NEED HELP! Two Girls "Lazy Eye?" Freaking Out!!!

I have an answer similar to Catwalk. I was diagnosed with a lazy eye at age 3. I wore a patch over the stronger eye for I think a whole year or two at age 4-5. I don't have perfect vision in my weak eye, but I can't imagine how bad it'd be if I didn't wear the patch. Mom had to decorate the patch with stickers and drawings and reward me for wearing it. But I am so thankul I had to wear it, as my vision could be much worse possibly if I hadn't worn it.

So don't fret. Do they complain about their eyes or not being able to see? If they do, insist on an earlier appointment or see the pediatrician. But I would not worry, as a couple months wait should be fine.

What you are describing is not a "lazy eye" (amblyopia) which laymen use to describe when one eye does not focus and the other does. My daughter had 20/20 vision in her right eye but only 20/200 in her left. This was not visible by looking at her. To help the brain set the "strength" or "amplification" of each eye you actually train the brain by not letting it use the good eye (patching it for many hours per day and wearing of special glasses) so it is more a "lazy brain". This is best done as early as possible since in toddlerhood this takes months whereas when my daughter was diagnosed at age 5 it took several years. This would require a vision test at an opthalmologist.
What you are describing sounds more like a muscle weakness of the actual muscles around the eye. I would call the nurse back and describe exactly what is happening and ask for home treatments since the appointment is so far away. Maybe she misunderstood the severity or perhaps she can put your mind at ease that this is not worrisome. I would think that warm compresses to relax the muscles around the eye might help. But our doctor keeps daily slots open for emergencies, and perhaps just insist that this is freaking you out.

http://www.lazyeye.org/

Everyone's eyes don't do this when they're flat out with a cold?

You know how (I'm assuming) you have difficulty focusing (vision) when you're really sick? So it becomes difficult to read, pay attention to movies, drive, etc?

That's because your eyes are controlled by muscles (direction and irises) and when you're super sick, you body don't send energy to your muscles (including your eyes). It darn near shuts off your somatic motor system (the part of your brain and nerves that control your conscious muscles) so it can shunt any and all availble energy to your immune system. ((It also shuts off your digestive system... those two systems, digestion and movement use the most energy. It's not physically possible for your immune system to run at high speed AND motor core and digestion to also be functioning. Actually, half of "feeling sick" is your immune system.))

"Bleary eyed" is even a symptom of BEING very sick. Your irises don't contract and dilate as they should, and both eyes don't track sharply and together. It's ONE of the reasons doctors have you follow their finger with your eyes when you're sick... it's part of the diagnostic process to test how lethargic you really ARE.

This only happens when you're really, REALLY sick. When you're on the verge (or have passed) into TRUE lethargy (barely able to move / rag doll limp).

To know... medically speaking, when your kids get 'rag doll limp' (lift and arm and it just flops back down... that's the time to head to the ped office for same day appt, or ER if they don't have an appt. It may or may NOT be accompanied by a fever, but is a sign of massive infection.

We all say we're "feeling lethargic" when we slow down and the 10 feet to the bathroom is just soooooooo far (and so is the 6 inches to the remote!), but when kids (or adults) actually go limp like a noodle and are UNABLE to sit, walk, move about... it's ER time.

You're probably not there, and may well not get there, but it's a good thing to know as a parent that it bumps and illness from "nasty cold" to "see doctor immediately". Like "104 and out the door". Rag doll limp or true lethargic don't rhyme with anything cool, but it means the same thing as 104 and out the door. Doctor time!!!

But the eye thing happens a LOT with illnesses that don't get to doctor time. It just means really, really sick. If the rest of their body follow suit... then it's time to carry them to the car and head to the ER.

First calm down. If it is a lazy eye, the good eye will be patched. It could
be (like my son when he was a baby) that he was extremely farsighted and
needed glasses. I noticed my sons eye turning one day. From then on
it happened often until he got his glasses. See if it continues to happen.
Weird that it would be both at the same time. If it does continue, call ped
and get his opinion. Keep the Feb appt.

Hi L.-

I have a 'lazy' eye! I was 'diagnosed' finally when I was 10 or so, and was prescribed a series of eye exercises...(pencil push ups etc). Anyway, the problem resolved it self over time...BUT when in college, with the extra studying (and extra partying...lol) I noticed that in any picture of me taken when I had 'indulged'...you could see that my 'lazy' eye was slightly off center. lol...Not crazy off...just enough that "I" could tell.

Keep the appointment...it cannot hurt. At this young age, the doc may just have you put a patch over the stronger eye to give the weaker one a work out...or there may be no issue at all!

Best Luck!
Michele/cat

L.,

Contact your pediatrician's office on Tuesday when they open. Ask the pediatrician to look the girls over; it will give you peace of mind.

I've worked with kids who have had 'lazy eye' and what will help most is to do whatever the doctor suggests. In the meantime, while you are trying to get information online about this, you are getting yourself very upset because you don't have anyone guiding you to any information that actually pertains to your children. Self-diagnosis online can be a very scary route and there is a lot of information on the internet, not all of it expert opinion. If you keep looking online at anything connected to what you think is happening with your girls, you are opening yourself up to horror stories.

Your girls need you to calm down. They are sick and need you to be solid for them. If you think they are in real danger, please call your pediatrician's triage line and ask to speak to someone, or take them to the ER/urgent care. If it's not of this urgency and danger, calm down. Getting upset about this will only upset your girls. I know it's hard to feel calm and comfortable when you are worried, so like I said, if you need to talk to someone, call the pediatrician's answering service and get some direction from them. Otherwise, have them seen on Tuesday. Perhaps your doctor can get you a referral to speed things up.

Good luck.

If it's lazy eye you have plenty of time to correct it. Relax! My son had this condition, and I caught it just in time. I think the latest they can treat it is about five or six y.o., so you're fine. The doctor had him wear a patch on his good eye to force the lazy eye to connect with his brain. That's all they have to do. Lazy eye is not a dangerous condition and it's very easily treated. Give yourself a pat on the back for noticing it in time! Oh, and merry Christmas! ( :

I can't imagine the pediatrician not wanting to see the kiddos sooner than that. The issue will most likely be gone by the time they go to the eye doc.

If it is related to sinus pressure or something. I might go ahead and call the pediatrician tonight and have the service have them call me back. He may say take them to the ER if this is a sudden onset issue. It sounds very scary.

Call the doc or take the kiddos to the ER. I would think that somewhere nearby there is a children's hospital or teaching hospital that would have an ENT on staff if they felt it was an emergency with their eyes and not sinus pressure, it may even be a side effect from a med they are taking for the sinus stuff.

If it were me I would have been in the car with both kiddos on my way to the ER when they first did this. I would have recorded it too so that if they were not doing it when we were there I could show the ER docs what had happened.
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The reason this would bother me:
It is sudden, it is not normal and has only shown up since they have been sick. That tells me it could be something to do with medications you might be giving. It could be a side effect, it could be sinus pressure built up, it might be nothing, it might be something.

One time we had a lady at a facility I was working at had a side effect from her meds. She had accidentally been given the wrong med and her body was doing this as a result. That experience is why I suggest getting it checked out.

Not saying you don't know what you are doing or anything like that but children have died from over the counter medications. They took several different medications and each one has the same med in it, they basically overdosed and it killed them. Some medications cause eyes to roll, twitches, all kinds of physical signs in the body when the meds are out of whack. Parents did not give their children the wrong meds on purpose, accidents happen.

I was thinking if you had the doc check the kiddos out then he would rule out the possibility of an incorrect dose of meds. Plus an acute physical symptom like this would make me worry too.

We caught my son's when he was 3mo. His ped kept telling me nothing was wrong... I kept asking until his 1yr check up. We had a different ped since ours was on vacation. The first thing she asked was has anyone mentioned his eye? I was pissed!!

Anyways, she made the appt with the eye dr. They did a bunch of test. Then we did the patching for a certain amount of hours ( I don't remember how long it was to be on) a day. And some eye exercises. They give him glasses to also help. After a year of it not getting better, they did a very quick surgery and they tightened the loose muscles in his eye.

But I want to add... they found 4 different eye problems with his one eye. He was born with them and they were noticeable ( Nobody is sure how the ped missed it.. or more so blew it off). My son's case is nothing like yours.. I just wanted to add my experience with it.

your girls may have had a slight case of it and being sick just made it more noticeable. A lot of people have lazy eyes and at only certain times ( sick, overly tired, after a lot of reading or straining to see) does it make it more noticeable. most of the time its nothing to worry about. After letting the eyes rest, they don't do it anymore.

Go on the COVD.org website and find a developmental and behavioral optometrist. 80% of learning comes through the eyes working as a team. If one eye is turning, they are not teaming. Put your kids on a monkey bar and let them hang, look at the eyes and see if they straighten out. Make them do log rolls with their bodies. Turm them uupside down and give lots of movement. Put them in a hammock swing and let them swing side to side. Also, patching can make a cosmetic cure but the eyes need to work together with exercises and reflex integration.

ADDED: there are many reasons eyes shift in, far sighted, near sighted, "lazy eye" my daughter was near sighted and did what you mntioned. Lazy eyes are from muscle weakness. Oly the eye doctor can tell you what their's are from. You can do a simple eye test though. Ask them to look at your finger up close, if their eyes turn in when looking atit up close, they could be near sighted, so the same fr away...again thats J. a simple test, only the eye doctor can tell you for sure...BTW most eye glass stord have an eye doctor there and have appointments open all the time

My daughter had this happen at 3 and they rushed her in for an eye appointment right away, it only takes 2 weeks of your eye shifting in for the brain to stop reaiding images as much from the eye thats shifting in, then you'll need to patch to make both eyes equal again. They rushed her in for an appointment because they wanted to make sure it was nothing more than eye sight and also wanted to fix the problem before patching was needed. She was in glasses within 2 weeks o her eye shifting in. They may have been doing it for a while but the cold made it more drastic. I;d take them in to the eye doctor asap. My friend waited and didn't notice it untilt their daughter was 7 and shes legally blind in one eye now from the brain deciding to not take in images from the weak eye. Also all of this aboive isn't to worry you, I'm sure its nothing or at the most J. something a pair of glasses can fix, but I wouldn't wait if I was you.