He has Duane Syndrome in his left eye. Some of the muscles that are used to help the eye turn outward are missing so he lacks the ability to turn his left eye outward. When he tries to look to the left with turning his eyes alone, his left eye stays midline and looks forward while his right eye turns inward, looking his right eye is crossed. When he does get his eyes in a situation like this he has double vision.
Its a genetic defect and there is no cure for it. Not even surgery can fix it. However, the good news is that it doesnt always affect the vision of the person (other than the double vision). In order to correct the double vision he just needs to turn his head more to the left that you or I would.
So he asked me why kids would laugh at him because he has a wonky eye.
We talked about how those kids dont know why his eye does that and they probably thought he was doing it on purpose to make them laugh.
My heart truly broke, though, when he said that it isnt funny and it makes him feel bad because he cant help it. He then asked if we can have the doctor give him medicine to fix it.
Now, I fully recognize that as far birth defects go we got off light on this one. There are far worse defects to have. For that I will be eternally grateful.
However, this is the first time in 12yrs of parenting that one of my kids has faced something like this and it just absolutely broke my heart in pieces.
Heres a picture of his eyes when he tries to look outward. As you can see, its definately noticeable!
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