What is "Lazy" Eye - Strabismus

Male1: A very common condition in young mother is they see a baby and they think one eye is not focusing with the other eye. It is a little bit off to the side. What is that thing called lazy eye or something like that?
Male2: Well actually, most people call it a lazy eye, but that is not actually the correct term. It would be a crossing eye or wandering eye. Lazy eye actually refers to when one eye does not see as well as the other and that can be caused by the eye wandering, but it can also be caused by a lot of other things. But when we have the eye wandering out or turning in, the medical term is strabismus for that, but when the eye is crossing and are wandering out that should be evaluated by a pediatric ophthalmologist in order to make sure that there is not any condition that either needs to be treated with glasses, with surgery or if there is a lazy eye, it might mean that one eye does not see as well, you also may need to be treated with patches and with patching the better seeing eye to force the child to use the worse seeing eye in order to straighten the vision in that eye.
Male1: If surgery has to be done, when is it usually considered.
Male2: Surgery needs to be considered any time after six months of age if it is needed. Probably it should be done within the first year when the eyes are crossing or wandering out and probably the sooner the better.
Male1: What is this term, amblyopia?what does that mean?
Male2: Well, amblyopia is referred to as lazy eye. That is when one eye becomes lazy because the brain has decided to focus on one eye instead of the other eye. It could also be caused when both eyes do not have good vision such as that somebody was forming cataracts or somebody who had to need glasses and never got the glasses that they needed. They could cause both eyes to be lazy and the treatments have to be?each of them had to do with first, if there is something blocking the vision to clear it out of the way. If they need glasses to get the child in glasses and if there is a balance between the two eyes and sometimes the patches needed to patch the better seeing eye in order to make the worse seeing eyes see better.
Male1: There is a thing called pseudo strabismus, what does that suppose to mean?
Male2: Pseudo strabismus is very common. Strabismus?most babies much have flatter nasal bridge compared to mine or a wider nasal bridge and sometimes a prominent epicanthal folds which is an extra piece of skin closer to the nose between the eye and the nose and when the child looks to the side, you see less white in one eye than the other eye. To an untrained eye, this looks like that the eyes are crossing in. However, if you look at the pupils of the eyes and see where they are focusing on and test them and functionally to see what their focusing on, both eyes are actually truly straight, so it is really an optical illusion that is making the eyes look like they are crossing in and especially, it is more prominent in the pictures where you do not have the three dimensional cues that we have when we are in person, so a lot of times, you see it worsen in pictures and if you do not notice it in real life, you can only see it in pictures, it is a chance that it is strabismus, however, anything that you think is crossing in probably should be evaluated by a pediatric ophthalmologist or a specialist to make sure that there is not any true crossing of the eyes or true turning out of the eyes because sometimes it is harder to discern what is true and what is not true.