My son was diagnosed by a an optometrist

[rightaway]

My son is 11 years old and was diagnosed with a mild case of iritis by an optometrist, I really believed he was just having an allergy of some sort until the day we visited and he became light sensitive. He gave him steroid drops and told us to come back in a week, we did and he said now there was a hazy portion in his eye that was not noticed by him the week prior. He told us to go off of the steroids and come back in a week or two, the inflammation was better.

I decided that it was best to see an opthalmologist that specialized in iritis as it looks to me like this is not a good thing for a kid to have. My son also is IGA deficient, has Leidens Factor V (blood clotting disorder) and Von Willebrands (slight bleeding disorder). He has been tested years ago for rheumatoid arthritis as he continually has severe pains in his knees and now his heels. The ortho's always tell us it is severe growing pains, it has never worsened but keeps him down sometimes. It concerns me that it is a in indication for a bigger problem, he has had so many quirky things throughout his life.

Any help would be appreciated. funny thing was, is that I know what iritis feel like because I had it from an injury and it was a very bad case, almost lost eyesight as I had let it go as there was NO redness at all in my eye ever so it seemed as though there was no real injury.

[Mike Bartolatz]

Welcome to the group!
I strongly urge you to get your son to an ocular immunologist. forms of arthritis are directly linked to uveitis. iritis is also known as anterior uveitis.
Juvenile Ideopathic arthritis is a frequent cause of Uveitis. a corticosteroid sparing approach is needed to keep the disease from causing extensive vision loss and damage to the eyes. getting the underlying cause is needed as it is an autoimmune disease process. although it sounds scary to parents, Disease Modifying anti Rheumatic drugs such as methotrexate are used and are relatively safe. I urge you to join the parent's support group at http://www.uosg.org a part of the online support network of the Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation. I can suggest an ocular immunologist for you but you will most likely have to travel to see one of them the Very best specialist is C Stephen Foster MD founder of the Foundation located in Cambridge MA. USA. he teaches ocular immunology at Harvard Medical School training felloship opthalmolgists in this rare sub specialty of opthalmolgy.
genetics play a role in iritis. did you have 'pink eye' as a child? it might be that you had uveitis and it was misdiagnosed.

please comment in the General discussion or parent's forum as this forum only allows moderators to reply.
click on BOARD index at the top of the page to be redirected to our list of forums. let me know where you live and I'll suggest the closest and BEST specialist nearest to you. Not all opthalmologists have the knowledge to treat kids with this.
Often kids require special accomodation in School. the foundation has booklets available (links available so you can print them out) in the parent's forum at this site.

wishing your son Quiet eyes,
mike Bartolatz