Lazy/Wandering Eye

Has anyone had a child treated for lazy/wandering eye in the UK -- particularly a baby?  We saw our GP today who said that there wasn't anything that could be done.  Granted, I wasn't sure whether he meant he couldn't do anything or nothing could be done in general.  When I mentioned atropine eye drops -- something I know that is done in the US -- he recoiled in horror.

However, he did write a referral to an ophthalmologist.

Has anyone had a child treated for lazy/wandering eye in the UK -- particularly a baby?  We saw our GP today who said that there wasn't anything that could be done.  Granted, I wasn't sure whether he meant he couldn't do anything or nothing could be done in general.  When I mentioned atropine eye drops -- something I know that is done in the US -- he recoiled in horror.

However, he did write a referral to an ophthalmologist.

Not QUITE the same, but my youngest developed a sight problem pretty early too, she was about 2-3.  I just took her a regular eye doctor who tested her and he told me it was a good thing I was bringing her in when I was because otherwise she would've developed lazy eye and the vision would not be able to be corrected 100%.  He said catching it early we could though.  

I'd be sceptical of accepting a diagnosis that there is nothing that could be done as well.  I hope it works out for you.

My daughter, who is now 3, has had a "lazy" eye, or squints as it is called here, where one eye is turned in, or crossing, and she's been being treated since 18 months old. Is that the condition you mean?

My niece had, I think, a lazy eye at birth.  I'm not entirely certain, it could have just been a weak eye, but she's worn glasses since birth with one plain glass lense and one strong lense over the bad eye.

Apparently if they hadn't strengthened her eye that way she could have ended up blind in that eye.

But again, I don't know if that's what you're talking about or not.

Niall's right eye appears to be out of alignment with his left.  If he looks to the right, both eyes move to the right, however when he returns to looking forward, his right eye stays to the right, but the left eye returns to a normal position.  Eventually the right eye will fall into the normal forward alignment.

It's kind of freaked me out because this has come on very fast.  I'm with him day in and day out, and he's had no apparent eye problems since birth.  About two weeks ago, I started to notice that his eyes didn't look right.  I thought perhaps I needed to spend a bit more time observing him because it wasn't that apparent.  In the last week, it has become *very* noticeable, with his brother -- who didn't know about the problem -- even commenting that his eyes are out of alignment.

There's also a history of this in my husband's family.  His sister was cross-eyed from Niall's age (14 months).  She wore patches, special glasses and had two operations, and her eyes still aren't right.  Needless to say, with a family history of this, I want him seen quickly and by the proper professional.

Like I said, I have a referral to a private ophthalmologist so I am keeping my fingers crossed that he will have better advice than this GP (not our normal GP).

Leah, have they used eye drops or patches for your daughter?  I am so afraid that they will want to use patches to cover the good eye.  I can't keep a hat or socks on my child; I haven't the foggiest how in the world I'd keep a patch on his eye!

Okay, my story of hell then. We suddenly noticed our daughter's eye starting to drift inward, and a month later during a health visitor 18mth (?) check, she noticed it right off and referred us to an orthoptist. We went in for the appointment and she was found to be very farsighted, and so much so in the wandering eye that it had "given up" so to speak, and was just turning inward. She was prescribed glasses, and... the patch. We've had a year and half of hell with this patching. She hates it. She's supposed to wear it 2-3 hours a day over the good eye to strengthen the bad eye. The theory is that it will improve the vision of the bad eye by forcing it to work. And I have to say that it has done some good, though the turning has not gotten much better, and they've said that only surgery will fix that, it's cosmetic. As far as the patching, we've had to force it, to the point of having to hold her down to get it on, and early on, following her about to make sure she kept it on. It was a nightmare. Every day. There are periods where I can't bring myself to do it, and while she's better about keeping it on, it's still a fight to get it on in the first place, and she's so obviously depressed when she has it on, she flips if she hears the word "patch". Anyway, the object of the patching was to keep with it until the vision in that eye has improved all that it can. When it stops improving, the patch is no longer required, which should be sometime in the next 6-9 months for us. Can't be too soon for me. The number of pairs of glasses we've been through and times we've had them fixed, I lost count. I was going to Boots Opticians every few weeks, and they're about dead again now. It's been a long trying time.

My brother-in-law's girlfriend had the condition as a child, she had surgery and her eyes are fine. My step-brother had the condition and has had two surgeries to correct, and his are fine too. I wouldn't panic until you speak to the specialists.

Never heard of drops that did anything, no mention from anyone.

(((hugs))) Good luck, keep us posted, privately if you prefer.

Thanks for the info, Leah.  That was very helpful.

As far as the eye drops, atropine can be used much the same way as the patch.  Atropine is put in the good eye to cause blurring of vision, thereby forcing the lazy eye to work more and build up the muscles.

According to the studies I've read, the drops are only slightly less effective than patching.  But when you consider the problems parents have with keeping a patch on a young child (at some ages with whom you can't reason), I would think it would put the effectiveness up even further.

My friend's son (in the US) just had surgery recently to correct his lazy (wandering) eye and they couldn't have had better results. It was a fairly quick day surgery..he was home that night with little discomfort. They waited until he was 4 to have the surgery because they were hoping it would correct itself as he got older but never did.

It was cute when he was in recovery after the surgery his grandma came in to see him and she was stroking his hair and he said "Please don't touch my head Grandma..they just operated on it and my brain still hurts."

If I were certain that the drops had no bad side effects, I would prefer to do that then go through this patching, it's a nightmare. Nothing worse than a child crying and kicking because they can't "SEE, SEE!"  Then the patch won't stick for the tears. *sigh

 Cait you and your sweet little one are in my thoughts and prayers.  

Update:

Niall saw a specialist today who diagnosed him with a divergent squint (meaning the eye moves towards outside) in both eyes.  He will need to see the doctor again for angle measurements of the squints.  Once they are sure that the angles have stabilised after several measurements, they will perform surgery to correct them.