What to Expect If Your Child is Cross-Eyed or Has a Lazy Eye

My husband and I have a beautiful little girl. When she was born, she was perfect: ten little toes, ten little fingers, chubby cheeks, the works. As she started to grow, I began to notice something different about her. Instead of looking right or left at things, she was cross-eyed. At first, it was hardly noticeable. But at her three-month checkup, even our pediatrician was concerned. She referred us to a pediatric ophthalmologist to evaluate and diagnose the problem.

During the next few months, while we waited for our appointment with the specialist, the cross-eyed condition did not improve. When we went to our appointment, the ophthalmologist tested our daughter's eye sight, examined the structure of her eyes, and ultimately diagnosed her with strabismus. According to the Optometrists' Network, strabismus is a condition in which a person's eyes do not simultaneously align. In some cases, only one eye turns in, out, up or down. In our daughter's case, both eyes were affected, though the condition was more severe in one eye.

Our doctor confirmed that strabismus, or crossed-eyes, is a condition that a child will not outgrow. She recommended follow up appointments to continue to evaluate our daughter's eye sight because strabismus like our daughter's could lead to amblyopia. According to Prevent Blindness America, amblyopia (or "lazy eye") may result from a misalignment of a child's eyes, such as our daughter's crossed eyes. If one eye becomes stronger, the image the weaker eye sees may be suppressed. The weaker eye may eventually become useless.

In our daughter's case, her crossed eyes did lead to a stronger eye and a weaker, lazy eye. For a while, our doctor treated the lazy eye by applying a chemical "patch" to the stronger eye, which forced her brain to use and recognize the image from the weaker eye. However, the patching was only a temporary solution to the primary condition of strabismus. Our daughter's crossed eyes required surgical intervention.

After almost two years of periodic appointments with the pediatric ophthalmologist, we consented to a surgical procedure designed to correct our daughter's crossed eyes. The procedure involved removing the muscle from the eye itself, and reattaching it so that the eye would be properly aligned. The procedure took several hours, and resulted in a very swollen, red eye. For the next week or so, we religiously applied antibiotic ointment and eye drops as directed by our doctor. After several days, our daughter returned to daycare.

We were amazed first by the strength of our little girl in responding to the surgery and also by the results. Immediately, our daughter was able to look at and focus on objects without her eyes drifting or crossing. After nearly three years, our perfect little girl was learning to look and see things with both of her beautiful blue eyes.

We still make regular visits to our pediatric ophthalmologist to confirm that our daughter is still using both of her eyes. While one eye still drifts occasionally, and while we have been instructed to patch the stronger eye once or twice, the doctor is optimistic that a second surgery will not be required.

If your child suffers from crossed eyes or a lazy eye, be sure to tell your doctor about the symptoms. Your child may need to see a specialist to be properly diagnosed and treated.

Sources:

Optometrists' Network. "Strabismus." Homepage. 29 June 2009.

Prevent Blindness America. "Amblyopia-Lazy Eye." The Vision Learning Center. 29 June 2009.