Valeva wrote:
My daughter started crossing her eyes about 2 months ago when she was 29 months old. We took her to see an optometrist who diagnosed far sightedness and put her in glasses (+3.00 bilaterally). These seemed to help her align her eyes initially, however, after about 3 weeks, she started to again cross her eyes. We returned to the optometrist, who reported that now that her eyes were able to relax, he was getting a reading of 5.25 bilat, but that she could be in fact worse still. He mentioned drops to get a true reading of her eye, however didn’t feel like this was needed at this time, and prescribed a new set of lenses at +5.00 bilat.

My questions are this: Will we be repeating this process again, and needing new lenses again in a month? Is this common? How soon should I be seeing a result from her new lenses? And finally, her optometrist noted that she is already having to work harder to use her left eye, and was inconsistent in recognizing pictures with it (she was right on with all images shown to her right eye) when should I start to worry about a lazy eye?

ANSWER

Valeva,

Congratulations to you for getting your daughter’s eyes looked at immediately. I personally would feel better measuring your daughter’s eyes with drops to relax her focusing.  It is the only way we can be sure that we know just how far sighted she is.  Even with the drops though, it is often necessary to adjust the strength of the glasses in a  month or so.  The stronger lenses should straighten her eyes almost immediately.  The glasses are the first step (often the only step needed) in preventing a lazy eye from developing.  Your Optometrist will follow your daughter closely to assure that both eyes see well, and if not will advise about further intervention.  Often eye exercises are required, alone or, along with patching.  Your daughter is young enough to overcome a lazy eye fairly easily.  Expect to see your Optometrist every 6 months at least for the next few years.

Dr. Joan Hansen - Optometrist, for CAO

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