Kids Lazy Eyes

Here is a link to my older daughter's eye doctor, http://visionsofhealth.org/index.html. I realize you are in Florida, but her sight will give you an idea of the possibilities.

I found my daughter's eye to be lazy in a photo taken after a long photo shoot with the strobes being triggered numerous times. I had never seen this in her eye before, but it was completely turned in. I was very aggressive with it and Dr. Carroll was the second doctor that I took her to see. We did 24 weeks of eye therapy and let me tell you that kid had great eye control after that. I no longer see the eye turn in.

My second daughter would show signs of her eye turning in from time to time, more of a flutter. I had already placed a call do Dr. Carroll but wanted to get her asthma and breathing issues more under control before we started the very demanding eye therapy. In the meantime, school started and they tested her eyes with another eye doctor. So she came home with a paper that said she was both far and near sited. I made an eye appointment and took her in explaining to the doctor I intended to take her to Dr. Carroll for therapy. She agreed that she did have a bit of the [insert technical term] lazy eye. She explained that her eye was still developing and shaping and part of her sight problem was due to the shape of her eye. My daughter is part Native American and part Spanish. Both parents have a bit of a stretched eye, so my daughter has been asked by the kids in school if she is Chinese. So the doctor said I could take her, but I really should wait because things could change due to her physical development.

I chose to wait. The breathing and asthma is under control, but the therapy doctor is a good 20 miles away, which could mean a 30 - 35 minute drive. She is in glasses and I have not seen any fluttering activity in her eye for quite awhile. She has been wearing her glasses for 1 year now.

Best wishes.

Amblyopia, or "lazy eye," is the loss of one eye's ability to see details. It is the most common cause of vision problems in children. Strabismus is a condition in which the eyes are not properly aligned with each other. My daughter was able to pass the pediatrician's eye test by memorizing the figures and fooling the nurse. At age 5 we found out her left eye was 20/200!! Our daughter had amblyopia without strabismus, so nothing was visible to us. Our ophthalmologist started her with eye patching of the lazy eye for 8 hour every day, then down to 4 hours, with glasses. Basically the brain sets the amplification for each eye separately, but by about age 9 is gets "locked". With a lazy eye the brain decides it is easier to just set the amplification for both eyes per the lowest amplification which is what the good eye requires, meaning the bad eye is not getting enough "oomph" to actually see well. By patching the good eye you force the brain to amplify the bad eye per its own needs. If done in infancy (and yes they can be tested for this before they can talk) this increase in amplification takes months. For my daughter diagnosed at age 5 it took 2 years. After treatment her bad eye is now 20/35 and her good eye is 20/20. She still seems to have some depth perception issues and glasses cannot ever make her bad eye 20/20. But it is MUCH better than it could have been. Our ophthalmologist is working on laws to make an eye test with an ophthalmologist mandatory before an early age (like certain tests that are done on babies for genetic diseases etc.). If I were you I would get a 2nd opinion.

Could you google Vision Therapy and the name of your closest city? That's how I found our son's newest vision therapist?

Vision therapy can help with strabismus (lazy eye). I had a preschool student go this route and she recovered very well. The eye was strengthened. The link below may help you. PAVE is Parents for Active Vision Education

http://pavevision.org/find-a-doctor/

Always good to get a second opinion.

I had this same problem as a child and I can tell you that glasses (and when I got older) contacts did fix it. I still wear contacts but my eye has not been turned in for probably 25 years.

I however did not have the problem of it getting worse after I started wearing glasses. Not sure on that.

I wish you the best of luck and hope your road ends up being as easy as mine as it wasn't ever all that big of a problem for me.

My granddaughter went to Dr Homsy @ Eye Institute of West Florida. Dr. Homsy is a pediatric ophthalmologist. My granddaughter was 3 and had one eye that turned inward when she strained to see something. She had surgery and her eyes are perfect now. Good luck with your daughter.

I think it is wise to be looking into this now rather than later. I had an eye issue, and the only way I could find an opthalmologist in my area who could correct it was a recommendation from an eye research hospital in another state. They gave us the name of a local opthalmologist who keeps current with the latest research and even teaches some.

When another woman I knew had some very odd problem with her eyes that "nobody" knew what was wrong, I suggested she see my guy. He could not help but at least knew what it was and sent her to Mayo Clinic. That can be another alternative - take them to a major eye institute or to a major medical center like Cleveland Clinic or Mayo Clinic, or wherever else.

I am not sure where Holiday is. I live in Cape Coral, Florida. My grandson has the BEST pediatric opthalmology. He has two offices. One is in Fort Myers & the other is in Naples. When my grandson was 2, my daughter & I noticed that his left eye was turning inward. We took him to alot of doctors that told us not to worry about it. We were finally told about Dr. Pierre Bourgon M.D., P.A. We did alot of tests & he started wearing glasses at age 2. He was with me all day during the week while mom & dad worked. So, I got the "pleasure" of Patching. That was horrible for him. I made a patch sleeve that I could slip on his glasses. He did have the surgery & it fixed the problem. He will always wear glasses, he is okay with it because he can see !! Dr. B (as Austin calls him) sent us to a doctor in St. Peterburg, Fl for a second opinion. I don't remember his name, but we liked him too. Dr. B's phone number is ###-###-#### in Ft Myers. Good Luck..C. ____@____.com

definitely get a second opinion! patching would be considered the less intensive therapy so it is surprising they started with glasses. most docs start at the bottom and work up dependent on the severity of the condition.

it is NOT all you can do. patching can be done at any age. there is also physical therapy that can be done but they have to be old enough to follow directions and/or play games on the computer. one of our therapies used computer games to force the eyes to work together in all positions.

our first doc talked only about surgery. as my daughter's exotropia (turn outward) was very intermittent and her vision is fabulous with complete depth perception, this seemed extreme.

second doc gave us physical therapy and for now we are in great shape.

it would be well worth your time to ask your ped for another doc's name.

good luck