Advice and Results in Children with Pseudostrabismus

my daughter's eyes would cross when she was tired. At 6 months, her pediatrician suggested we have her evaluated by a specialist. i was hoping for pseudostrabismus as a diagnosis- i thought pseudostrabismus was when the eyes appeared to cross but were actually normal (?) and the situation corrected itself as the child grew. but no, she was extremely farsighted and began wearing glasses at 8 months, and will likely need glasses/contacts permanantly (or have lasik surgery after puberty). wearing glasses completely eliminates the eye cross and she is now so used to wearing them that even at only 2.5 she is very conscientious about taking care of her glasses. catching it so young really improves the prognosis.

My daughter was almost 3 when she was diagnosed with strabismus. We did the patching and glasses for about a year and a half with minimal success so we decided to do the surgery a few months before her 5th birthday. She continued to where her glasses for anther year and is now glasses free. Her eyes are not 100% straight but the difference is negligible. She will be watched closely going forward to make sure there aren't any significant changes. My understanding is that a second surgery down the road could still be necessary but so far everything seems to be a sucess.

You mentioned concerns... my daughter became more aware of wearing the patch and glasses as she got older. It wasn't a huge issue but there were days that she was called a pirate and a few tears emerged. The funny thing is now that she is in first grade more kids are beginning to wear glasses and she no longer has to. I think like with all things as kids get older they become more aware of differences between their peers. If you are treating her eyes now it should limit her long term cosmetic issues and since she is so young she will be better able to cope with her physical differences.

HI M.,

I don't know the difference between psuedostrabismus and strabismus...? Our daughter was diagnosed with strabismus at age 4, in her left eye. We started with glasses and when we didn't see the improvement that was expected we were told to patch for 1 hour a day 5 days a week. After more improvement we were told that she could begin using an ointment in her right eye that would be easier for her to use and more effective than her patch. (She hated the patch. We did get her a "framehugger" patch which was much more comfortable for her than any of the other we found, but she was embarrassed to wear it and found it cumbersome.)

Now at age 6, she puts in her ointment by herself and we are continuing to see improvement. There hasn't been talk of surgery for correction, but she may have to always wear glasses.

I would make sure that your are taking your daughter to a good pediatric opthmologist, and follow through on whatever they recommend.

Good luck! The good news is that they caught it early and you have a much greater chance of correction that way!!

I am 44 and had surgery to correct strabismus when I was 3 1/2. Doctors who examine me now are always impressed at how well it was repaired. My mom does not regret it for a second. We tried drops and patches, but ended up with surgery. I am grateful she made such a decision.

My little sister has strabismus. I don't know if it was pseudostrabismus or not. She wore a patch for awhile and it helped. You would never notice now that she once had strabismus. She does have to wear glasses. She didn't exactly like wearing the patch, but it seems to have had no long term effects to her self esteem etc. I would say that if the patch doesn't correct it fully, I would do surgery.

I was born with strabismus and my parents had my eyes operated on twice (once per eye) with both surgeries before I went to kindergarten. I can remember the one from when I was 4. I began wearing glasses at age three, my parents did the patching and eye drops but finally did surgery. To tell the truth, I am extremely grateful to them for the surgery. I look normal - no one would ever know I was born with strabismus unless they saw my baby photos. I have continued to wear glasses since age 3, got contacts in middle school and continue to wear them at age 38.

I have a friend who also has strabismus whose parents chose to avoid surgery - I don't know their reasoning but she is uncomfortable with her appearance and struggles with some visual things. I know for a fact that my parents paid for my surgeries out of pocket (not covered under health insurance in the early 70s) and also had to pay for my brother's surgeries as well (two for him also). I consider it one of my best gifts.

I have a 3 year old so I can understand being hesitant about surgery BUT if that is what is recommended - then please do what the opthamologist suggests.

Best wishes, C.

From your description of the treatment options you were given, I suspect that your daughter actually has strabismus since pseudostrabismus doesn't typically require any treatment. You've gotten some good responses about folks experience with strabismus treatments already, but please remember that all kids are different so only time will tell what your little girl needs. I'd recommend trying the less invasive methods as long as you're seeing results but checking the success rates of whatever surgeons you're considering (how many times have they done the surgery and what were the outcomes) so you have that already done when and if you need to make the surgery decision. I would only go with a Pediatric Ophthalmologist because they are most experienced with children's eye issues. Hope that helps!

not sure of the difference btwn stabismus and pseuodstarbismus, but both my daughters have starbsimus (10yr and 4yr old) the 10yr old had surgery at 3yr but by 7yrs the squint came back i.e surgery failed :-( so we were offered to try Visual therapy (VT) which involves training the eye and brain to control the squint. there are not alot of opthamologist who offer this but i was really impressed with it , my now 10 yr old was seeing double till the age of 7 and she thought it was normal and so never told us about it :-( her double vision was discovered when we went for VT (so it was a shock to realise that all the other doctors never caught this!!!). My 4yr is not patching at but we are doing some eye exercises with her that has helped.
I wish i had knowledge of VT before would not have gone with surgery and will not for the younger one.
Note VT is usually not coveered by Insurance :-) we paid out of pocket for my daughter but was worth it. as it not only helped her squint but also noticed a boost in her confidence and her grades went up too.
VT has been used for dylexia too
email me if you want more info
Good luck!
A.

I'm 15 and I have pseudostrabismus, i had it since i was born and i've never recived any treatment my parents took me to so many eye doctors and they told them nothing was wrong that it is a false strabismus and that is corrects itself over time. My eyes 15 years later, well most people notice my eyes are diffrent and I've always been teased about them but they have gotten better, i used glasses once when I was 9-10 but I never used them because i never needed them i've always had 20/20 vision and they don't cross there just closer together if there eyes normal out completely? it usally depends on the person in my case they havent yet but i'm going to wait until i'm older to see if they improve, if not i'll consider surgery, but it's NOT something horrible, i don't mind it much anymore:) i've had it my whole life and i live with it, i do get self councious and wish that my eyes were normal(cause of teasing) but my friends seem to love them and they say they make me diffrent and adorable?XD yep the're weird but I've learned to like my eyes.

ps. wow after i look at the i realize it's for momsXD well yeah im only 15 i sign up just so i could write this i thougth it be good to answer this since i have it and lived it:) hope this answers helps