NOAH AOC

Over the passed few weeks i've notcied that my daughter Carrah's right eye is turning in a lot more than it previously had. My inlaws have noticed it as well. My husband thinks it is just a lazy eye, but I think it is becoming crossed.

She is set to have an Opthamolgist appt in June or July of this year. Should I call and try to get in earlier to see what they can do for this? I really don't know what they can or will do, but I wanted to check anyway.

TIA for any advice.

If it were me I'd call. You never know they might want to see her right away or maybe they'll tell you not to worry. Either way you'll have a little peace of mind.

My son had appt with his pedi opthamologist at 3 weeks old, 3 months and then at 6 months had an exam under anesthesia to get his refractive errors since he was so extremely photophobic he would not keep his eyes open (and I made him open his blocked tear duct then too rather than wait for it to resolve and possibly have to go under again) ANYWAY, even with the refractive errors known, the pedi opth wanted us to wait until his eyes crossed, so that meant he was trying to focus on his own, and then test the prescription, rather than give it to him right away and have his eyes "settle" for what the glasses did. His eyes crossed at 9 months--almost an immediate crossing, I thought it would have been more gradual. I called his TVI who had been out a couple days before and she stopped by and said they most definitely were crossed and hadn't been. I called and they got him right in and verified and filled his glasses prescription. I will tell you the eyes will keep changing a lot the next couple of years, Daniel went from around a +5 and +6 (fairly strong, double to triple what you can buy off the rack in the reading glasses section for comparison) to a nearly neutral prescription (after astigmatism correction) in about 15 months. SO the eyes crossing are a good thing, but try to get her in sooner, but don't panic in the meantime :)

Hi Kaycee,

My lil Drew has quite bad strabismus and did the same as Carrah... it got more noticable at about 9 months. My docs weren't that stressed about the immediacy of getting it all fixed ASAP. (I am usually very impatient with their lack of hurriedness) but it took 6 months to get into an opthal anyway.

He now wears a patch every day for about two hours between sleeps (and opthal thinks he will for a while {2years} yet...) Leading up to waiting for opthal I did some excercises everyday to get him desensitised to having a patch on like covering his strong eye and getting him to try and focus on me... playing peekaboo games with one hand over the strong eye, etc.

If you are into altertantive stuff, kinesiology is a great relaxant for the strong eye. This is where you place your palm gently over the strong eye and gently hold the head with your other hand behind the base of the skull and hold it there for about a minute while they relax in a dark area. I used to do it while he slept. The eye gets a bit warm after about a minute from your own body heat and the bub will shrug away a bit, that is when you stop. The theory behind it is that your own electromagnetics which create a path through their little head helps realign all the neuron pathways (which is a apparently for pwalbinism, neuron pathways take a bit of a longer path than needed for the brain  to receive the visual message from the eye) I didnt really care much for the theory of it all, but I used to find the boys loved relaxing with it and in some way it helped 'patch' and the heat/closeness relaxed the strong eye. 

Waiting for appointments can be annoying as parents when we just want the best for our kids and feel that you could be comprising their future eye sight by not acting now... I know how it feels... so all this stuff just made me feel like I wasn't totally helpless and that I was at least doing something, I think it did help in the end. Cant hurt anyway. 

Plus handy tip from an expert patcher... if the opthal suggests patching and you get infant eye patches (removable sticky ones) and find that bub pulls them off all the time, get a strip of FIXAMULL tape (like a second skin) and cut it to fit just a little over the patch and use both together... Drew can not get his little fingers under fixamull and he happily wears his each day.

Getting patches off can be stressful and can really turn bub off wanting them put on. Use REMOVE satches to loosen the adhedsive or olive/vegetable oil works good too. After you remove the patch it may look clear where the eye is but sticky residue is left and within ten minutes dust and muck makes a ring around their eye, so I run the REMOVE patch over the area after removal.  it doesnt get all the gunk but it definitely helps. (people will always ask 'whos been drawing on their face then?' thinking that the gunk is texta... as if we dont have enough to explain with the nystagmus, albinism...lol.

Good luck with it all. Your girls are just so gorgeous.

Chloe :) 

 

Thank you all so very much. This is so helpful. I talked to the nurse at the Opthamology clinic yesterday and she said they weren't in a rush so Carrah will just keep her regular appt for July.

Bonnie-Thanks for your help. I think that is why hers crossed almost immediately because of her trying to focus in on things.

Chloe- Wow! Your advice is great. I will try the palm over eye while she is sleeping thing. She won't let me put my hand over her good eye while she is awake though. I think she needs both eyes to see with her Nystagmus. If they want us to patch, I will definitely use all of your tips!

Hello Kaycee

My name is Dorothea and my daughter Bethany has OCA2. But I notice a while ago that her right eye was starting to cross in more then it has also. I took your to our Dr. here what it was is that her eye glasses need a new strengh to them. So he changed it. Her eye doesn't cross as much now. Does your daughter have glasses? Bethany was 8month old when she got hers. I am not saying that glasses are the answer but maybe they will help her. I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask.

I hope eveything goes well in July for you.

Dorothea

I was also going to mention the glasses as an option.  Our daughter was given glasses at 6 months to prevent any crossing and keep the eyes straight, as the PO called it.  It's for accommodative esotropia.  She never developed any crossing.

 

The other thing I wanted to mention is that patching can be difficult with kids who have nystagmus.  Our PO did not recommend patching but instead, prescribed Atropine drops for the stronger eye which blurred things a little in that eye, forcing the weaker eye to work harder.  I think we had to use them once every other day for a couple of months.  Our daughter never seemed to really notice it, not like an eye patch, and it did strengthen her weaker eye a bit.

 

Greetings! My name is Christina, me of 15 years. I have OCA2. I was born with a congenital strabismus. Be afraid of nothing!