Help with a Child with Lazy Eye

Don't have any personal experience with this, but just wanted to recommend my eye doctor at Professional Vision Care in Westerville. They have specialists who work with children, and also do some non-surgical therapy. Don't know if it would apply to your son, but worth checking out.

Hi i'm not sure why they are getting you all worked up over this. I have lazy eye in my right eye I have never had a problem with it. I personally would get a second opinion on this. now there is a difference between lazy eye and a wondering eye. I have never heard of patching a lazy eye but I have for a wondering eye. My sisters little girl had the wondering eye problem and with glasses and eye therapy it was corrected. but like I said I would go to another eye dr.

Hi M.: I had lazy eye when I was little too and my parents had me get surgery. I have 20/20 vision now at 37 yrs old-if he gets surgery at his age he will not remember it later on and it could be very helpful. Good luck!

First of all the best Ped. Opthal. in Cinti. is Dr. Miles Burke. My son has a VERY rare eye condition that only he knew how to properly diagnose and treat after I spent a year at Children's with no answers or assistance.

He's amazing. If your seeing him and he says your child need surgery, then he needs surgery, if you are going to Children's I urge you go to Dr. Burke for a second opinion. He's up by Bethesda North hospital. God Bless!

I come from a line of women in my family with this problem. I was born with one of the worse cases. My eyes were severelly crossed inwards to the point that unless i held an opject up to my face i could not see. At the age of two I had surgery...don't remember any of it. Both of my girls were born with minor cases of lazy eye and my younger daughter did have ambliopia. My oldest seems to be good with just glasses. we have had to do patching on her to strengthen the weaker eye and now glasses will help for life. But the key is strengthening that weaker eye and if patching and glasses alone won't do it then the surgery helps. My younger daughter had the surgery and i was amazed at how far things have come in 20 yrs. Dr. Marcoti is our doctor and I love him. He knows his stuff and I know what drove his passion into getting into the eye business(he has the same problem himself). Her surgery went well...her glasses were able to pull her eye forward but now we are still doing a little patching again just to keep progressing the strength building of the weaker eye. My own eyes are now L-97% straight and R-100% straight. But with glasses or contacts no one would know. but I would say it is all worth it whatever the case be it patching or surgery because without your child would lose all vision or most vision in that lazy eye. It is an easy outpatient surgery too...A few hours and your out the door. And recovery....my daughter was playing at chuck e cheese the next day and within hours of her surgery outside of seeing her eye blood shot...she would have never known she had been through it.I know I had concerns about the surgery..like what if it didn't work..etc. I had gone to school with twins who had the surgery around the same time i did and the doc messed up and so I talked to Dr marcotti about it and he completely eased me. If they don't completely solve the problem then they go back in later....and that was actually easy to grasp then. I also had an insider with info for me. The lady I babysit for does anesthesia (sp?) sometimes with Dr. Marcotti and she says he is the best. I don't know who your doc is but if it is Marcotti...He wants his room during surgery completely quiet...no music no sound no distractions he is totally focused. Hope this all helps

I have 2 sons with lazy eyes. My oldest is 7 and has been doing patch therepy for 1.5 years now. As long as the doctor sees improvment they normally keep going with the patch- tho it can be a pain at times. Also we have to use drops in his "good" eye . It dilates the eyes and makes his vision blurry- this helps with peeking! My youngest son was 2 when he had surgery. I think it upset me more than it did him. When they come out of the OR thier eyes look horrible and they seep for about 1 day. They will stay red (form the blood vessels being moved around during the proceedure) for about 2 weeks, gradually getting better every day. Within 24 hours my baby could see!! It was amazing! No mother wants to have thier child to have surgery- but it was the best thing in the world for him. He had little discomfort and the results were immediate. I hope your little guy keeps improving and doing well!

My daughter is 4 y/o now and has had eye surgery for her problem. She recovered just fine. The surgery only lasted maybe 20-30 minutes! We lived in Akron (and still go see that doc)every year and her eyes are doing great. She had no side affects from any part of the surgery or anethesia and she really has no idea about that day at all. She does still wear glasses but that is a family trait! Her eyes do not drift at all! I know its seems very scary to have your baby going to the hospital for surgery but really its quick and in the long run it will be better for her. Just try not to think about it until you have to. He will pick up on it and be scared. Just tell him, when the time comes, what is going to happen (perhaps an abridged version as he is still young) and reasure him that you will be there when he wakes up. He really wont remember anyway, the whole day probably!
I wish you the best of luck!!
S.

My son is 18 months old and although my husband and I both noticed this from birth, the doctor wasn't concerned until this age. She said sometimes they grow out of it. We haven't gone to see the specialist yet so I don't know if he'll need surgery or if they will try the patch. Our pediatrician referred us to the doctor she used for her own son so I feel pretty good about that. Her son had both eyes done. She said it is a 20 minute procedure and the next day her son acted as if nothing had ever happened. Personnaly I think that sounds better than trying to get an 18 month old to wear a patch. Hope this eases your worries a little. BTW: our 3 month old daughter already shows signs of having this too.

Good Luck!

C.

I had surgery on my eyes over 30 years ago with great results. I barely remember the surgeries (one at 2 and one at 4) just some of the events around it. I do remember wearing funny glasses and doing a lot of eye exercises. I had to do some of them into my preteens. I believe "lazy eye" can be treated with these kind of exercises. Here is a site that you might find helpful www.strabismus.org. I've had experience with one doc at childrens in columbus (son had blocked tear ducts, maybe) His name is Dr. Bremer. We were treated so poorly, well let's put it this way -- I refuse to pay his bill and it has set on my credit for almost 6 yrs. But that is a story for another day.
As far as my feelings for the surgery goes, I believe my parents decision was the single most loving thing they ever did for me. If you would like, please contact me and maybe I can help ease your mind a little.

Hi, M. --

It's been a while since you posted, but I figured I would add my little bit of info.

When I was about 5, I was diagnosed with Strabismus... I'd been having headaches in school and while reading, and it's because I had two lazy eyes.

They decided that surgery would be the best option for me, and they proceeded with it when I was maybe 5 1/2. This was 1976, so you can only imagine that the technology for this stuff has improved about a thousandfold since then!!

Anyway, the results of my surgery were phenomenal. My eyes are nice and straight, and, to the huge surprise of every single opthamologist and optometrist I've seen since then, I have the kind of depth perceptions and ability to cross my eyes and do whatever other little eye tricks they ask you to do in a standard appointment... apparently, these abilities are somewhat rare for someone who'd been operated on for strabismus.

The surgery was not the most fun thing I've ever done, but it was definitely not the worst, either. I remember some eye pain - not a lot, and I think I was discharged the same day. I do recall being a little nauseus coming out of anesthesia, and I did see double for a few days. In any case, it wasn't horrible, just more or less inconvenient.

Then we patched my eyes for some time, and then, voila! I was fixed! :)!

So, as a mom, I can imagine the sheer terror of the thought of having any kind of surgery done for your child! I get terrified when my daughter has a bad coughing spell! But, as the recipient of a surgery that did a world of wonders for my eye alignment, I can definitely say I am thankful that my parents were fearless and never let on that they were in any way worried.

I wish you strength to help you if the decision is that surgery is necessary, and I want to reassure you that he will thank you for it when he's grown up!

Take care,
H.

Hi M.!

My daughter had the same exact surgery at 33 months. She wore glasses at 11m and had done patching and drops but it wasn't enough. She had the surgery on both eyes. It was performed outpatient at Children's Hospital. I was so afraid--what if something happened? What if she was never able to see again? They assured me things would be fine. In fact when they finally took her back, I was more afraid of her getting put under the anesthesia. She did very well and we were able to go home within the hour. She was mad because she was not able to touch her eyes. They say it can be a little itchy. The whites of her eyes were bright red for about a week and slowly improved. She aslo had some minor bruising around her eyes (more the yellow bruise, not the blue/purple kind) so it wasn't as noticable to others. She was able to get rid of her glass completely in June 2006 (9 months after surgery). Here we are almost one year later and her eye sight is great and still does not need glasses. She does go back to the opthalmologist every 6 months for alignment checks. It is common to need more than one surgery. She doesn't even remember it.

My son is currently being followed for the same thing, though it's only his left eye and we go next week and will probably be told he needs the surgery.

here's a link to her webpage with pictures before and after her surgery:
http://homepage.mac.com/rpduval/PhotoAlbum95.html

Let me know if you have any other questions.
Good Luck!
M.
mom to William and Emily
4 years 5 months

Hi M.,
I don't know how late I am in responding.... the post was from May, but your little guy should have just had his visit with the ophthalmologist, right? I worked in ophthalmology for about 8 years. They will try to patch him first, I believe. Patching therapy on one that little works wonders! So, have faith... at least you're catching it fairly early; also, 3-year-olds are more apt to cooperate with patching therapy. He may have to leave the patch over the good eye (to effect the weaker exposed eye). Some little ones just will not leave the patch on. I have a 3-year-old son, too, Joey. He's old enough now that I can talk him into things and reason with him a bit. Keep us posted, okay?
M. B.

M.,

My daughter, now 23, had to patch one eye on and off for a few years around 5 yrs old, but it never helped. The doctor said surgery would help her cosmetically to straighten the eye, but there was only a slim chance that it would correct the vision. I chose not to have the surgery.

However, as an adult, she had the surgery a few years ago with great results! There have been advances and improvements, too. But it did take a few weeks for her double vision to go away, and that was scary! It was also very, very uncomfortable and painful immediately after surgery.

Hi, M.:

Lazy eye surgery is not a big deal, although I realize that, when a child is three, ANY surgery can be very frightening. I had lazy eye as a child, and at age 10 I had surgery on both eyes. Afterwards, I did some simple eye exercises and the problem was taken care of completely. My surgery was a long time ago, and medical procedures only get better and faster, so try not to worry! The more confident you are, the easier it will be for your son.
Here's a quick story that may help:
Once, my son (two at the time) and I both had to have blood tests. I sat down and cheerily let the nurse take blood, allowing my son to watch. The nurse said, "Don't you want him to leave the room!" I said, " No! I want him to see this." When the needle dug in to my arm, I flashed him a bright smile. When I was done, Brian sat down. He didn't make a sound as the nurse got him ready, and, even to my surprise, didn't even wince when the needle stuck him. My example had been THAT powerful!
Be upbeat and confident that your's sons eyes are going to be completely better. If he needs the surgery, welcome it as the gift of modern medicine that it is, and let your son know just how lucky he is that this is available to him. Your example and attitude are THAT important!
If you want to chat about it, email me and I'll send my phone number to you off-list.
Last but not least: Remember that God loves you and your son, and commit all your fears to Him.
Blessings,

L.

my nephew is 20. he had surgery 17 years ago on a lazy eye. There was no complications, we made it through fine and all these years later he is fine, his eyes are perfect and hes had no eye sight issues in all these years. He is now getting ready to graduate from technical school as a surgical tech. If your baby needs the surgery have it done. Its worth it !

Hi M.,
My son was also diagnosed with the lazy eye. We also were sent home from the eye doctor with the patch. We didn't follow it to the T (instructions that is) but we did it quite often for awhile, and tried to get him to wear his glasses more than he wanted to. I noticed if we did do the patch on and off, his 'crossing' of the eye did improve so we kept at it. No surgery was necessary! :) The patching and glasses cleared up the problem, which is what the Eye doctor said could happen if caught early enough. And his vision did improve at the next checkup, so there is hope :)

Good luck,
Your Mamasource friend,
T

what type of patches are you using? My step-daughter has had glasses since she was 6 months old....has had to use the patch on and off since then...she is going on 7 yrs old....her mom found a website called Miss Anissa's fun patches ( I think that I am spelling the name correctly)...the actually attach to the glasses (if your child is wearing them) and you can order colors that he would like....very inexpensive....
take a deep breath and relax....the patch really has worked with my step-daughter....make him do things while he has it on..like play with letters, read him books and have him look at the pages...activities with the patch on have really helped here!! good luck!

Although you've gotten a lot of responses, I wanted to add my two cents so that you'd have just one more reassurance that everything will be fine. At 3, my youngest son had an eye that crossed rather suddenly. We made an appt. with the eye doctor. In the two weeks we waited for the appt., the other eye crossed. He was quite the site as both eyes were as far crossed as they could be. The eye doctor immediately scheduled a surgery telling us that if he were to wait, he could lose vision in at least one eye. They took him in on an outpatient basis for surgery and within a few hours, his eyes looked absolutely normal and he was able to go to the movies. He is 15 now and can see fine. He does not have depth perception which is typical for people who have the surgery, but has learned to compensate quite well. Be at peace. It will all be okay.

My 6 1/2 yr old daughter just had stabismus surgery for both her eye muscles. The turn out was GREAT. We have been patching since she was about 3. Along with glasses. Her eye only turned in when she was not wearing them. My best advise would be to get a few opinions with pediactric opthamalogists and find one your child and you like. Best of luck, and no worries, surgery is not that bad if your child ends up needed it. Even if it's in 4 years. D.

My 9 year old nephew has had lazy eye since he was 12 months old. His parents did not do such a great job making him wear his glasses or patches. When we got custudy 3 years ago we worked very hard at making sure he wore the patch the 6 to 8 hours he was supposed to. We did have the rule that he had to wear it when he played his game boy or played any video games. It wasn't easy,but he did it. Surgery was always in the back of our mind,but so far now he just went back to his doctor and no longer needs to wear his patch! His vision is much better and he goes back in the fall. He sees a great doctor in Beachwood,through the Cleveland Clinic. The most important thing for us was to be consistent on the wearing of the patch and glasses. He had reward charts and extra video time for when he followed the plan. It was hard when he was younger,but we just made it a routine. He also was very good at cheating through them,so we had to remind him alot! I hope this helps!