Vision - Cerebral Palsy Infant

Author

Cerebral Palsy Infant

quattrocchi

2005-01-19, 2:11 am

My daughter's first-born suffered some sort of 'event' during (breech)
birth and now has Cerebral Palsy.

He is now 18 months old and his development is well behind the norm but
nevertheless progressing slowly. For instance he's not properly crawling
but is getting better, and cannot transition from lying to sitting but may
yet.

Regarding his vision, he easily recognises familiar faces from 10+ feet
away and can see objects he recognises from across the room (the clock on
the wall). He, in fact, finds great interest in small even minute designs
on his drink bottle, for example, or a tiny loose thread on the sofa
stitching, peering closely and pointing at it.

There are many times during the week when he is taken to a specialist of
one type or other, from speech and language to ophthalmology.

Yesterday the 8am appointment at the eye clinic was truncated by the
mother when the eye doctor, having arrived late and having given a 10 min
inspection, asked if she would consent to pupil dilation drops for a
further inspection. She said the poor little fellow had already suffered
too many various inspections and anyway his sight seemed okay. She wanted
to take him home, saying that it's upsetting for him to wait around and
undergo a extra eye exam.

I wondered: was she hasty? Remember that she's the one who knows how much
poking and prodding goes on for a 'special needs' kid, and how he was also
suffering from teething pains and is scratchy and tired. But remember that
she is also wary of large public health institutes and the way they
somehow tend to treat individuals with less than helpful care at the
grass-root level (delays, lateness, etc).

What sort of things could the OD look for and/or discover in a dilated
exam of a wriggling CP infant?

I think that as a CP child he's possibly a high risk of vision problems he
should have regular eye exams myself, but do they actually yield useful
practical information for this young fellow?

Thanks

Brian

--
Auckland NEW ZEALAND

g.gatti@agora.it

2005-01-27, 8:43 am

if the "fixing" is a pair of glasses, please do not let these butchers
visit your child.

Dr Judy

2005-01-27, 8:43 am

"quattrocchi" <quattrocchi@ww.co.nz> wrote in message
news:4d2df9df7fquattrocchi@ww.co.nz...
> Thanks for the helpful replies.
>
> Dr Judy <mpace99nospam@rogers.com> wrote:
>
> It was an eye clinic section of the main public hospital. He was the
> doctor who performs squint correction (strabismus?) which he has to a some
> degree. The reason he was sent to the exam was a consultant had
> recommended it.
>
>
>
>
> Thanks. I'll certainly pass this info on...Now that I'vge looked up the
> long words,. Are these definitions close?
>
> amblyopia = lazy eye, diminished vision in one or both eyes, usually
> without any obvious defect
>
> cycloplegic = lazy eye, vision in the non-dominant eye is poor as a result
> of a visual abnormality

This definition is another for amblyopia. Cycloplegic means a check for
glasses done while the focusing muscles of the eye are paralysed by
cycloplegic eye drops. If your grand child has a small strabismus (squint)
then a cycloplegic refraction is very much needed. This is because some
types of strabismus are caused by hyperopia (farsightedness) and therefore
must be corrected by glasses not by surgery. Failure to correct strabismus
may result in amblyopia.

Dr Judy

>
> strabismus = eyes are misaligned and point in different directions
>
> large phoria = the eye muscles that move each eyeball are not perfectly
> aligned, at all times
>
> stereopsis = natural recognition of distance and objects in space
>
>
> Brian
>
> --
> Brian Adam
> Auckland NEW ZEALAND
>