Lazy eye/Strabismus to be corrected by surgery

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Hi,

I am a parent of 6 years old boy who has autism. I know I can post this in parents forum but I feel many of non parent members can relate or help me in this issue.

My son's Strabismus is getting worse and he will probably need to have eye operation to correct it before the brain path way to the eye shut down.

I was wondering if there is anyone believe that light sensitivity causes vision problem. My son's Strabismus seems to be better when he is in dark.. and very noticeable when he is in really sunny place.

I wonder how it affects his eye coordination even after surgery. I guess it will be all good after once his eye development is settled/complete and then no worries about his brain shutdown the pathway. However, because I am not sure if he can cope with the operation/post operation, I would like to avoid it at my best.

Is there anyone notice this relationship between eye-cordination and light sensitivity? His eyesight is 20/20 in testing environment. (dark and dim place)

Hmm, interesting. I've been having more and more trouble with my eyes recently. I have congenital Brown syndrome (a type of strabismus - mostly it means I can't look up with my left eye) and have developed a weak eye muscle, and sometimes my eyes will randomly move rapidly for a second or two. I haven't paid attention to whether my eye problems might be better in low light - it hadn't occurred to me that there might be a connection. Now that I think about it, I don't remember the rapid eye movement ever occurring in low light. I don't usually have light sensitivity issues indoors (though if I've been inside for a while, the change in light intensity when I go outside can be a problem), but it's possible it's enough to affect my vision even if it isn't enough to cause pain. It's supposed to be cloudy and rainy all day here, so I'll try to take note of whether my eyes work together any better today.

I had corrective surgery for strabismus at age 2...in 1963. It was simple surgery even them. Go for it.

I had lazy eye as a child, had a little therapy for it, tried some corrective glasses briefly. Over time my ability to use my eyes together gradually improved. On top of autism, I had a head injury that affected my ability to coordinate my eyes. I still don’t do well in bright light, and I use Blue-Blocker sunglasses to help with that. I still get the phenomenon where my eyes vibrate – it can happen under stress, in bright lights, and I can trigger it voluntarily. At home I use reduced lighting - in fact I use LED lighting and adjust the color of it to yellow. There’s certainly a lot of variation between patients with strabismus and the neural pathways need to train and be reinforced, so a doctor’s advice is important. Here are some threads on WrongPlanet with topics related to lazy eye and strabismus, optic nerve hypoplasia, etc.:
viewtopic.php?t=222374
viewtopic.php?t=187708
viewtopic.php?t=45217

Thank you for your messages.

Thank you for letting me know the operation you had sounds relatively easy?! What made your parents to decided to get you the operation so early age? I am worried now that my son might touch his eye after operation so on.

I read the threads that you have included in your post, Thank you. I have been suspecting my son's depth perception is poor for more than 3 years that is reason why he does not want to do legos, blocks so on. My suspicion was confirmed by one of posters in one of those threads stated he does not have too depth perception. The poster too has a vision problems. Thank you.

I am still not sure how much light sensitivities is affecting his Strabismus. I see him distressed under bright sunlight having left eye movement at complete halt. he complains that sunlight hurts his eye.

I do have astigmatism on my left eye and because of bad habit in my screen time, I am too feeling I have lost good eye cordination too because my left eye with astigmatism has weaker vision when I view screen from certain angle.

So If my son has light sensitivies on his left eye and even affected by being in sun-filled classroom all day everyday then no wonder his Strabismus is worse than half year ago because of the environment. His Strabismus was not obvious when he was 2 gradually developed but rapidly in past 6 months.

I am now considering taking him to tinted glass specialist.

Best to get the operation done earlier rather than later as your son may lose the depth perception ability.

I had the operation done at 5 and it was too late. I'm 40 now and my left eye is now lazy again. I could have surgery - in fact I would welcome it. Just can't afford it.

I noticed what you said about coloured lenses. I wear Irlen lenses. They're blue as I'm sensitive to yellow light. Without the lenses I get overwhelmed by complex environments like the supermarket and other shops where there is a lot to take in visually.

www.irlen.com

I've had a lazy eye my entire life, and it is absolutely worse in bright light, and when I'm sleepy. I have really sensitive eyes and prefer to wear sunglasses all the time. It is less awkward not having to look people in the eyes as well.

I had corrective surgery at three which did not work. was put in huge ugly 80s glasses, and even forced to wear an eyepatch.. As you can imagine on top of already being awkward and weird this did not help my situation.

Even as an adult other adults mock me for this problem when they notice it.

If it can be fixed do it, the sooner the better. Its hard enough being bullied and made fun of for social things you CAN eventually overcome/learn to fake but i cant fake not having an ugly wonky eye..


are wonky eyes really common in autistic people or something?

Note that in some cases as in mine surgery will nor cure strabismus. In my case my brain could not process the stereoscopic vision & focus my both my eyes. I had 20/10 vision in both eyes individually but to try to focus both at the same time I would not be able to see anything about ones face at all. Eye exercises is what fixed mine but that only after I my eyes matured enough to limit my focal range which was in my mid 20's. My eyes could no longer go way out of focus by then & I could start training them to be able to achieve a good focus together. I still have strabismus but only acts up when tired, eyes dry or stressed by certain types of optical illusions such as the finger in the middle illusion which is when a finger appears between two opposing fingers that are slightly separated.

If you have this type surgery will likely not help & neither will glasses, I tried glasses to no avail. Surgery just shortens a set of muscles in the eye that limits the out word or inward angle of the eye that is not being used at the moment but does not fix the focus or the minds blockage of attention to the wayward eye.

I'm not saying that some conditions can't exist the can be fixed by surgery. Some conditions that can is strabismus caused by unequal acuity or eye muscles that are so far out of alignment as to preclude any hope of achieving binocular vision. An eye care professional should test for these condition before prescribing surgery as my situation would have precluded any type of surgery. I had equal vision in both eyes that was better than average & could look out either eye straight ahead without issue, just not together.

Yes it is quite common with autistics, much more so than with the average person. Somewhere I read it has about a 30 percent prevolence among autistics.

It affect more than just the eye muscles & 3d vision, much more. It affects ones overall coordintion in many cases both gross & fine coordination. It does mine.

New research suggests fixing the eye problem when young if possible also correct many other autistic issues, not all of course.

Thank you for your message.

I missed your messages as I did not receive notifications (my fault)

Your opinions are greatly appreciated.

I too was suspecting the surgery will not fix his eye coordination problems because that is problem is from his brain and also other factors such as his fatigue, environments. If it is purely and only muscle problems, it may be beneficial.

When we had quarterly appointment last month, the hospital doctor decided not operating him for the occation because his condition seems better than before. I think that is because he had a long break from school due to his flu and school holiday together. I guess that made a great difference.

I think he should have the operation very soon for cosmetic reason after he turned 8, the hospital will not be interested in doing so. I too think the eye coordination problem affecting his motor skills greatly. The doctor said he has a 3D vision but I don't think he does. I feel even he does not have 3D perception in his brain. That is really huge problem.

I am not sure that is because he hasn't had operation earlier or his brain not has been trained in the way. I don't know.

My son has very good eye sight for both eyes and looking straight well too. Those are stopping him to have the surgery too.

I am considering taking him to behavior optometrist.

I have strabismus but mine was caused by eye surgery. I wasn't aware of a link between strabismus and autism.

I have horrible eyesight, made worse by strabismus. Though I describe it more as a "Screw you, I'm looking at what I want" eye.

My eye doc was suppose to make an appoint with a specialist, but I've not gotten a call. I should follow up on that.

It's definitely worse if I don't get a good sleep (good sleep rarely happens) or if I use my smartphone, so I try and avoid using it when I can avoid it.

Google concurs that there is a correlation between the two. Learned something, I have.