Strabisimus?

My nephew had this and it wasn't easy. Some doctors want to operate and some say not to. My brother decided not to operate. They did therapy and he had to wear an eye patch for quite awhile. They covered the stronger eye to make the weak eye work and it was very successful. He's 10 now and hasn't had an eye patch for a long time and you can't tell there was ever a problem. Good luck!

normally eyeglasses help stabismus. it will help put the eye back where it belongs with eyeglasses on. I work at lenscrafters and i am going to school to be a licensed optician. not an eye doctor but optician,the person that helps out with glasses and has to learn about these type of eye problems. take her to a pediatric optometrist. the one that comes to mind is Bruce Snall. he is supposed to be a good one.

HI K.!

My middle son had the same problem at the same age. As it turns out, he needed bi-focals. He couldn't see and the muscles in his eye were straining which is what made it turn in. I felt so badly as a mother that I didn't even realise he couldn't see. We would look at books and he would point to pictures as if he knew exactly what I was talking about. In my opinion, the best eye doctor we've seen yet is DR. Lehman @ AI Dupont children's hospital. She is amazing. To date, my son has been wearing bi-focals since he was 2 years old and at his last visit she saw some improvement with his eyes. If in fact your child needs glasses and you need furture advise, please feel free to contact me anytime! L.

K. -

I had strabismus surgery as a child and it worked wonders for me. Prior to the surgery there were other therapies that I underwent, eye patching, exercises, etc.

I reccomend Dr. Volpe with the Scheie Eye Institute - he specializes in childhood strabismus and is excellent - both knowledgeable and an amazing bedside manner.

A

Dear K.

I have not experienced this with my own children, but do have several family members with this problem. My sister still has a problem because my parents were not advised well on how to take care of it when she was little. Although her vision has not been affected, it is noticeable when speaking to her. She did have laser surgery last year and it helped. My nephew also began wearing corrective glasses this past year to help him. I think there are a lot of alternatives. One thing a lot of people don't think about is chiropractic care. My husband is a chiropractor. I can not explain all the science behind it, but I do know that if there is a cervical problem with your child it can be affected the nerves that control the eyes. With simple non-invasive treatment it could possibly be corrected. I would definitely find a local chiropractor and get an opionion. You never know, but with a few adjustments your child's problem could be corrected. Wouldn't that be great!

Hi K.

My son (now 5-1/2) was diagnosed with strabismus at 24 months. Treatments are varied, but the least problematic is wearing glasses I think. We had a bit of a struggle with our son at 2 keeping the glasses on. His eye MD gave us drops to blur his vision, but when he put his glasses on his vision was clear. Seems extreme, but it worked like a charm. After only a couple of days he never took them off again (except to sleep of course). He's still wearing glasses after 3 years, but the affected eye has improved. We take him to a pediatric ophthamologist, which I recommend you try to do as well. The pediatric setting makes a world of difference for little children! I don't know where you are located, but our doc is in Hershey; Hershey Pediatric Ophthalmology Associates, Dr. McManaway. They are EXCELLENT. One other note I want to mention is if you do end up getting her glasses, go the least expensive you can. She will break and scratch them repeatedly. I remember when my son was 2 and 3, we had to replace his glasses twice a year. It gets easier though as they get older, so have faith :)
Hope this helps and best of luck!
L.

HI K., I also had Strabismus as a child and my parents waited until i was 2yr old to fix it which is really late in the game. The surgery is best done as early as possible before the brain is "set" on vision. The surgery worked for a while with me but today I still have a lazy eye. My nephew had the surgery at 6 months old and has no eye problem or vision problems to speak of. By the way I have perfect vision to this day so make sure as it can just be a muscle issue.
Wills Eye is a good choice.
Good Luck...

LS

Hi K.. My son was diagnosed with strabismus at 18 months of age as well. Make sure you are taking him to a pediatric opthalmologist, this is a medical doctor, not a doc of optometry. My son, now 4 1/2 has been treated thus far with glasses, he is extremely farsighted, that's what is causing his eye to turn inward. We just moved here in December and recently went to see a new doctor who told us he would see what happens if we put him in the strongest prescription, if this doesn't straighten his eye, then we are considering surgery. Hopefully this helps.

A.

Hello, my son had Strabismus as a baby and a toddler. Our pediatrician sent us to see a pediatric eye doctor when he was only 6 months old. He started us with patching his eye(it was both eyes, so we had to alternate the patching)every day for 1-2 hours. We had to go back for check-ups every few months to check the progress. Thankfully, his right eye got better with time, but his left eye was still turning in, somtimes a little and other times a lot. Over the next 4 years, we continued this treatment and the patching was cut down to 1 hour every other day. As my son got older and was in preschool, we noticed that he was covering one eye when he would color or write and had trouble focusing sometimes on small objects. He would rub his eyes like if he was trying to get them unblurred. When he was getting ready to go to Kindergarten last year, the doctor said that it seemed to have corrected itself as much as it would without surgery and that he may have more problems once he got to school if we didn't correct it then. So, we took him in for surgery and I'm so glad we did. His eye is so much better now and he hasn't had any problems in school. It's a quick procedure and he came home that day. His eye was all bloodshot for about a week and then it was fine. I almost wish we had just done the surgery sooner and not had to go through all those years of patching and him suffering. But at the time, we thought we were doing the right thing and trying to avoid him having surgery. Good luck with whatever treatment your doctor gives you and remember even when she doesn't want to wear the patch, it's for her own good. My son used to cry and get so upset sometimes and take the patch off. I had to be very creative in thinking of ways for him to keep it on. Setting atimer helps and having a reward waiting at the end of the time.

All three of my children had Strabismus. All three have had surgery to correct it. My daughter actually had 2 surgeries to correct it. My 2 year old had surgery at about age one, so far so good. I think these days they really only do surgery to correct it. Years ago when my 2 older children were diagnosed they talked about glasses or drops to try to correct it, but when I took my 2 year old, they didn't even bring that up as an option. I believe that they have found out that those options are not really effective. I would get so irritated when people would say "Oh he has a lazy eye", um, no that is a different condition, that has to do with vision, this has to do with eye muscles. FYI, that is the surgery that Anna Nicole's daughter Dannylynn (spelling?) had recently. We see a pediatric opthamologist (Dr. Davis) and we really like him. He has 3 different office locations, here is the link for his practice if you don't have it: www.pos.eyemd.org

Hi K.,
My daughter was diagnosed with strabismus when she was about 2yo. We have done "exercises" and she has glasses she is to wear 1 hour per day. We had gone to several different doctors before feeling comfortable with what the diagnosis meant and what was the best course of action (we didn't think surgery or expensive vision therapy were the right course for us). She now sees a Doc we love and totally trust. At 8yo, we still see the strabismus when she is tired, upset or sick but her eye is getting stronger.

K.,
Our son had strabismus around the same age as your daughter. He did go to a specialist who was great with kids. His cure was patches (specially made band-aids) over one eye for 30 minutes at a time and then the other. We did this for a few months and you could tell his eye was strengthening on its own. I did cry at first because it was sad to see him with one eye, but when we all got used to it, it became routine. I hope you have the same luck.
K.

My daughter had this surgery after a year or so of wearing glasses, w/no results. Both her eyes turned inward, never at the same time, not all the time, usually when she was tired. I definitely would recommend getting more than 1 opinion. We were seeing an opthomologist in Wilm. DE who I really liked, but HATED her office staff. They definitely did not like children! When I talked to her about the surgery, she had only performed like 12 over the last 2 years at A.I. Institute, a very well respected children's hospital in DE. When I told her that I wanted to get another opinion she got very irritated.

I ended up w/ Dr. Repka @ Wilmer (I always forget if it's Wilmer or Will's. I think Will's is in Phila.) Eye institute in Balt. Anyway, Dr. Repka had performed like 3 of these surgeries a day for the last 10 years, or something like that. What a class operation "Wilmer" was! Very professional and competent staff. Nice state of the art facility and an easy drive from DE.

I think my daughter was 4 when she had the surgery. I thought at the time they recommended having it done before the age of 6. Recovery was almost immediate, I think she slept most of the rest of the day and was fine the next day.

She is now 15 and has no problems w/her eyes or vision. I take her to an optometrist every year just to make sure. Post op, I had to go back to Balt. a week or 2 later and then after my one year check-up Dr. Repka said she was fine at that I didn't have to come back again.

I know someone who had the surgery from the first women I went to and she still has strabismus and has to wear glasses!

Go where the experience is and definitely get more than one opinion. Yes it's an inconvenience but when it comes to your kids eyes, spare no expense or time.

As far as the surgery, I think it is harder on the parents than the child. It really was no big deal for her. It was a 45 minute outpatient surgery. I think we were home by noon. The anesthesia is what scared me the most but the hospital was very good w/the kids and she didn't have any adverse affects from it.

Best wishes.

HI K.,
I experience a similar problem with my son at 15 months old...both of his eyes started turning in...to find out he needed glasses..now the first specialist gave him the glasses and told us to patch the weaker of the 2 eyes (well he completley rejected this..he would close both eyes and do nothing or rip the patch off...so when we took him back a few weeks later we explained this to the doctor...and this man proceeded to tell us to duck tape his arms to his sides needless to say we never took him back there (what nerve !!) you could tell he didnt have children...so we found a great pediatric eye person...the glasses have corrected one of his eyes but he is still having a bit of a problem with the weaker one, they are watching it...but the good news is the new doc hasent mentioned surgurey to correct and hes 5 years old now i hope this helped tc S.

Hello K.,
My daughter started going to a pediatric eye specialist at age 4 months for the same reason. She is extremely far sighted in her left eye while the right eye essentially has normal vision. Without glasses and treatment her left eye would have continued to get weaker and weaker.
She is now five years old and we have gone through all the therapies - first was glasses and eye patching for up to 4 hours per day. You might find that adhesive patches irritate the skin; in which case I recommend soft foam patches that attach to the eyeglass frame (I can tell you how to meke these yourself if you are interested, super easy) Most recently she was getting an atropine drop in her good eye every day to blur the vision in that eye (basically like wearing a patch - but is an option when the child will not cooperative with patches).
After five years of patching/eye drop therapy her eye has gotten better (although not quite as good as we would like it). She is just wearing glasses now with bifocals.
Kids will be kids and will not always be cooperative with patching therapy or eyeglasses (mine always pulled the eyeglasses off from about 9 months to 1 1/2 yrs.). Just be patient and do the best you and the child can.
The first pediatric specialist we did not like so much. The second one we have been going to for several years is great. I don't know where you live but Dr. Dawn Herzig, D.O. in Cranberry is great. She is an excellent doctor and very understanding. IF interested check out Everett and Hurite Ophthalmic Association at
www.everett-hurite.com They have offices in several locations.
Maybe the most important thind is to find a specialist you feel confident in and are comfortable with.
I could go on and on about our experience for the last five years - if you would like to talk more specifically or have more questions just send me a message.
Best of luck!
D.

Dear K.,
My son had a problem with his eye since birth.
If you live near the pittsburgh area- Dr. Kenneth Cheng was excellent. I was of course typical of a new mom seeing every pediatric op. in the area. Like you have seen online- I had found many many different/conflicting opinions even in the different doctor's offices and it was very scary. I didn't know if we were making the right choice. I am so glad we went with Cheng- he gave the best advice and I am so grateful to him for leading us down the right path. I feel for you in regards to varied information- it makes it hard to know what the best treatment is. Cheng specializes in strabisimus and has several different locations around Pittsburgh. Take care and wishing your child well.

My son had strabisimus, but we did not start correcting it until he was almost 4 years old. What I did was take him to a pediatric eye doctor. We started with glasses and added patching. This was all done under the doctor's care. We were fortunate enough to correct this by the time he was 12 years old. It took a lot of patience and pairs of glasses (because my son got tired of wearing them). My suggestion would be to consult a pediatric eye doctor. Good luck!