Conference moira::parenting

1019.0. "Alternating Esophoria Eye Condition" by CNTROL::STOLICNY () Fri Sep 01 1995 13:04

    
The following is being posted for a former member of the PARENTING notesfile,
Denise Carr.  If you wish to contact the author by mail, please feel free to
do so.  Her email address is included below.  If you reply here, your message
will be forwarded to her with your name attached unless you request otherwise.

      Carol Stolicny, PARENTING Co-moderator

**************************************************************


From:	US1RMC::"[email protected]" 31-AUG-1995 14:13:08.35


Hello DECies !  I need some input from the parenting community.  My daughter
has just been diagnosed with a condition I've never heard of.  I'm hopeing
some of you may have some experience that would help me.  Heres the scoop.
Katie, who is 11 months old, has been diagnosed with alternating esophoria
by her pedi (yikes !).  What happens is occasionally, when she is looking at
something, only one eye focuses on it, the other eye drifts inward.  The pedi
says this is NOT a lazy eye.  In her case either eye can be the one that
focuses or the one that drifts.  He referred us to an opthamoligist (we are
going next week).  This started rather suddenly 2 weeks ago and is very
noticable.  Before we go to the opthamologist I'm trying to find out as much
as possible.  We've never had any eye problems in my family, so this is all
new to me.  I've looked up esophoria in some medical dictionaries (and the
other terms he gave me, esotropia and strabismus).  There is not much
discussion on what treaments might be (except surgery, yikes again!).

So has any one heard of these conditions ?  My other concern is that we are
going to the regular opthamologist at my HMO (Fallon), not a pediatric
opthamologist.  Supposedly this opthamologist has experience with children.
I'm definitley going to question him on whether he has treated children this
young.  I don't know whether to push my HMO to send us to a pediatric
opthamologist.  I guess that depends on how things go next week.

The good news is is that it doesn't seem to have effected her vision or
depth perception yet.

Well this is getting awfully long so I'll finish up.  If anyone has experiences
to share that might be helpful, please post them or send them to me directly
at [email protected]

Thanks !

    as a 45 year sufferer of just this very problem, I have written to
    Denise directly.
    
    Stuart

    Denise,
    
    My brothers and I have a similar condition, but I only heard the real
    term for it last year at an eye exam. Instead of "alternating"
    esophoria (sp?) , I have "accomodation" esophoria. Maybe this means it
    is always the same eye that wanders (my left eye). At this stage in
    my life, the problem becomes exacerbated by general fatigue, particular
    eye strain, and bright sunlight. I have not needed my glasses since
    I was grammar school. My older brother is a toolmaker, and the
    tremendous strain on his eyes from his work has pretty much made his
    glasses ineffective. He has one eye almost always pegged to his nose.
    This conditions causes more headaches around the eye than it does
    visual problems. It basically looks worse than it feels. 
    
    I realize that your note is a few months old, but I am curious as to
    whether or not you found a good eye doctor for this problem. I have a 
    14 month old who I am waiting to develop this problem. He takes after
    my side of the family almost 100%. So, I'd like to have a name to start
    with if he ends up with the same problem.