Maysa's Blog

Our journey through plagiocephaly and brachycephaly

Archive for September 27th, 2010

Exotropia, Strabismus, and Plagiocephaly

Posted by mymaysa on September 27, 2010

We often read on plagio boards how plagiocephaly and brachycephaly can affect vision among other things. Has anyone noticed such problems in their child? While Maysa’s eye doctor doesn’t seem too alarmed yet, I can’t help but think that her exotropia might in some way be linked to her plagio/brachy history.

For those of you who don’t know what exotropia is, it is a form of strabismus where one or both eyes tend to look outward away from the nose. Maysa does that on occasion, if she is looking away, day dreaming, or thinking about something. Maysa is not one to look at you in the eye if she is talking to you. She will get your attention and once she has it will start talking to you without looking at you. Often, when she does that, she will show signs of exotropia.

I never gave it too much thought. We all day dream, right? And I often see people with the same look on their face (especially during long meetings or while waiting in a waiting room…). However, her daycare provider brought it up to my attention, so I took her to the eye doctor for a consult.

He was able to see what I see and said that she seems to do it more with her left eye over her right one, but that if prompted to, she could easily refocus on one object. He didn’t see any weak nerve or reduced vision. Heck! She could identify pictures that I couldn’t during the examination. He let us go without any treatment (yet) but wants to see her in another 3 or 4 months.

There seems to be some studies out there that link plagiocephaly to strabismus. Anyone out here with a child who is showing signs of it? One I read says that since by 6 months most of babies vision is developed, skull malformation at that age could be a contributor to strabismus.

There will be a follow-up on this one…

Posted in exotropia, post DOC band, strabismus | Tagged: , , , | 11 Comments »