strabismus and autism???
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strabismus and autism???
| Thu, 12-15-2005 - 8:16am |
Hi everyone. My son was recently diagnosed with autism. I just took him to see an opthamologist because we noticed a weird change the color in one of his eyes...that turned out to be nothing (so we were told anyway) but the doctor did detect mild strabismus extropia. Anybody here know anything about this and how it may relate to autism? Perhaps I'm grasping at straws here, but I am wondering if this might explain some of his "autsim" symptoms (mostly the eye contact issue)
Thanks!
Robin
Thanks!
Robin

I can tell you about my experiece with strabismus and eye issues.
My very lay understanding of strabismus is that it is a problem with the muscles of the eye, usually lone tone.
Of course it is very common for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders to have low tone in any and all parts of the body. The eyes are not excluded.
I doubt the eye contact issues are wholly due to strabismus, however. Many ASD kids have eye contact problems which are related to the social, not the physical aspects of the disorder. Helping strabismus will definitely help visual processing, reading and learning. It may help eye-contact some, but I wouldn't pin all my hopes on it.
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Thanks Dee - the doctor thinks the eye color thing is nothing more than a change in pigmentation - though he admitted that it is strange to see a change in eye color at age 2. It's just one section of his iris that has become a brown color (he has blue eyes). We'll keep a watch on it for any changes.
I know he has autism...but I do wonder about his physical symptoms and how they might relate to what is happening to him. The eye issues, gastrointestinal issues, ear infections, etc... I find it frustrating that the doctors don't seem to look at him as a "whole child" - the eye doctor just looks at the eyes, ENT at the ears, psychologist dismisses the physical symptoms on focuses on behavior, etc... The eye doctor told me that the brain knows to ignore the eye that is turning out, so it should not effect his vision. Well, my son's brain is apparently different from most, so how do we really know?? I have felt that over the past several months he has had trouble focusing on things, yet they say his vision is fine. Sometimes I just feel like we are feeling around in the dark.
Thanks for your reply,
Robin
Big Hugs! It's all very confusing, isn't it?
My experience is that the eye contact and strabismus aren't related. My son has Aspergers and perfect eyesight. He does have issues with not making eye contact. His older sister (NT) has strabismus and amblyopia. Her original corrected vision in her bad eye was 20/1000, yet her eye contact (with her good eye) has always been very good. So, YMMV.
I've found a lot more anecdotal evidence that gastro issues are related to autism, although my DS doesn't seem to have any. His sisters, however, tend to act autistic when the have anything with food dyes. Nasty stuff.
Good luck,
Julie
Hi,
I'm new here and I just wanted to tell you that my AS son has a stabismus also - we took him to an eye doctor who claimed that one eye shuts off and the other takes over and works for both - we panicked took him off to an Opthamologist who said it was just a muscle problem with nothing to worry about - my son has 20/20 vision - somedays we really notice the strabismus other days it's really mild.
Best,
Paula