My daughter's first-born suffered some sort of 'event' during (breech)
birth and now has Cerebral Palsy.

He is now 18 months old and his development is well behind the norm but
nevertheless progressing slowly. For instance he's not properly crawling
but is getting better, and cannot transition from lying to sitting but may
yet.

Regarding his vision, he easily recognises familiar faces from 10+ feet
away and can see objects he recognises from across the room (the clock on
the wall). He, in fact, finds great interest in small even minute designs
on his drink bottle, for example, or a tiny loose thread on the sofa
stitching, peering closely and pointing at it.

There are many times during the week when he is taken to a specialist of
one type or other, from speech and language to ophthalmology.

Yesterday the 8am appointment at the eye clinic was truncated by the
mother when the eye doctor, having arrived late and having given a 10 min
inspection, asked if she would consent to pupil dilation drops for a
further inspection. She said the poor little fellow had already suffered
too many various inspections and anyway his sight seemed okay. She wanted
to take him home, saying that it's upsetting for him to wait around and
undergo a extra eye exam.

I wondered: was she hasty? Remember that she's the one who knows how much
poking and prodding goes on for a 'special needs' kid, and how he was also
suffering from teething pains and is scratchy and tired. But remember that
she is also wary of large public health institutes and the way they
somehow tend to treat individuals with less than helpful care at the
grass-root level (delays, lateness, etc).

What sort of things could the OD look for and/or discover in a dilated
exam of a wriggling CP infant?

I think that as a CP child he's possibly a high risk of vision problems he
should have regular eye exams myself, but do they actually yield useful
practical information for this young fellow?

Thanks

Brian