esotropia is a type of strabismus. My 4 yr old daughter was at her 18 mo well baby chick up and the ped was looking at her eyes with the flashlight, then moved to check her twin sister. She continued to follow the flashlight as he moved over to sister and out of the corner of his eye he noticed a problem. Thank God. He got us an appointment with a pediatric specialist at Childrens Hospital. Turns out he isn't just a specialist, he micro specializes in strabismus!. My little girls had V pattern strabismus. We started with patching. (try that with an 18 month old!). It may have worked but MIL (who watched them while we worked) never enforced the wearing of the patch. So we tried glasses. Once again, without the wearing enforced, there was no improvement. So we had two surgeries. One detatched a muscle in each eye to correct the upward movement. She cried and slept alternately for the first couple of hours after surgery. For two days she said there was something in her eye (stitches). Then she was fine. Her eyes improved immediatly. Then, about six months later, she had surgery to correct the inward movement. Dr. Gitchlag detatched a muscle in each eye and reattached it a bit further over. She didn't cry a bit or complain after that surgery. Very slight black eyes and she was good as gold.
She had her one year check up last month and is doing so well that we are trying her without the glasses for 6 months (the glasses are only to try to train the muscles to hold the eyes in the correct position, not for vision correction) Bren tried to look over her glasses also and they can be adjusted so that it is more difficult to look over them.
Are you seeing a pediatric opthamologist and an optomitrist specializing in children and their vision problems? Our wonderful doctor has the most awesome optomitrist in house.
I would get a second opinion and if there is a Childrens Hospital nearby, I would get a consult from them. It sounds a bit back and forth, to me instead of progressing in a normal trial of treatment manor. (but of course Im not a dr.) Her doctor explained everything with diagrams, posters and even with lenses in front of MY eyes to show me what she was seeing and how it felt. He also explained everything in detail about the corrective measures and the surgeries. He was the surgeon, checked on her hours later, the next day, a week later, month later, 3,6 and 12 mo check ups. We LOVE Doctor Gitchslag!
If is comes to surgery, don't worry. It really isn't as bad as I thought it would be and recovery was next to nothing.
We were given a pamphlet on strabismus and I did research when she was diagnosed. If there is something else you want to know, please feel free to pm me!
