1 Year Old Has a Weak Eye Muscle

Hi M.,

I agree with the other reply, that you did a good job realizing that there might be a problem and got help for it.

I have not had experience with lazy eye but my son does have other vision problems and sees a pediatric opthamologist every 6 months. He goes to Dr. Boltz at Hershey med. I highly recommend her. She relates very well to children and adults and does her job very well.

L.

M.
My oldest of four kids had the same thing. His eye turned inward and down toward his nose, around the time he was? 20 months or so. Yes....definitely get in to see the Pediatric opthamologist as soon as you can. With my son, they patched the good eye, to force the brain to use the weaker eye. That was a bit rough....it was summer time, and the adhesive on the eye patch would irritate his skin around the eye. Needless to say, the Dr. prescribed glasses for him, to wear along with the patch. He did not talk at the time, so they kind of had to guess on his prescription. Just getting him to wear the glasses all the time was an experience in its own! Hopefully, the patching will help your daughter and correct the muscle problem. My son did the patching for about? 10 months, and he ended up needing the eye muscle surgery anyway. He is 16 now, and still needs to wear glasses, although, his vision is not nearly as bad as they thought it was when he was so little. He only needs a prescription in his weaker eye, the other is 20/20 thank goodness. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me again. I've had to deal with this for over 14 years now! :-) Good luck with your little one!

My son also has astigmatism in his right eye. He was diagnosed with it when he was about four years old. I took him to a peditric opthamologist and she started him with glasses so the weak eye did not weaken the strong eye. I then would take him back every six months for checkups. He also was recommended to wear a patch over the strong eye to make the weak eye work. He didn't like the patch much. He didn't mind the glasses. He is now 11 years old and only has to wear his glasses when he is at school and when he reads. I hope this helps in some way.

M., My son is 8 months old and we had teh same problem. I started to notice more around 6 mo of age. We also took him to a pediatric opthamologist. He said our son had basically what is called a lazy brow muscle, where his eye just doesn't open as wide as the other. We were told that most kids that young grow out of it and we should come back when he is 2 years old just make sure developmentally everything is ok. We don't need to use an eye patch or anything. I do notice it more when my son is tired though. YOur daughter should be fine. FYI-they do dialate their pupils when you are there and I know those drops burn going in. Good luck

Hello,
Two of my sister's six children had a very bad case of lazy eye; they were from a Lituanian orphanage and did not have any vision care for the first five years of thier lives. When she brought them home, their right eyes were nearly completely turned in to the center. The eye doctor had them wear a patch over thier eyes for a few hours a day for a few months. This greatly helped by forcing the lazy eye to take on the load of processing sight. They also were prescribed thicker glasses; however, as the years pass, the strength of thier prescriptions have diminshed. When they take off their glasses, you cannot even tell that they had this issue. It is only when they are overly tired that their eyes sometime turn in toward the center. Good luck with this; I wish you and your daughter health.

Hello M. -
We're in the same situdaiton, but our daughter is a little older - 20mos. Her left eye began turning in a few months ago, and our Ped. watched it, and at our 18month said that she neeed to see a ped Ophamologist as well. As is turns out, shes' very far sighted but a bit more far sighted in one eye, so that's the one turning in. You're getting a head of yourself with the patching. You'll have to see if your baby has any sight probelms, then they'll give a course of treatment. We pick up our glasses on Monday. The eye Doc said that most of the time, this corrects the crossing, but sometimes in addition, patching might be used. Most of the time, the crossing isn't due to a weak eye, but the child compensating for an unequal preescription. One tip - bring something to distract your baby at the appointment. It'll be long, and a bit uncomoftable for them. Their eyes will need to be dialated so that the Doc can see how the eye is focusing & get a script if needed.
Good Luck - we're now on to the cahllenge of getting her to put on and keep on the glasses!

Hi
We have been going thru the same problem for 2 years. We went to a ped. opthamologist. Did the patch, blurring medicine in good eye to strenghten weak eye then did eye surgery. Doctor did surgery on both eyes. That's is how it is done. Big mistake! Now her eyes turn in and we were scheduled for a second surgery until I sent our a prayer request with all my family/friends, my daughter got sick and to make a long story short we cancelled surgery and are looking into vision therapy.

You should be thrilled that you noticed it so soon. Your baby will have a much better chance. I didn't realize my son had a weak eye until he was 4 yrs old. He will most likely have to wear glasses his whole life but fortunately his eye has not drifted apart. You would never know he has a lazy eye to look at him but one eye is much weaker than the other. He compensated with his other eye and that's why I didn't notice. I felt very guilty for not finding it sooner...still do.

My son never needed the patch...he got glasses and they worked great. I'm not sure what your options will be with a one year old but I've heard of kids getting glasses really young. Don't panic...my son loves his glasses and he's just like every other kid except he needs his glasses all the time. He's perfectly happy and active...he plays every sport out there. Just be happy you found it so early..it gives your baby a better chance to correct the eye sooner and possibly not have to wear glasses her whole life.

go to the pediatric optholmologist. the baby may need an eye patch but do not do anything yourself until you see the doctor. i work at lenscrafters as an optician. the baby may need glasses later on to help strengthen the weak eye. good luck.

My son started this same thing just before his 5th birthday and has worn glasses since he was 3 the eye Dr started him on an eye patch on the good eye a few hours a day so we did after school hours and the weekends it worked great good luck

My daughter's eye turned also when she was 1. The first ped. opthamologist told me it wasn't lazy but wanted me to come back which I didn't. I just took her to my regular eye dr. and it was lazy and I'm so glad I went to someone else. Since she was so little the patching was easy and it wasn't too bad yet. My parents didn't notice mine until I was 4 and I wouldn't leave the patch on and it didn't work for me. Since it runs in my family I had my other children checked at about 10 months. I would put my daugher in the high chair and put her favorite show on- I made a homemade tape from pbs and filled the whole thing with Barney episodes. I know you shouldn't depend on tv like that normally but since it was for her eye I did it. She didn't have to wear glasses with it since her lazy eye wasn't so bad yet. She didn't get glasses until about 1st grade then. She is 13 now and fine, I had her checked every year to make sure it didn't turn back at all, they told me until about 7 it could reverse again but it wasn't likeley but I make sure we never miss our yearly. Hope it works out for you. Stick to it, it is worth it. My parents wish they would have caught mine earlier and so do I.

Hi M.,
I have not had this particular issue with my son, but a vision screening at pre-school identified a color deficiency (he's color blind). I, too, followed up with a pediatric opthamologist to confirm that he is color blind (as it was only a general screening that was done.
I have heard that they can use eye patches to correct for eye muscle weakness in kids. So, good job noticing this so early and I'm sure the ped. opth. will guide you in the right direction. I'm sure it's O. of those "the earlier the better" situations and you're on the ball!

M.,
I was trained by the Vision and Blind organization to do vision screening at my daughter's preschool. We screen all of the children ages 3-5 (with parent permission) by playing "eye games" - nothing invasive. We look for color blindness, muscle and acuity and every year we identify some number of children that need referred to a specialist for further evaluation. The program is so good because we can catch conditions such as weak eye muscles early enough to correct them and help children that need glasses to get them before they struggle learning to read.

I realize that was a bit off track, but I wrote because it seems that if catching a muscle problem at 3 or 4 is good, then to catch it at 1 is even better for prognosis. That's wonderful that you were so observant to spot it and to get it checked right away.

My daughter has worn glasses since about 1 year old. She is very good at wearing them until her twin takes them off and breaks them. She also has a eye drop we have to put in her eye to make it a little blurry so she uses her bad eye too. She tends to only use her good eye--that was the option b/c she wouldn't keep the patch on. It is amazing how they check the girls and know what is wrong and what vision they have. If you have any questions let me know :)

Her brain directs and controls her eyes and eye muscle surgery is not brain surgery. Cutting and moving the eye muscles will not automatically change the brain or the signals it sends to the eye muscles. This is why patients' eyes often "go back" or deviate again after surgery. Frequently, then, the surgeon recommends a repeat surgery. It is important to understand that while eye muscle surgery can improve cosmetic appearance, it does not necessarily improve eyesight or vision.

Hey,
My nephew. Has the same thing, in one eye. He is now 10 , My sister has been doing eyedrops since he was little around 3 I believe. glasses 6 , Clear patch on his glasses, it is blurr patch. But it seens to help!!!.
I hope everything works out.
Try the eyedrops may help!! to make the eye stronger..
Thanks,
A.
http://workathomeunited.com/bell04

My 5 yr old son has the same problem. One ped. opth. in Alabama said to patch the strong eye and to wear bifocals. However, another doc here in PA said to patch, no glasses, and possible surgery. Like most parents, we're wanting to avoid surgery...we're getting a second opinion, hoping to go back to patching and maybe galsses.
If someone suggests suregery, don't be afraid to geta second opinion! Hope this helps, E.