Lazy eye and white light in Photo's

[Jaqq]

I have a concern about my 3 yr old Niece.  Since she was just under 1yrs old she's suffered from a lazy left eye which is gradually getting worse.   It seems to be affecting her balance on some occasions (falling backwards for no reason and walking with her arms outstretched and generally looking a little wobbly).  My family has confronted my brother and Sister in-law about this to get it checked but it looks like they're in denial and feel there's nothing wrong with her.  Over the last 6 months we've now noticed that in a lot of photo's we’ve taken of her there's a bright white light covering her left pupil. Other photographs show her left pupil with severe red-eye and the light's reflecting in a different direction to the right eye.  We have a history of very rare eye disorders in our Family, my brother suffered from Coates Disease when he was 8yrs old and his eye looks exactly the same in photographs.  Whilst I know that it's unlikely she has Coates Disease, I'm very concerned that there's something a little more sinister going on behind her eye.  I've spoken to them about this and have urged them to get her checked, but they think she's fine and that it's the way the photograph has been taken!!!

Am I being over dramatic? Could there be something more about this white light and should I urge my Brother to get her checked ASAP??

[me22715]

Well, I can tell you from experience that if she has a lazy eye, which it sounds like she does, the longer they wait, the more chance she has of never experience full vision in that lazy eye.  If they get her to an eye doctor right away, he/she will explain to them the benefits of early patching.  (patching the good eye, to train the bad eye to stop being so darn lazy!)  :)  If your brother and sis in law aren't taking it seriously then they're aacting selfish.  I'm not sure where you live, but is money a concern for them?  Not sure why anyone would avoid something like this.  Last night I was downloading pics of my son on to the computer (he has a lazy eye, he's 11 years old) and I noticed that their was this white spot in front of his eye.  I examined more pics and some were fine, but some had this white spot.   I then called him into the room to take more flash photos, and sure enough the same spot came up in his eye.  I booked a drs appt for him (which is tomorrow) and he spent an hour and a half at the eye dr today.  They did many tests to rule out things like retinalblastoma, coat's disease etc...(they did the retina digital mapping as well) and they determined that the lazy eye is causing the white photo eye.  (I'm still going to see the family doctor tomorrow just for somewhat of a "2nd" opinion.)  The eye dr reminded me again that if my son's eye ever has a chance of improving his vision he needs to patch for at least an hour a day.  

Your niece has a good chance of saving her vision and restoring it to almost 20/20 if your brother gets his act together and takes her to a doctor.  If he doesn't then maybe you should.  Maybe he won't speak to you ever again for interfering, but then again, maybe you may be saving her life (if it is something more serious), her eye (because the longer he waits on this, there's the possibility of losing her eye) and saving her vision (from the lazy eye).  She'll thank you when she's older!! :)  

Sorry for the long post, hopefully something I said helped you, let me know what happens.

[Jaqq]

My Niece has been seen by no one.  My Borther refuses to think that there is anything wrong with her.  I'm not so concerned with her lazy eye now, more the white orb that shows up in photographs

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

Is a pediatric ophthalmologist following her lazy eye?  (s)he was be treating it.