white pupil in 2 month old

[mcgrunt]

At a little over 3 weeks my family doc did an exam on my baby, and checked her eyes with an opthalmascope (?) and said he saw white pupil reflex in both eyes, even let me look and I saw it. That was on Feb 26. He made a referral to an opthalmologist, we dont have pediatric opthalmologists here, just regular ones. The appt is for April 7th. I looked at all the pics taken of her and she always has red eye in them. On march 17 i took her in to the doctors for a rash and he checked her eyes again, and said I could cancel the specialist appointment, that he now sees red reflex in both eyes. I didnt cancel the appt however, better safe than sorry. This week I took pics of her with a digital camera, with flash, and in one pic she has white pupil in her left eye. She wasnt looking straight on to the camera. it is the only pic i ever took of her like this. a day before i took the pic she woke up with and the outer corner of the left eye was a bit red, well more pinkish, and she was rubbing it, and below the eye was slightly puffy. But mind you she had a bad itchy rash and she rubs her face a lot in her sleep and she could have scratched her eye. Later in the day the redness and puffiness was gone. I also noticed she has a bit of lazy eye, in both eyes, but only noticable when she is tired. My dad and brother also have lazy eye too. Im glad I kept the appointment with the specialist. But why would the initial exam show  white pupil reflex, and then 3 weeks later it was normal red? And then all of a sudden I take a pic with white reflex? What are the odds something is wrong? Also I have heard that sometimes the flash can cause this to happen when there is really nothing wrong at all. is this true?

[Sandra M Brown, MD]

Well the best treatment for the worry is to keep the appointment with the ophthalmologist.  However you are likely correct that the white reflex is due to the flash bouncing off the optic nerve head, which causes this on-and-off appearance in photos.  Some kids are more susceptible to it than others.

[mcgrunt]

i found a site about leukocoria and it mentions pseudoluekocoria, which happens when the eye is turned in at a 15 degree turn toward the nose, and showed a pic of someone like this, and its the same angle that my daughters eye is at in the pic with her white pupil. im sure it is nothing, just a reaction to the flash. But Im still a bit worried!