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Lazy eye

654 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  ashleyhaugh 
#1 ·
DS has had a mild lazy eye thing since birth. Both eyes focus and both dominate at different times, it's just that the eyes drift out (not in, like cross-eye). It really only happens when he's tired or stressed, and the occurances are less as he gets older.

The problem is, my pedi is really pushing to get it checked out (DS is 6 mo now) and is talking surgery!!

I am NOT putting my baby through surgery unless it is life or death. I've found info that says that this problem is often left alone to see if they grow out of it, but I don't know if the drs around here are that up-to-date on the subject. I don't want out-n-out warfare over this, but I just don't see the point in something so drastic.

BTW, DS is hitting 9 mo milestones already on all levels except crawling, so this isn't effecting his development at all.
 
#2 ·
Hmmmm....I totally understand not wanting to put your dc through surgery, but I had strabismus as a baby, and still do. As it is, even having had three surgeries (at 6 months, 2 years and 13 years) I still have a visible lazy eye and my weaker eye's vision is much worse than my stronger eye's. I really believe that I would be blind in the weaker eye if I hadn't had the surgeries. Also, the younger the condition is treated, the better the chance of seeing some improvement, maybe even depth perception (which I don't have). I've heard that the surgical techniques have gotten better since I was a kid, too. But even back in the 80's, this was an outpatient procedure, so your ds probably wouldn't have to spend the night at the hospital; you could have him back home with you in half a day or so.

HTH!
 
#3 ·
I did a lot of research on this recently since my babe was diagnosed with strabismus at 2 months old, which is really early BTW. The opthamologist our pediatrician sent us to said that DS would need surgery when he was 6 months old. Some docs believe that it can be corrected with patches, exercises, drops, etc. but many believe that surgery is the route. If it is not corrected then it can lead to vision loss. If you do a search here you should be able to find a couple of threads with more information on it. I know I started one entitled "Strabismus" and I think there was an earlier one "Wandering Eyes" or "Crossed Eyes." It is strabismus if the eye wanders in or out. Currently DS's eyes are a lot better and when we saw the doc again at the beginning of this month he said it looked like maybe they were correcting themselves since DS is only 3 months old. I have heard that it is difficult to diagnose before 4 - 6 months, but again that early treatment and intervention and can make a world of difference. Just get a second or third opinion from whatever doctors you can. There is a lot of info on the internet too if you just do a general search. Good luck!
 
#4 ·
ive had that since i was tiny too, and never did surgery, and it has mostly cleared up. it was very prominant when i was little, but now, my left eye (my bad one) only really starts to drift when im exhausted. we did everything but surgery really. i wore glasses, i had a patch for a while (worn on the right eye to help strengthen the left one- my my buddy doll wore wone too, lol) i had prisims in my glasses (talk about coke bottle glasses, lol) and bifocals

i would do surgery as a last resort, but then again this is coming from someone who is nearly blind without her glasses (my crossed eye cleared up, but i got the nearsightedness from bith sides of my family, lol) but wont get lasik the army pays for because i dont like surgeries
 
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