DOES YOUR PREEMIE HAVE A LAZY EYE???

Liz - posted on 07/01/2010

hi, My b/g twins were born six weeks early. My daughter weighed three pounds twelve ounces at birth, and my son weighed four pounds ten ounces at birth. My son's eyes are fine, but my daughter had eye problems.

They thought she might outgrow it when she was six months old, but 10 months rolled around and she still had it so we went to a pediatric optometrist only to find it wasn't lazy eye, it was strabismus, and she is also very far sighted.

They just turned two June 8th, and so she's been wearing glasses since she was 10 months old. If it was just one eye, they would have done a patch, but since it's both eyes they used the glasses. Thankfully they're working and she hasn't needed to resort to the surgery yet.

Leila - posted on 04/29/2010

Hi Nicole, my son Zak was born 5 weeks early weighing 5 lbs 3, and he has a lazy eye, we have to see the orphapedist every 4 months to make sure it's not getting worse, they were talking about surgery if it happens more than 75 % of the time but touch wood its not at that point

Brittany - posted on 04/12/2010

My son was a 24 weeker and both his eyes are doing that. The doctors aren't to worried about it but only because he is still in the nicu and they are dealing with other problems first but they did say it could get better without treatment and that it is very common.

Kylie - posted on 03/23/2010

Hi Nicole, yes it is quite common with the preemie bubs. My son is a 23 wk 4 day surviving triplet and he too has a lazy eye. What happens with most preemies is that when born prematurely and need to be put on oxygen for a period of time this can cause eye problems if they receive too much, it also depends on whether they have any form of laser eye surgery whilst in hospital due to their eyes not being fully developed. Some times they cover the good eye to make them use the weaker eye and strengthen the muscle or in my son's case they can go in and do surgery on the muscles that actually control the eyes. I hope this answers some of your questions. Kylie

Mary - posted on 03/02/2010

Hi Nicole, my daughter was born 2 months early and weighed 3lbs. but didn't have to much problems to gain through. I also had noticed that at about 6 months her left eye was kind of turned in but not I big noticeable turn in. I had talked to the dr about it and he said that the more she looks around at things, it will eventually get on track. I finally went to the eye dr. and he wasn't real concerned about it and had also said that it's not bad and the more she uses her eyes to look around it would help correct it. I guess they knew what they were talking about because she never needed help or glasses and it had worked itself to normal postion.