young child as eye problem please help
 

Hi


We've got a 14 months old baby boy that periodically turns his left eye in.
He has been doing this since birth and most people told us he would outgrow
it. He was born premature and for the first few hours of each day, the eye
does not turn(or turns very little). I took him to the eye doctor yesterday
and the doctor told us he has severe farsightedness. I have watched my son
focus in on very small objects close to him, and I have watched him smile
back at me from a distance of 80 feet. The ophthalmologist told us that he
is farsighted & will need glasses (+5 !?)
Obviously we are quiet shocked by this (no family histories of Strabismus or
bad vision)
because he is so young & also doesn't show any signs of having problems with
seeing the world around him, he has been walking for several months and
doesn't bump into anything & he's very interested in books and can
distinguish & name items that look very much alike like a cow/horse &
duck/chicken. It appears that the eye is turning in less often as time goes
by. The doctor is suggesting glasses and I am worried that the glasses might
prevent my Childs natural progression to a normal state. I have read that
the glasses halt


What I would like to know is:


there any alternative approach to correct this situation other than
glasses, and, is this something that may naturally get better as time goes
on?(as I said, it happens roughly 10% of the time throughout the day)

Is there a change that his eyes will improve by wearing glasses or will the
glasses prevent the bodies natural method or correcting the eyes as my child
matures?


I would be very grateful for any information (links) related to babies &
vision

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news.epix.net wrote:
| Hi
|
|
| We've got a 14 months old baby boy that periodically turns his left
eye in.
| He has been doing this since birth and most people told us he would
outgrow
| it. He was born premature and for the first few hours of each day, the eye
| does not turn(or turns very little). I took him to the eye doctor
yesterday
| and the doctor told us he has severe farsightedness. I have watched my son
| focus in on very small objects close to him, and I have watched him smile
| back at me from a distance of 80 feet. The ophthalmologist told us that he
| is farsighted & will need glasses (+5 !?)
| Obviously we are quiet shocked by this (no family histories of
Strabismus or
| bad vision)
| because he is so young & also doesn't show any signs of having
problems with
| seeing the world around him, he has been walking for several months and
| doesn't bump into anything & he's very interested in books and can
| distinguish & name items that look very much alike like a cow/horse &
| duck/chicken. It appears that the eye is turning in less often as time
goes
| by. The doctor is suggesting glasses and I am worried that the glasses
might
| prevent my Childs natural progression to a normal state. I have read that
| the glasses halt
|
|
| What I would like to know is:
|
|
| there any alternative approach to correct this situation other than
| glasses, and, is this something that may naturally get better as time goes
| on?(as I said, it happens roughly 10% of the time throughout the day)
|
| Is there a change that his eyes will improve by wearing glasses or
will the
| glasses prevent the bodies natural method or correcting the eyes as my
child
| matures?
|
|
| I would be very grateful for any information (links) related to babies &
| vision
|
|
|

Has the doctor considered the possibility that your son has "lazy eye"?
~ I can't think of the clinical name, but basically lazy eye means that
the muscles controlling one eye are weak, causing it to drift to one
side when the person is relaxed, or when they are trying to focus on
something moving toward them or away from them.

If that turns out to be the case, it can sometimes be cured, or at least
improved, through simple exercises. I had it as a kid, and it's under
control enough now that it only bothers me when I am *very* tired.

I'm kind of curious how one diagnoses nearsightedness or farsightedness
in a child too young to explain how something looks to them through
different lenses.

Susan
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"news.epix.net" wrote in message
...
Hi


We've got a 14 months old baby boy that periodically turns his left eye
in.
He has been doing this since birth and most people told us he would
outgrow
it. He was born premature and for the first few hours of each day, the eye
does not turn(or turns very little). I took him to the eye doctor
yesterday
and the doctor told us he has severe farsightedness. I have watched my son
focus in on very small objects close to him, and I have watched him smile
back at me from a distance of 80 feet. The ophthalmologist told us that he
is farsighted & will need glasses (+5 !?)
Obviously we are quiet shocked by this (no family histories of Strabismus
or
bad vision)
because he is so young & also doesn't show any signs of having problems
with
seeing the world around him, he has been walking for several months and
doesn't bump into anything & he's very interested in books and can
distinguish & name items that look very much alike like a cow/horse &
duck/chicken. It appears that the eye is turning in less often as time
goes
by. The doctor is suggesting glasses and I am worried that the glasses
might
prevent my Childs natural progression to a normal state. I have read that
the glasses halt


What I would like to know is:


there any alternative approach to correct this situation other than
glasses, and, is this something that may naturally get better as time goes
on?(as I said, it happens roughly 10% of the time throughout the day)

Is there a change that his eyes will improve by wearing glasses or will
the
glasses prevent the bodies natural method or correcting the eyes as my
child
matures?


I would be very grateful for any information (links) related to babies &
vision

From your internet address, I gather you are in Northeast Pennsylvania. I
would suggest that you go and get a second opinion from a pediatric
opthamologist in Philadelphia or New York City. It should be a 2 to 4 hour
drive. Certainly, a good investment in time. The Wills Eye Hosptial in
Philadelphia is associated with one of the medical schools there (either
Jefferson or Penn) and is one of the best in World. The is also the
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, New York-Presbyterian Hospital,
Manhattan eyee, ear and Throat Hsopital and New York Eye Infirmary ranked
in the top 20 best Opthamology Hosptials.

If you live in other parts of the country, you can go to Duke, Barnes-Jewish
Hosptial in St. Louis, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Stanford or many other
referral hosptials.

You can ask your regular doctor for a referral. You may have to pay for it
out of pocket, but considering the alternative, but even if the orginal
doctor were correct, the peace of mind that your are doing hte right thing
would be invaluable.

Jeff

On 2005-04-12, illecebra wrote:
Has the doctor considered the possibility that your son has "lazy eye"?
~ I can't think of the clinical name, but basically lazy eye means that
the muscles controlling one eye are weak, causing it to drift to one
side when the person is relaxed, or when they are trying to focus on
something moving toward them or away from them.

The word is "strabismus," and the original poster did mention that
there was no history of it in his family.


If that turns out to be the case, it can sometimes be cured, or at least
improved, through simple exercises. I had it as a kid, and it's under
control enough now that it only bothers me when I am *very* tired.

I'm kind of curious how one diagnoses nearsightedness or farsightedness
in a child too young to explain how something looks to them through
different lenses.

The optometrist can look into the eye and see if the image is focussed
on the retina ("objective refraction"). This is not quite as easy or
reliable as asking a communicative patient what they see ("subjective
refraction"), but it can be done.
http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ce/infant/exambr/refract.htm
has pointers to 4 methods that can be used with infants.


------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
(Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB)
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Affiliations for identification only.