotted this vision issue early! According to our (fantastic and hard to get an appointment with) pediatric specialist, catching it early and treating it with things like patching and possibly surgery are keys to getting your baby back on track in terms of vision, depth vision, etc. So that is actually good news.

 

The hard news is you'll likely have to prepare yourself to go through at least a few years of fairly frequent dr. visits and treatments. Eye drops and patching, etc. We are on the tail end of it now (we hope!). We had to do surgery and are continuing with the patching because it has brought some depth vision back... and he had none before. I was very scared and very upset, and looking back now there are so many other health concerns so much worse. My boy is 7 now and we caught it when he was 3. Actually, my mother-in-law spotted the issue on a visit to Wisconsin. I was just in denial and thought he was perfect in every way... :) But once she pointed it out, we took him to the dr. (also had to wait a while to get in... that's pretty common) and they confirmed it.

 

Also... we've always had the most gentle nurses, assistants and drs. They seemed pretty much ready for anything. The drops are so quick.

[jplain]

A 1 month wait is great! We had to wait almost 3 months for my daughter's first appointment.

 

Don't worry too much about the eyedrops. It'll probably be his least favorite event of the day, but pediatric ophthalmologists and their staff are practiced at getting it done quickly and without fuss.

 

Bring along some favorite diversions, because some of that two hours will be spent out in the waiting room, waiting for his eyes to dilate.

 

And don't worry about cooperation. They'll do the best they can, and that'll be good enough for now. If he does have a vision issue that requires glasses, as he gets older and is better able to cooperate, they'll be able to refine his prescription.

[Ohdanigirl]

I personally have lazy eye. In fact I was born with a whole boat full of eye problems. It was very obvious when I was born and my parents were all over it. I still have some tiny glasses from when I was a baby.:D

 

Any how, the eye doctor visits were the least scariest of any I ever had. A lot less scary than the big bad dentist.:D Everything will be fine, and the drops aren't bad at all.

 

Good luck!!

Danielle

[Amber in AUS]

My 5yo DD wears glasses because she is long sighted and has a turned eye. We are trying to correct the turn by patching, ATM we are at 4 hours patching every day. It was picked up when she was 3yo. One eye looks at you, the other past you off to the side.

 

The appt's do take time because like other people have said they will put drops in the eyes to make the pupils dilate. That is what takes time, some kids are quick 30 mins some will take an hour or more. You can play or go for a walk while you are waiting for them to dilate. Generally they will look into the eye with various lenses to check the refraction of light on the rear of the eye. That will determine short or long sightedness. So with small children they do not put glasses on the child and ask them to read a chart and see if it looks better or worse like they do with adults. Although they may ask her to match shapes and/or letters on a hand held chart in the beginning.

 

We have seen our opthamologist every 3 months for almost 3 years. They like to monitor progress very closely because they need to treat turned or lazy eyes aggressively. If you have a turned eye or lazy eye by the time you are 7 or so you have lost all chance of fixing it, your brain is wired and your eyes are set. We tell people we are brain training when they ask about the patch because we are asking her brain to use that eye exclusively to improve it so it will work as a team with the other eye :) We are forming new pathways in the brain.

 

If you do need to patch have a pirate party to celebrate. It went over very well at our house :D

 

Oh, if she is long sighted and you do get glasses don't do what i did and whack them on in the shop and say well, there you go, now don't take them off. Long sighted children see everything very small and my DD was completely overwhelmed by the true size of everything in the shopping centre. It would have been much more pleasant to wait until we were home in familiar surroundings, oops!

 

PM me if you'd like to chat more. We are back to our eye Dr on 28/5.

[ChristusG]

Thanks for all the of the replies and reassurance! I'll definitely bring some distractions with us to the appointment.

 

So if they need to do the patch with her....it's not something that she has to wear all day long? I just figured that she would have to. And your small children kept a patch on just fine?

[gingersmom]

My son started wearing an eye patch in 1st grade. He actually was not the only child wearing one.

 

He started out wearing it all day (except bedtime) and then it gradually tapered off (over about 2 years I think).

 

The first time he wore one he was walking into things. But after about an hour or so it was no big deal.

 

They make girl/boy eyepatches in a range of designs so I am sure there is something your daughter will find that she likes.

[Amber in AUS]

Thanks for all the of the replies and reassurance! I'll definitely bring some distractions with us to the appointment.

 

So if they need to do the patch with her....it's not something that she has to wear all day long? I just figured that she would have to. And your small children kept a patch on just fine?

 

I think it depends on the severity how long they need to patch each day. My DD started at 3 hours a day, over 2 years got down to 1 hour per week and is now back to 4 hours per day.

 

They make patches that slip over the eye glasses. My DD did make a big fuss in the beginning she cried and didn't want to keep it on. It was HARD work on her bad eye and she couldn't read with it on and she bumped into a lot of things. We had a pirate party and everyone came and wore a patch. We tried to make it a very normal thing and not make comments about the patch. We forewarned people when we were going to their place that she has an eye patch and not to make a fuss. Everyone was very good.

 

We have learned over time that we only patch at home. Generally from 12noon until 4pm each day. I know other people who do 3pm till 7pm, whatever works. We have a reward chart and she gets to pick an outing to do when we visit the eye Dr each time, provided she hasn't made a big deal about wearing the patch over the last 3 months. This next time we are going ice skating. In the beginning it was a day to day reward. At 3 they need a jellybean or whatever when they are done.

 

We keep it very matter of fact and she knows exactly why she has to wear the patch. Making it a regular part of our routine makes life easy.

[stripe]

You might find this forum about children's vision issues helpful as well, even just to read some posts:

 

http://www.preventblindness.org/discus/messages/20/20.html?1191337992

[Mynyel]

My son has major vision problems to. His stems from crossed eyes. His eyes cross in whenever his glasse are off. And he barely has any depth perception. He can't watch things in 3D, it doesn't pop out for him.

 

He wears a +650 in his left and a +550 in his right eye. *IF* we had never gone in he would probably have been legally blind. Not sure on this. I do know for sure that the left eye would have eventually ceased working at the right eye would have taken over.

 

He has gone to vision therapy for the last year (actually finsihed in March!) and he has improved dramatically! He has more control over his eyes now that he used to and when he started he couldn't see 3D at ALL. Now he can see tiny amounts.

 

Your child is about the same age as mine was when we discovered the issue. Had we known then what we know now :glare: we would have seen it ever earlier and he started wearing glasses at 20 months!

[mom2att]

My dd was 2.5 when we noticed her crossing her eyes and were referred to a pediatric opthomologist for an appointment (Dr. Hunter at Nemours--I think you're in the same area as me).

 

The initial appointment is pretty long, because first they will have her identify pictures (instead of letters) shown on a screen and do some initial tests. THEN they will dilate her eyes and send you back to the waiting room for the drops to take effect. After that more tests, more looks by the doctor, etc. They are very used to dealing with young children there and very good at what they do.

 

My dd ended up being very farsighted and actually looked around the room and SMILED when she got her glasses. She also had to patch off and on for a couple of months two different times, and she adapted to that much better than I imagined. The sticky patches really stick and are hard to get off--the kind that slip over the glasses are better. They used to sell them at the Nemours pharmacy--not sure if they still do.

 

My dd is now 14 and still wears glasses for her far-sightedness. She never needed surgery, but her eyes still cross to compensate for her poor vision when she takes her glasses off. Glasses have been a part of her life since she was tiny, so it's no big deal.

[elw_miller]

I've noticed that my just-turned-3-year-old has a "wandering" eye. One eye will look straight at me but the other one will drift in another direction. Sometimes I have a hard time knowing if she's looking at me or past me. I took her to the pediatrician today and they referred me to a pediatric opthamologist at the local childrens hospital. The quickest appointment I could get is still over a month away though. So I'm not sure whether she has strabismus (crossed eyes....but it doesn't necessarily mean they are crossed inwards....it can mean any direction), a lazy eye, or what. I know that the first can cause vision problems.

 

I'm just kind of wondering what to expect? Does anyone have any experience with this? The lady who set up the appointment told me to expect to be there for two hours and that they would be dialating her eyes. Ummm....that should go over well. I'm envisioning this horribly awful experience where they will strap her down and tape her eye lids open or something. How in the world will they get a newly turned 3 year old to cooperate for any of this?

 

I had a lazy eye as a small child. My left eye would wander, typically outwards. I had an operation around 18 months of age to fix the muscle. As a three-year-old I remember having my eyed dilated, watching puppet shows and special cartoons to track my vision, and looking at the eye charts with shapes to test my vision.

 

I think the nurses just said that my vision would be funny when they put the drops in, but that it wouldn't hurt. I think I got funny glasses to protect my eyes from sunlight and to make the experience fun. I do not remember freaking out.

 

I remember actually enjoying the visits to the pediatric opthamologist--what with the puppet show and cartoons. In addition to the check-ups, I had to wear an eye patch for awhile and do special eye exercises. After my eye surgery I had 20/20 vision (now at 31 it is not quite 20/20 anymore but that's better than having an eye that can't see right at all).

[sarawatsonim]

I noticed my daughters eye starting to turn in at 3. When we went to the opthamologist she said that she needed glasses and we would have to start patching full time. She started to patch full days with about and hour break each day for the first year or so, gradually the time was decreased. She now patches daily for about and hour. The doctor suggested that we get her a Nintendo DS or some handheld game that would force her to use her other eye and keep her mind off the patching.

As for the drops for dilating, it was way easier for the nurse to put them in then for us at first. She just sat there as good as gold when the nurse asked her too, while with us I swear her head rotated several times before we got the drops in.:tongue_smilie:

You can get some really cute patches for kids right now to make wearing one more bearable. This a is picture of my daughter patched and playing her DS recently. Good luck! The fact that you caught is early means that things can still be changed.

[stripe]

I have read about parents being afraid/hesitant to take their kids outside while patching, and I can understand this. However, you may be surprised how many children you encounter who have patched or are currently patching and have been too shy to go outside.

Edited May 13, 2010 by stripe

[ChristusG]

Mom2att, thanks for sharing your experience. Yes, we are going to Nemours too. It's not Dr Hunter though, it is someone else but I can't remember who they said. I think it starts with an "L." It is nice to know what to expect once we get there.

 

Thanks for everyone else sharing your experiences as well. Sounds like hopefully it will not be as bad as I was anticipating. Although, I didn't realize that patching could go on for years. I was guessing months....years is a long time!

[Angel]

Wow, you can get in within a month? That's great!!!!!

 

Probably they'll dilate her eyes (and it may take a day or two for them to get back to normal, depending on the type of drops they use - be sure to ask what to expect). Take sunglasses to the appointment for her to wear afterward. The drops won't be a big deal - the child can even have eyes closed, and the doctor will just pry open the lid and squirt it in. Pediatric opthamologists are great with little kids and their quirks.

 

:iagree:

 

My younger dd has been doing this since she was 4 months old. On our last visit they even had drops you can "blink" into your eyes. My dd has Duane's Syndrome (it might be spelled Dwayne's...I can never remember). Anyway, her eye won't move past a certain mid point. The nerves controlling the eye muscles are reversed so the muscles can't get the message. If she is looking at me the way the eye can move, she looks normal. If she is looking at me from the side where it can't get past mid point, then it looks like it is crossing, or just off. This is something she'll always have. They kept an eye on it when she was little, eye appointments twice a year, to make sure she didn't try to stop using that eye. Next month will be her last appointment (hopefully).

 

There is so much that is correctable with eye problems in small children. I wouldn't get too worked up about it. Also, I haven't seen a ped opthamologist yet who was bad with kids. We've had great experiences!

[BikeBookBread]

Not toddler, but PDG was diagnosed with amblyopoia ("lazy eye", but it never crossed, just is weak) when she turned 6. We do drops twice a week, and in 6 months her vision has improved from corrected (in glasses) 20/30 to 20/25 (in glasses). Her uncorrected vision is really, really weak. We tried patching, but she got really, really bad headaches (migraine symptoms - throwing up, begging for a dark room). We switched to the drops (at night before bedtime) and there has been no problem with headaches.

[Brooketopia]

My second daughter had a crossed eye at her 2mo appt...it took three months to get in to see the pediatric opthamologist. They thought they were going to have to do surgery on a muscle in her eye, but she ended up not needing it. She's had to go in every six months since and have her eyes dilated. The crossing has gone away, but she'll probably need glasses in the next year.

 

The dilation isn't a big problem, and the opthamologist should have sunglasses on hand for the child to wear. We usually have to wait half an hour or so for the drops to really work, so I've always turned it into a special day for just the two of us and we go through a drive thru to make the wait easier on her. I always get a babysitter for my other kiddos...can't imagine what it would be like to have all of them with me for that long!

 

Good luck with it all...don't worry too much in the mean time.

[stripe]

I haven't seen a ped opthamologist yet who was bad with kids.

(Cough) I have! But I doubt this is the norm.

[Angel]

(Cough) I have! But I doubt this is the norm.

 

Oh, that's too bad. It's not like I've seen many, but dd has had 3 different ones and they have all been amazing. The current one is our all time favorite. They should clone him:D

[Jennifer in MI]

Everyone has beaten me to it! You got great advice/information! My 12 yo had that. His was a vision issue, I forget the name. Basically, if it had gone on, he would've gone blind in that eye. They started him with glasses with a stronger prescription in the good eye so his bad one would have to work harder. Then, we went to patching (6 hours/day). That worked. I think we patched for a year or so.

 

He still wears glasses and that eye is still weaker than the other, but there's no danger of him going blind anymore!

 

The first appointment was simple! The nurse put the drops in VERY fast!! No nonsense. It was the second appointment where he knew it was coming that was the problem!!

[RanchGirl]

My son had amblyopia and saw a pediatric opthamologist starting at age 3, did the patching, and was able to get the weak eye turned on (from basically blind), but still wasn't using them together. We went to a developmental optometrist and did vision therapy for a year. The D.O. had a completely different approach which made a lot more sense and helped him a lot more than the opthamologist. The patching got him from 10/400 in the weak eye to 20/65, but he was still not using them together.

 

The Opthamologist said "he'll never improve beyond 20/65, he'll never use both eyes together, and he'll never play baseball." (He said this right in front of my baseball fanatic son. I could have cheerfully strangled the man right there.)

 

The D.O. said that was bunk, and they were right. After the vision therapy, he is at 20/30, sometimes 20/25 in the weaker eye, and using both eyes together, and he is continuing to improve his prescription. And he is an awesome baseball player!

 

In addition to the pediatric opthamologist appointment, I would suggest that you also see a developmental optometrist, preferably one who is board-certified, and then decide which approach to follow. *Especially* if the opthamologist mentions surgery, which many consider to be ineffective and sometimes counter-productive.

 

I'm definitely not saying I know which is right for your child, just that I want you to know there are multiple options because sometimes doctors make it seem so cut and dried and just want you to blindly follow their advice. It took me 5-6 different doctors consultations to find the right path for my son. It was extremely frustrating at the time, but I can't tell you how glad I am now that I kept pushing.

[wapiti]

My son had amblyopia and saw a pediatric opthamologist starting at age 3, did the patching, and was able to get the weak eye turned on (from basically blind), but still wasn't using them together. We went to a developmental optometrist and did vision therapy for a year. The D.O. had a completely different approach which made a lot more sense and helped him a lot more than the opthamologist. The patching got him from 10/400 in the weak eye to 20/65, but he was still not using them together.

 

The Opthamologist said "he'll never improve beyond 20/65, he'll never use both eyes together, and he'll never play baseball." (He said this right in front of my baseball fanatic son. I could have cheerfully strangled the man right there.)

 

The D.O. said that was bunk, and they were right. After the vision therapy, he is at 20/30, sometimes 20/25 in the weaker eye, and using both eyes together, and he is continuing to improve his prescription. And he is an awesome baseball player!

 

In addition to the pediatric opthamologist appointment, I would suggest that you also see a developmental optometrist, preferably one who is board-certified, and then decide which approach to follow. *Especially* if the opthamologist mentions surgery, which many consider to be ineffective and sometimes counter-productive.

 

I'm definitely not saying I know which is right for your child, just that I want you to know there are multiple options because sometimes doctors make it seem so cut and dried and just want you to blindly follow their advice. It took me 5-6 different doctors consultations to find the right path for my son. It was extremely frustrating at the time, but I can't tell you how glad I am now that I kept pushing.

 

OP, to find a developmental optometrist near you, see www.covd.org