My perfect 22 month old was diagnosed with strabismus at 6 months old. Crossed eyes are normal for small infants who are still adjusting to sight but once they reach 6 months of age they should be straight. Your pediatrician will check for this at the 6 month check up but you know best and should see an ophthalmologist by the 7th month if the eyes do not straighten out.
As soon as the ophthalmologist saw my tot, she knew there was a problem. Her crossing is caused by her being far-sighted but strabismus has many causes. Some are caused by a stronger dominant eye or a misalignment of the eyes and in order to avoid double vision, the brain chooses to disregard one eye and the suppressed eye becomes lazy and will wonder. My tot’s far sightedness causes her to strain her eye muscles unnecessarily and causes both eyes to cross indiscriminately (both cross equally). It is a brain mis-communication, the brain is telling the eye muscles to work too hard and this causes the eyes to cross. Initially the doctor thought the crossing could be corrected with glasses. The idea was to correct the far sightedness and therefore re-signal the brain to relax the eye muscles. Of course, this is all very non-technical, laymen terms that I have come to understand.
The glasses did help in the beginning and as soon as she started wearing them, her eyes straighten out. I was really sad that she had to wear glasses but they are really cute and she always gets a lot of attention from people seeing a little baby with glasses on. After 6 months of wearing glasses, she showed amazing improvement so the prescription was reduced. We were really hopeful that this would continue until she no longer needed them, even though the doctor warned that it could take into adolescence for this to happen. I just didn’t want her to have to wear glasses for the rest of her life but more importantly, I needed for the glasses to work because I wanted to avoid surgery! Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Our last two appointments have been to confirm that surgery is indeed absolutely necessary to correct the crossed eyes. The glasses were no longer corrective, she still crossed significantly with the glasses on and only 10% more without them. Their effectiveness has become minimal, her brain got used to the glasses and is making adjustments to go back to what it thinks is “right”, which is over-straining of the eye muscles.
I am now left with only one option because it would be irresponsible and selfish of me to let her grow up with crossed eyes because of my fear. Last night I laid awake snuggling with her in my arms crying because I was imagining that 45 minute surgery. I am thankful that we have a capable and talented doctor (Dr. Anne Simon). But as a mommy, worry, fear, concern, anxiety and nerves is what I am now made of since my uterus started producing babies. Thoughts like, “What if there was an earthquake during the surgery that caused the doctor to poke a hole in her eye?” and other more reasonable concerns like, “What if the surgery does not correct the eyes?”.
The specific procedure to correct her problem is “common” and “simple” but of course when it comes to surgery on your own baby, nothing is common and things are far from simple. It is a eye muscle surgery, because her muscles are “too strong”. They will cut the muscles and place them back to make them weaker. She will go under general anesthesia for about an hour and the actual surgery will take 30 minutes but she will be away from me for 45 minutes. It will be the longest 45 minutes of my life. The surgery will most likely be scheduled in July.
I could not give Dr. Anne Simon a more enthusiastic recommendation. She has really helped us through this and made us feel as comfortable and confident about this as possible. She is at 3565 Torrance Boulevard, Torrance, CA 90503, 310-543-1310.