Question:
My son was diagnosed with cataract in his left eye, a week ago by an
eye specialist. and another pediatric opthomologist confirmed it
yesterday.
i cannot see proof that he is loosing vision on one of his eye. are
there any tests that we can perform on a 16 month old to see if he is
loosing vision on one of his eye.
the doctor has informed that he has to perform another test under
anesthesia in two weeks and then perform a surgery right then if
needed.
my son does not show any symtoms other than occasional cross eyes when
looking at objects. he shoots the basketball extremely well from 1 to
two feet. reads books and identifies objects in the book.
is there any chance i can wait couple of years and monitor him
monthly/weekly, so that we can perform surgery in couple of years when
the kid can communicate.
Answer:
The simplest test you can do would be for you to cover each of his eyes
in turn and watch his reaction. If he protests to you covering his
'good' eye that's a fair indication that the other eye is at least
blurry... but it's not a 100% definitive method.
If two ophthalmologists have said your son has cataract then that's
pretty clear cut. Cataracts aren't difficult for eye doctors to
diagnose. But there's often nothing visible to the casual observer until
the cataract becomes quite mature and dense. The proof that he is losing
vision in one eye is the fact that the cataract is present. The reason
he doesn't show any symptoms is because his other eye is 'covering' for
the cataract eye.
If your son occasionally goes cross eyed then this could be a sign that
his brain is already starting to ignore the eye with the cataract, and
this is a very good reason to have the surgery done. Delaying a few
weeks or even a couple of months mightn't be a big problem, but delaying
a couple of years could potentially be to the detriment of his vision
for his whole life.
