Preemies

Strabismus or poor eye muscle control.

Hi everyone! I don't usually post here as my preemie is now 3 years old. She was born at 35 weeks and wasn't able to breath on her own at the time. She had a short NICU stay (10 days) that required intubation, CPAP and oxygen. Anyway, she was diagnosed with Strabismus last year and had the correction surgery yesterday. I was just wondering if there is any other preemies with this problem. Thanks so much in advance.
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"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible"--Harry, When Harry Met Sally


Re: Strabismus or poor eye muscle control.

  • Thanks for your reply. Because she was 2 years old when diagnosed, the doctor decided against patching (we did, too) because they wanted her to wear the patch for 3 hours a day for 6-8 weeks. I couldn't see that happening. We did try Atropine drop therapy, by putting one drop a week in her good eye to strength the bad eye, but that didn't work. I read a lot of things that claimed the earlier you get it taken care of the better, so we decided to go ahead with it. 

     

    I'm glad to hear your brother got some help :) 

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    "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible"--Harry, When Harry Met Sally


  • DS2 has this. It wasn't a bad case so surgery isn't on the table right now. We patched for about six months but it became a challenge to keep it on so we switched to glasses. As long as he wears his glasses, he has no issues. They think he won't have to wear them for forever either.
    Samuel  2.26.06 41w ASD/ADHD
    Eli  6.18.09 35.5w
    Silas  1.25.13 35.4w 10 days NICU, allergies/asthma, gluten intolerant

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  • DS2 had the same eye surgery this past July (2 muscles on each eye).  He was born at 35wk, 5d and is just over 3yr old. The eyes will look better in a couple of weeks.  :-)   His recovery has been well and his depth perception improved after the surgery. As he has grown his eyeglass prescription has changed. He actually just had his eyes checked earlier this week and the pediatric ophthalmologist said his current prescription is now too strong.  :-) 

    About the only things I noticed "wrong" (if you want to call it that) were it took one of the stitches 6wk to actually fully dissolve and for the past couple of months one of his eyes started to turn outward (not always). The ophthalmologist stated he noticed it at the exam and that it was when he focused on something in the distance and that the new glasses prescription should resolve the issue.

    ETA: DS2 has worn glasses since 10mos old. Patching was an option but not really a strong one since each eye would cross inward intermittently (and not at the same time). Basically our options were glasses which ultimately were not completely fixing the issue and surgery.

  • One of my 30 weekers has a week eye muscle... I forget which muscle, but when you ask him to look up and to the right his eye appears to go up in to his head.  It happened much more when he was a baby and still happens when he's tired or going through a growth spurt.  At this time it's so infrequent we are just keeping an eye on it.  The eye doctor said only surgery will help (though not recommended because of it's frequency at this point) so we're just keeping an eye on it.  

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  • DD was a 28 week micropreemie at 1 lb 11 oz.  She is now 5.25 years old and had the surgery a few years ago.  She had surgery on 2 muscles in each eye.  Before surgery we did do patching and glasses over time.  But it became clear that it was going to take surgery to do the job.  After surgery she worse glasses for a little while, but then didn't need them. 

    She is overdue for a check-up and I am sure they will want to do something with her.  They told us after the surgery that because of her age and size and the continued growth of her body over time she might need additional surgery.  I don't think surgery is in order yet by any means, but I do think patching or glasses are in our future.  Right now I see slight crossing and self-patching when she is tired or really concentrating.  She is reading now and writing sentences, etc. so she is going to be putting more strain on her eyes and it will become even more critical that they are in proper alignment and that she isn't just compensating.

    I was a preemie and had this as well, but didn't have the surgery.  My sister was a preemie and didn't have strabissmus at all.

  • imageMaxandRuby:

    DS2 had the same eye surgery this past July (2 muscles on each eye).  He was born at 35wk, 5d and is just over 3yr old. The eyes will look better in a couple of weeks.  :-)   His recovery has been well and his depth perception improved after the surgery. As he has grown his eyeglass prescription has changed. He actually just had his eyes checked earlier this week and the pediatric ophthalmologist said his current prescription is now too strong.  :-) 

    About the only things I noticed "wrong" (if you want to call it that) were it took one of the stitches 6wk to actually fully dissolve and for the past couple of months one of his eyes started to turn outward (not always). The ophthalmologist stated he noticed it at the exam and that it was when he focused on something in the distance and that the new glasses prescription should resolve the issue.

    ETA: DS2 has worn glasses since 10mos old. Patching was an option but not really a strong one since each eye would cross inward intermittently (and not at the same time). Basically our options were glasses which ultimately were not completely fixing the issue and surgery.

     

    Thanks so much for this! DD's vision was never an issue, so we were told glasses to correct her issues were not an option. I'm so happy to hear your son did well. Seeing her eyes right now is kinda scary, although they told us it's normal!  

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    "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible"--Harry, When Harry Met Sally


  • imageTootermi:
    imageMaxandRuby:

    DS2 had the same eye surgery this past July (2 muscles on each eye).  He was born at 35wk, 5d and is just over 3yr old. The eyes will look better in a couple of weeks.  :-)   His recovery has been well and his depth perception improved after the surgery. As he has grown his eyeglass prescription has changed. He actually just had his eyes checked earlier this week and the pediatric ophthalmologist said his current prescription is now too strong.  :-) 

    About the only things I noticed "wrong" (if you want to call it that) were it took one of the stitches 6wk to actually fully dissolve and for the past couple of months one of his eyes started to turn outward (not always). The ophthalmologist stated he noticed it at the exam and that it was when he focused on something in the distance and that the new glasses prescription should resolve the issue.

    ETA: DS2 has worn glasses since 10mos old. Patching was an option but not really a strong one since each eye would cross inward intermittently (and not at the same time). Basically our options were glasses which ultimately were not completely fixing the issue and surgery.

     

    Thanks so much for this! DD's vision was never an issue, so we were told glasses to correct her issues were not an option. I'm so happy to hear your son did well. Seeing her eyes right now is kinda scary, although they told us it's normal!  

     

    ETA: You can kinda see in my picture that her left eye is drifting outward and not aligned with the right eye. The left eye was what we noticed and definitely worse, although they did surgery on both. DD's eyes drifted outward instead of inward and becoming crossed. 

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    "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible"--Harry, When Harry Met Sally


  • imageTootermi:
    imageTootermi:
    imageMaxandRuby:

     

    Thanks so much for this! DD's vision was never an issue, so we were told glasses to correct her issues were not an option. I'm so happy to hear your son did well. Seeing her eyes right now is kinda scary, although they told us it's normal!  

     

    ETA: You can kinda see in my picture that her left eye is drifting outward and not aligned with the right eye. The left eye was what we noticed and definitely worse, although they did surgery on both. DD's eyes drifted outward instead of inward and becoming crossed. 

    You are welcome.  :-)   The only thing I forgot to mention was that we had 2 post up follow up appointments prior to the one we had this past week. I also took pictures of him for the first weeks simply to have a record of how long it took the red eyes to go away (about 1.5wk) and for record to see if the eyes were crossing or wandering any other direction.

    Let me know if you have questions. 

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