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What age did your child have surgery for lazy eye?



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yo'ma




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 1:33 pm
My ds had eye surgery when he was 4 months old because of congenital cataracts. One eye is smaller than the other, but we can't do anything about that, but the bad eye is now a lazy eye. I can't fix it with a patch because he can't see very well with it and he just pulls it off. He's 2 1/2 now, k"h, and a cutie pie LOL . Anyway, he went to the eye doctor last week, but it wasn't the main one and she mentioned about having surgery to fix the lazy eye. It will obviously just be for cosmetic purposes. He has an appt with the main doctor the end of August, but I thought he was too young anyway. I was wondering what you think and if you had any experience with surgery for lazy eye and what age. I'm not doing anything now of course because he still has to see the doctor. Thanks!

edit to change question


Last edited by yo'ma on Thu, Jun 10 2010, 4:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Israeli Mother




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 3:25 pm
yo'ma wrote:
My ds had eye surgery when he was 4 months old because of congenital cataracts. One eye is smaller than the other, but we can't do anything about that, but the bad eye is now a lazy eye. I can't fix it with a patch because he can't see very well with it and he just pulls it off. He's 2 1/2 now, k"h, and a cutie pie LOL . Anyway, he went to the eye doctor last week, but it wasn't the main one and she mentioned about having surgery to fix the lazy eye. It will obviously just be for cosmetic purposes. He has an appt with the main doctor the end of August, but I thought he was too young anyway. I was wondering what you think and if you had any experience with surgery for lazy eye and what age. I'm not doing anything now of course because he still has to see the doctor. Thanks!


My oldest had surgery for lazy eye when he was between 3 and 4 years old. It was a difficult time for him and me because for a few weeks after the surgery his eye was open all the time. In other words, he couldn't close his eye and I had to keep putting drops in round the clock so that his eye would not dry out and get ulcerated. Now, this child is turning 30 this year around sukkot time, so I would hope that the surgery has been improved upon a bit.

He also wore a patch for lazy eye -- or at least he was supposed to but he really gave us a hard time and wouldn't wear it like he was supposed to.

Ah, the joys of young children Rolling Eyes
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Israeli Mother




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 3:25 pm
yo'ma wrote:
My ds had eye surgery when he was 4 months old because of congenital cataracts. One eye is smaller than the other, but we can't do anything about that, but the bad eye is now a lazy eye. I can't fix it with a patch because he can't see very well with it and he just pulls it off. He's 2 1/2 now, k"h, and a cutie pie LOL . Anyway, he went to the eye doctor last week, but it wasn't the main one and she mentioned about having surgery to fix the lazy eye. It will obviously just be for cosmetic purposes. He has an appt with the main doctor the end of August, but I thought he was too young anyway. I was wondering what you think and if you had any experience with surgery for lazy eye and what age. I'm not doing anything now of course because he still has to see the doctor. Thanks!


My oldest had surgery for lazy eye when he was between 3 and 4 years old. It was a difficult time for him and me because for a few weeks after the surgery his eye was open all the time. In other words, he couldn't close his eye and I had to keep putting drops in round the clock so that his eye would not dry out and get ulcerated. Now, this child is turning 30 this year around sukkot time, so I would hope that the surgery has been improved upon a bit.

He also wore a patch for lazy eye -- or at least he was supposed to but he really gave us a hard time and wouldn't wear it like he was supposed to.

Ah, the joys of young children Rolling Eyes

PS: the surgery didn't "take" and his lid fell again. We just could not put him through it a second time and so his lid still droops a lot -- and in his case it does affect his vision.
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amother


 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 3:30 pm
Why is it only for cosmetic purposes?

My dd had surgery on both eyes at around 1.5, and then had to patch for several years. It's owrth it, b/c she's pretty much okay now (she had strabismus which caused the lazy eye). The earlier the better- the longer there is a reason for the eye to be lazy, th e lazier it becomes.

I'll pm you who I am.
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yo'ma




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 3:57 pm
amother wrote:
Why is it only for cosmetic purposes?

My dd had surgery on both eyes at around 1.5, and then had to patch for several years. It's owrth it, b/c she's pretty much okay now (she had strabismus which caused the lazy eye). The earlier the better- the longer there is a reason for the eye to be lazy, th e lazier it becomes.

I'll pm you who I am.

What do you mean it's not for cosmetic purposes only? How does it help the eye itself? I thought strabismus is lazy eye, but I guess I was wrong.
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manhattanmom




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 4:00 pm
I have some relatives who have had lazy eye (amblyopia) surgery--one at 2 and one at 6.

I've worked with children who have had various eye surgeries in very early infancy.
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yo'ma




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 4:02 pm
I changed the question a little.
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amother


 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 4:28 pm
yo'ma wrote:
amother wrote:
Why is it only for cosmetic purposes?

My dd had surgery on both eyes at around 1.5, and then had to patch for several years. It's owrth it, b/c she's pretty much okay now (she had strabismus which caused the lazy eye). The earlier the better- the longer there is a reason for the eye to be lazy, th e lazier it becomes.

I'll pm you who I am.

What do you mean it's not for cosmetic purposes only? How does it help the eye itself? I thought strabismus is lazy eye, but I guess I was wrong.


Strabismus is "cross eyes".

I don't know about yuor son, but my dd had problems with her muscles in her eyes. This is what causes strabismus. Because the child sees two images, the brain shuts one off and the child begins to only use one eye. If it is nto treated, eventually the person loses the sight in that eye altogether (ch"v).

The surgery corrected the muscles, but she then needed patching to force the weak eye to work (you cover the strong ey seveal hours a day). This is better the earlier you start. You get a child to kep the patch on the same way you get them to do anything unnegotiable - just keep insisting and after 2 days or 2 weeks or 2 months they'll get the message.
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mimimom




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 5:05 pm
When I was a kid I had the surgery at 3, as was done in those days. One eye had become so dominant by that point that I am almost blind in the other.
My son had the same thing (strabismus) and had the surgery at one year, with patching before and after and glasses for a while. He has excellent (20/20) and equal vision in both eyes. (He's 19 now.)
The difference was that the surgery was done at a much younger age, and I was extremely insistent that he KEEP THE PATCH ON. It was way too important to let him win that fight.
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chocolate moose




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 5:07 pm
My DD wore the patch from age 2 until age 9. It was very hard as she had very very little sight in that unpatched eye.

I have heard that kids hve that surgery 2 and 3 times and that the muscle can stretch back.
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shemesh




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 5:36 pm
my baby had eye surgery for lazy eye, when he was 14 months old, he had it very bad in both eyes , the doctor told us he would try with one eye. I see that you live in Argentina, im from Argentina and the Doctor is Dr.Manziti, he did an amazing job, he is know 7 years old and perfect bh, never had to do the second surgery, I didnt like him at first because of his caracter, but my doctor told us we should do it with him because he is the best, and really was !
good luck!
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shemesh




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 5:42 pm
forgot to tell you that was a very easy surgery, 30 minutes top, went home right away and never had to wear a patch, after one month his eye was tottaly fine, still went for checkups every six months.
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yo'ma




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 6:58 pm
shemesh wrote:
my baby had eye surgery for lazy eye, when he was 14 months old, he had it very bad in both eyes , the doctor told us he would try with one eye. I see that you live in Argentina, im from Argentina and the Doctor is Dr.Manziti, he did an amazing job, he is know 7 years old and perfect bh, never had to do the second surgery, I didnt like him at first because of his caracter, but my doctor told us we should do it with him because he is the best, and really was !
good luck!

We actually went to Manziti first, but he doesn't take out insurance for children, so we went/go to Dr. Graifman, right around the corner from him, on our dr.'s recommendation.
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shemesh




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 10 2010, 8:22 pm
from what I remember we paid for the apointment but the surgery was covered by the insurance.
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yo'ma




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 11 2010, 7:34 am
chocolate moose wrote:
My DD wore the patch from age 2 until age 9. It was very hard as she had very very little sight in that unpatched eye.

I have heard that kids hve that surgery 2 and 3 times and that the muscle can stretch back.

How did you get her to wear the patch if she couldn't see well in the other eye?
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mamommommy




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 11 2010, 8:54 am
yo'ma wrote:
chocolate moose wrote:
My DD wore the patch from age 2 until age 9. It was very hard as she had very very little sight in that unpatched eye.

I have heard that kids hve that surgery 2 and 3 times and that the muscle can stretch back.

How did you get her to wear the patch if she couldn't see well in the other eye?


I started patching my dd when she was 2 1/2 years old and she ended up with surgery when she was 5. We bought her these cute adhesive patches with all different designs and pictures on them and when she kept the patch on for the entire time that she was supposed to wear it, she would get a treat. We had to do this everyday at first, but then after a while wearing the patch everyday just became part of her routine and she was fine with it.
My dd had to patch because of strabismus/amblyopia so her uncovered eye was her weaker eye (and had poorer vision). That could be why it was hard for her to wear it at first, but young kids can adapt to these things. There are kids who have terrible vision and they don't complain about it at all because they just think that that's the way things are supposed to look.

Like the amother above wrote - strabismus is cross-eyes, which is caused by weakness in the muscles that control the eye (so the eyes don't line up properly and cross). Amblyopia is what is commonly referred to as lazy eye which is when the vision in one eye is weaker (or lazier that the other). The two often go hand in hand because as previously mentioned, if the eyes don't line up correctly, the brain is being sent two different images and will start to ignore the image from the weaker eye, and vision in that eye will worsen since the brain is used to ignoring the vision from that eye. You cover/patch the stronger eye so that you force the brain to accept vision from the weaker eye more regularly. It's like excersizing the eye and forcing it to work harder.

That said, I don't think that the surgery is purely for cosmetic reason. The doctor is probably trying to prevent any further weakening of the muscles, or potential weakening of the vision from that eye. It has a medical basis and it's not purely cosmetic. Try not to think of it like a nose job.

Good luck with whatever you do!
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chocolate moose




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 11 2010, 10:12 am
yo'ma wrote:
How did you get her to wear the patch if she couldn't see well in the other eye?


It was realllllllllllllllllllllllllllly hard.
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the world's best mom




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 11 2010, 11:20 am
Ds had the surgery at about 15 months old. No patching needed. And it is not for cosmetic purposes only. If a lazy eye stays uncorrected, it will get weaker and weaker until eventually it will not be able to see at all. My mother is blind in one eye because her lazy eye wasn't caught early enough to fix it.
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mommyof2bah




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 21 2010, 6:05 pm
My daughter had eye muscle surgery on both eyes earier this month. One of her eyes was MUCH weaker than the other. Her eyes look MUCH better B'H, but for the past day or two I've seen that the weaker eye has started to wander a little bit and perhaps not be as focussed or aligned. I think that she is tired and that it could be attributed to that, but did anyone notice that the eye might have jumped around a bit after? we went for a checkup 10 days after and he said that the muscles were trying to work themselves out and looked much better and then we scheduled another f/u for July. Anyone notice this? THANKS
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