I need some advice on this..

Charlie had very bad eyes when he was a newborn, always stuck together with a yellowy gunge type thing. It slowly went when he was about 6 months. He's had all his check ups with HV etc, doctors have looked at his eyes too many times! So I didn't think there was any problem until now.


In a morning, he sits in his high chair watching GMTV (He loves LK today!) while I make him breakfast, he eats his breakfast, has a drink etc then he usually get's tired around 10.30am so I lay him down on sofa and watches ITNG. He doesn't go to sleep just lays there! We usually go out most days and do different things, tormenting family and friends, shopping for nothing, we used to go to jellytots (with moving I haven't had chance). But if we stay in, which isn't the norm as I get too bored, he plays with his toys but his left eye keeps going inwards when he concentrates!

The MIL says he watches to much tv (GMTV 30min, ITNG 30min) and I shouldn't let him watch TV at all, and encourage him to play with his toys, which I add, are in a BIG galt nest in the middle of the living room so he's free to tip them out as he wishes, we have play time around 4pm every day when I sit on the floor playing with his toys (He usually wanders off and stands looking in the bath... )

I talk to him, play with toys with him, he's a brill eater, he's just started sleeping through the night, he gets fresh air nearly every day when we go out, he doesn't sleep too much in the day now..
My HV, who I don't really know, and neither does she know me due to my circumstances of living arrangements, she says everything is fine and not to worry, but the MIL keeps banging on about 'too much TV' and 'He doesn't have 5 a day' <-- That is impossible! He has one tooth which came through less than a week ago and most fruit is hard. She doesn't seem to realise that he has veg EVERY tea time.

So anyway, as you know what he does most days, is there anything i'm totally missing here? Which could be making his eyes drift around? I can't see anything wrong in what he does. He has hit all his 'targets' on time, apart from sitting up he was a little late (7months), he crawls, can stand up using furniture, walks with the furniture, has too many toys, he eats on his own (Using hands mind!), he's 'independent' for his age I think!
He turns one next Thursday...

HELP! It's bugging me too much not to worry and my Doctor is useless, prescribes him drops, dfferent medicines, you name it he's been prescribed it. Some of his medication I haven't given him, cause I don't want him on a different medicine each week, and before anyone says "You should give him the medication", i'm speaking about a doctor who didn't check my sons throat for over 4 months when he had a constant cough until I walked into Childrens A&E, who gave him an xRay to show he has a large shadow on his lung which is currently being dealt with by the hospital.

Any help?

Watching tv wont make him have a lazy eye. It will however show you if he has one. When he is watching tv or in that tired stage, watch his eye. Lazy eyes tend to show more when they are tired or move their head fast. Another indication is walking into things. Kids fir some reason as toddlers spend most of the time just missing things, only just not running straight into things. If he has a lazy eye there is a good chance he walks into everything and forgets to miss. If you are concerned then take him to the doctors fir a check up.

just seen that your doctor is useless. Take him to a different one if yoou arent happy.

He's still at the doctors where I lived over 5 months ago, but my circumstances, meant I couldn't or more didn't want to, move him to the doctors where I am now, as i'm moving again now, and he'll be on the local GP's list by next week, so i'm going to make an appt with them ASAP.

I didn't mention, I had Bells Palsy (SP?) through my pregnancy and before then, it was only a 'mild' type and it has since gone, but comes back every now and again. Could this be linked?

lazy eye can be fairly common in children.
some children are given a patch to wear over the good eye to make the lazy eye work more, helps strengthen the muscles up
hope the new gp is good and can help sort it out for you

Hi, My youngest daughter (4) has a lazy eye (infact both my girls have dodgy lambs but different reasons), her vision in both eyes is quite poor, her specs are amazing as they just zap the eye back into place as soon as she put them on LOL.

You need a referal to the eye clinic at the children, it is very easy to treat with glasses and can be corrected. You will need to get a referal from either a GP or HV. Nothing you are doing is causing his lazy eye!! its nothing to do with watching TV his diet!! or how you spend your day LOL, you sound like a fab mummy!! try not to pay to much attention to MIL. Lazy eye is usually due to poor vision, the museles just get tired of working to hard as the eye tries to hard to focus on things.

And its also nothing to do with Bells palsey as far as im aware :).

HTH

mini sav has a squint, its not a lazy eye though its her squinting to see. she has patches to try to strenghten the muscle and also has glasses. She will always have a squint when she takes her glasses off.

A good test the doctor showed me to try was cover the eye you think is lazy with say a book and pull it away quickly. If the eye is a lazy eye once its covered it will start to turn in. Obviously as mini was not lazy eye this test did not work on her but he referred me anyway to the orthoptist (sp?)
good luck.x

Hi, I saw this thread and just had to reply.

Firstly you are not doing anything wrong at letting him watch tv and playing with his toys.

This is my son, Toby this was taken in july 2008
http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd334/staylor1982/P050708_11401.jpg

Look at his right eye. he does have not one, but 2 lazy eyes. My health visitor referred him to the eye clinic at doncaster hospital, as thats where we was l iving at the time (doncaster). They admited he has an eye problem so gave him glasses to wear, which to be honest didnt work that well as they kept falling off his nose!
So every 2 mths we had to keep going for check ups at the hospital to see if the glasses have improved his eyes and to measure up his eye pupils. Unfortionately the glasses are doing nothing for him. On 5th january he had another appointment, and got told he will have to have surgery on both eyes to correct them, he would only be in hospital in the morning and he would be out in the afternoon or evening at the latest and he would have to have a week off school/nursary.

I noticed the eye problem when he was about 1 yr old, he started falling over nothing and reaching for things what he could see but actaully not touching anything, its really hard to explain. Picture a clock, if he had a drink in the 12 position he would reach to the 2 position.
I wear glasses as i had the same thing when i was his age i did also have the surgery then. Untill tobys operation his eyes are getting slightly worse everyday. He will be 4 yr old in june this yr and i noticed this when he was 1 yr old, so its taken me this long to try and sort it out. He has another appointment on 23rd feb and am hoping from there they will give me a date for the op, As we go away at end of may so i would feel if he had it done before then he will enjoy it better.

I will keep you updated on how he goes on. But i hope you can get your son sorted soon, even if it takes the same amount of time like it has for me to sort it.
take care.

My 2 children both had squints or 'lazy eye' due to being long sighted. Started at about 12 months old, mainly when they were tired.

Ask HV to refer you to eye clinic. My children both went to the eye clinic at the Hallamshire. If there is a problem they try to correct it with patches and glasses. My children both needed surgery to correct, but this is done as a day case and they came home in the afternoon.

Both are now fine, one wears glasses and one doesn't need them.