Our baby (Codi) had to have eye surgery when he was only 10 months old due to Strabismus (Esotropia).

Please consult your doctor if you think your child may have Strabismus (Esotropia).

Other people may refer to it as...

• Lazy eye
• Cross eyed
• Eyes look in different directions
• One eye looks in a different direction

When Codi was only around 3 months we really started to notice that only one eye was looking at whatever he was looking at. The other eye was very turned in towards the bridge of his nose. He could alternate which eye he wanted to use to start with, however after a while he started to favour using his right eye, and used his left eye less and less.

We went to see a doctor as soon as we could. From memory I think this was around 6-8 months of age. The doctor (eye doctor specialist) was concerned that his brain was starting to ignore his left eye. So he instructed us to put a patch on his right eye (good eye) for 1 hour each day for a few weeks. We did this and it forced Codi to start using his left eye again. Unfortunately he did not start to use them together though, so it wasn't long before our doctor said Codi needed surgery to move the muscles on his left eye so they would be looking in the same direction.

To see a better explanation of Esotropia go to Wikipedia definition.

At 10 months Codi went in for surgery. He obviously had no idea what was about to happen but we certainly did and we were both very worried as all parents would be. When he came too after surgery ,all he wanted to do was cling to his mommy. His eyes were very sore, so we had to keep giving him "Pain Stop" for the first 48 hours and then Baby Panadol after this for about another 2 - 3 days. Every 3-4 hours we also had to keep applying eye drops, which was extremely hard. Especially as his eyes got a little infected and would puff up so that the eye lids overlapped which made it near impossible to open the lids to apply the eye drops. The technique that we used here was to apply the eye drops to the inside eye duct... where the eye drop would slowly be absorbed.

The whole experience was very stressful, however after a week or so he could open his eyes (he also liked to close his good one if he couldn't open his left one). We could see that there was definitely a major improvement, however it was not perfect. The doctor explained that it should improve after a few months.

It did start to improve as suggested, however around 16 months we started to notice that his left eye would occasionaly float upwards, so we were concerned he was starting to ignore it again. The doctor confirmed that he too was concerned... so we now patch his right eye for an hour each day, to force him to start using his left eye again.

Codi is now 18 months old and we are soon due to see his doctor again. We are very happy with the progress and we are hopeful further surgery is not necessary. We patch his right eye each morning still, however when it is not patched his eyes look in the same direction 80% of the time. This is good news as it means his brain can use them together, we just need him to decide to use them together 100% of the time now :)

UPDATED 8th Mar 2006: We went and saw the eye specialist a few weeks ago and he is happy with the progress. Here is the program we are now on...

• Patch for 1 hour a day for the next 3 months.
• Then no patching for the next 3 months.
• If eye starts to worsen start the patching again.

Once Codi is able to tell the difference between circles and squares (basic shapes), and able to communicate which one he sees, the doctor will be able to test his eye sight with a computer program. Apparently if you are using just one of your eyes it is hard to distinguish the shapes using this program, but if you are using both eyes it is easy. Thus we will be able to tell if he is actually using both eyes to see when the eyes are both pointing in the same direction. At this point in time we have no way of knowing. This test is likely to happen between 2 - 2.5 years old.

UPDATED 31st May 2006: I am very happy to say that Codi's eyes are nearly perfect all the time now?

How did we achieve this? Well I must say I was very concerned about 8 weeks ago. As the doctor said we continued to patch him once a day in the afternoon instead of the morning. However this did not seem to be working as his lazy eye would be all over the place during most of the day. So after a few days we went back to patching in the morning, this was better but after a few days we started to get more concerned so we also started doing some patching in the afternoon (plus the morning). After 2 or 3 weeks after the previous doctor's appointment Rachel and I were nearly pulling our hair out... it seemed he was starting to regress, and it didn't matter how much patching or playing on the swing we did.

So we decided... that's it! Lets try for 24 hrs to do no patching at all and just do swing time 3 times a day. After the first 24 hrs with no patching Codi's eye was considerably better than before. If it looked bad we would simply take him out and play with him on the swing for about 15 mins and his eyes would automtically align themselves again. So we decided to test this "no patching" a bit more... and the rest is history!

His lazy eye has got better and better each day since. We hardly need to use the swing any more either.

In Summary: It has been a long journey and I believe certain techniques have helped at certain times. I am quite confident now that surgery for the second time is not looking likely

UPDATED 11th Mar 2008:

Here is a quick video of a doctor talking about Strabismus v's Lazy Eye...

By the way - we are still continuing with the swing, and making sure Codi is aware when he is not using his eye. He is able to cover his good eye with his own hand and force his lazy eye to focus.