Strabismus is a visual defect in which the eyes are misaligned and point in different directions. One eye may look straight ahead, while the other eyes turns inward, outward, upward, or downward.
The eye turn my be constant, or it may come and go. Which eye is straight (and which is misaligned) may switch or alternate.
Strabismus is a common condition among children. About 4% of all children in the United States have strabismus. It can also occur later in life.
MARCUS'S TYPE:
Accommodative Esotropia--common form of esotropia that occurs in children usually 2 years or older. In this type of strabismus, when the child focuses the eyes to see clearly, the eyes turn inward. This crossing may occur when focusing at a distance, up close, or both. Glasses reduce the focusing effort and often straighten the eyes.
So last week I noticed that Marcus's left eye was turning inward--he looked like he was going cross-eyed with his left eye. It wasn't constantly like that--but it would happen every other minute or so when he was looking at something. I was able to get him in to see his pediatrician two days later and she noticed right off the bat what his eye was doing. She referred him to a wonderful eye specialist in Honolulu. We saw this doctor yesterday and she did a number of exercises with Marcus to see what's going on. She explained the whole time what she was doing, how well Marcus was behaving (ha! it was in the middle of his nap time!), and also explained the entire time what is going on with his vision. She gave him a prescription for glasses (which I purchased from Walmart today--we looked through tons of glasses til Marcus found the EXACT pair he likes--they were on sale for $10! pictures to come next week) and we are to see her back on his birthday. The glasses should help clear his vision and his left eye should be able to stay center and focused while he wears them. If it doesn't, then we make another appt with her and see about him wearing a patch on his good eye (to strengthen his weaker eye muscles) or discuss surgery (!!!!!). We both agreed that we're more leaning toward his eye just behaving with the glasses. :)
For more info on his condition, see here:
http://www.strabismus.org/esotropia_eye_turns_in.html
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Strabismus
Posted by Jasmine at 3:19 PM
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2 comments:
Hey there! I just wanted to ease your mind a bit. Caden had that problem years ago. We did try the patch, but to no avail. Ultimately, we settled on eye muscle surgery. I was terrified! It ended up being no big deal. Other than his eyes being all bloodshot for a few days he just acted like nothing had happened. Our Pediatric Opthamologist in Springfield (Dr Atkinson) was awesome and really just said it's not as big a deal as it sounds like. Caden's surgery was about five years ago and his eyes have been perfect ever since! Never fear, whatever it comes to, all will be well in the end. Miss you guys!
My little sister had the same thing and wearing glasses and then a patch solved her problem. Good luck and I'm looking forward to the pictures of the glasses.
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