Squint problem with my son

[Molai]

Dear Sir, My name is Mushtaq Ahmed Molai I have a son who is 1 year and 5 months old and his name is Muhammed Umer. since he was 6 months old we found that he have some problems in eyes because it was not straight and not in proper direction, and then we bring him to a Dr. in Karachi and Dr. found that he have problem of squint in his right eye and Dr. advised to use Glasses of 5+. also Dr. said that we should close his left eye which is perfect (with the help of pasting sticker on left eye glass) then he will try to use his right eye which actually have a problem.

I want to know, me and my wife are trying our best to continue the same practice but my son act so quickly and he do not allow us to close his right eye, I want to know how we can continue this practice to close his one eye then he can use is infected eye ?

Waiting for your help.

Thanks and regards:

Mushtaq Ahmed Molai
Karachi-Pakistan
Tel: [phone]
Email: ***@****

[John C Hagan]

Your son has "strabismus" also know sometimes as "squint" and the right eye is amblyopic which means that the vision is not developing properly because he's using the left eye all the time.

patching or "occlusion" therapy and glasses to correct refractive errors that are almost always larger in the bad eye is standard therapy. Patching is often difficult. The child does not like to have the "good" eye patched because he doesn't see as well. It important to persist as at his age there is a good chance that you can get the vision much better. The glasses may straighten the eye or when he is older he may need eye muscle surgery. He will need to be follow closely for the next 5-7 years. If you have other children they are at high risk of developing the same thing so they need to be watched carefully and seen by an ophthalmologist by age 2 and a half for a check up (immediately if you note a problem).

I suggest you call the office of the karachi ophthalmologist and speak with the staff about your difficulties. They can usually offer suggestions of how to get the patch on and get the child to wear glasses. If all else does not work they often use drops to dilate the "good eye" (atropine) to relax it wo where he cannot focus with it and the patch is better accepted and even when the patch is off the bad eye is used more.

Persist in this to give your child the gift of good vision in both eye and not just one.

JCH III MD
Kansas City, Missouri, USA