Strabismus? - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

xinerevelle · 04-16-2007, 05:42 PM

I'm pretty sure that my 5 month old daughter has strabismus (exotropia, to be exact) -- where her eyes don't work well together. From everything I've read about it, babies don't outgrow it, as I've been told anecdotely from friends and neighbors. Her left eye seems "off" from her right eye about 75% of the time, but only by 5 or 10 degrees.

Of course, at her 4 month checkup her eyes seemed relatively normal, but to appease me, the doc made a referral to a pediatric ophthamologist. Living in a small town, we have to wait until the travelling ped. ophth. comes to town again (and has an appt. available) so we don't see her until May 28.

In the meantime, I notice that my daughter tilts her head most of the time, rarely holding it straight up. From what I've read online, that seems to be an indication that she's having a hard time seeing correctly and is trying to compensate for it.

A concern about her vision is that if her brain detects two different images it may just shut down the message from one eye permanently, which would limit her depth perception.

Anyone else have experience with this? I did a search but didn't come up with anything.

Kel123 · 05-10-2007, 03:23 PM

Hi,

I have 2 children with the exact same thing. My daughter had surgery to correct the eye muscles at 3 years old and has been wonderful since. Her eyes are perfectly aligned now and she has perfect vision. Before her surgery, she squinted whenever focusing and especially outside in sunlight. She also tilted her head a lot. My specialist said the tilting and squinting was do to the double vision she was having. My son, I noticed the eye wandering out when he was 4 mos old. His was very severe. We did a trial of patching to no avail. His brain was already starting to shut off to the eye (my dr. said if they can blink and the eye stays out during a blink, then the brain is ignoring the eye) he had surgery at 8 mos old and did great initially. Now, at his 1 year check up (we go May 14th) I am noticing his left eye is turned into his nose--the exact opposite of previously. Needless to say, I hate the thought of another surgery, but getting the eyes corrected at a young age is pertinant to them developing normal visual pathways. I have 1 week to wait and see what the dr. sais. He is now 21 mos old. My other daughter is 6 years old with no problems. The surgery is gory (very bloody eyes that are hard to look at and if you go out in public people look at you like you have beaten your child)

The good thing is that it didn't seem very uncomfortable for either of my kids. Sorry you are having to deal with this, but please take it seriously and find a really great dr. that is Key! Any further questions, let me know.

Kelley

prairie_dawn · 05-11-2007, 07:14 AM

I have no advice but hope you get this sorted out fast and get the treatment that is needed soon. Good luck

xinerevelle · 05-12-2007, 11:34 AM

Thanks for your replies, ladies.

Interestingly enough, after I posted this (and made the doctor's appt) I don't seem to notice the eye wandering as much... lol! Isn't that always the case??? Second guessing myself, I think.

Glad to know that I'm not the only one dealing with this (was beginning to think I was!) and that the surgery isn't too awful.

Thanks again!

Kel123 · 05-12-2007, 01:08 PM

Your welcome!!

It is a very serious problem that you should definitely have seen by a specialist, so I hope you follow through with your appt. It was hard to see with my son, but the dr. does specialized tests that actually make the eye wander. Good luck, and I hope she doesn't need surgery.
Kelley