Lazy Eye - Antelope,CA

T.,
I wore a patch for 6 months when I was 5. My mother had a pirate theme with rewards at the end of each week. We ended the 6 months with a family trip to the Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland. The whole family was involved and rewarded. As stated earlier please bring her to a pediatric ophthalmologist. Because my problem is most common in children I still see a pediatric ophthalmologist, Dr. Otis Paul. He has an office in Oakland and Walnut Creek. He is a fabulous doctor and worth the drive.
Unless I am very tired most people do not notice my eye problem.

You need a pediatric ophthalmologist ASAP...my 2 year old daughter's eye started turning out. She ended up being a candidate for surgery as her vision had not yet been damaged by the non aligned eyes. (Eventually the brain stops receiving signals from the "wandering" eye). They then lose vision in that eye and depth perception.

They only patch eyes when there has been a vision loss...not to realign the eyes but to force that eye to work harder sending signals to the brain.

Anyways...you need a professional to get this corrected...not just for cosmetic reasons but to preserve her vision. NOT just any ophthalmologist...but a pediatric ophthalmologist (they are trained to handle this much much better).

HI Traci,

Get a referral to a pediatric opthamologist right away. We didn't find out that our daughter had a lazy eye until she was 4, and then it was because she couldn't see out of her left eye for an eye exam. Lazy eye is a neurological condition (where the brain does not recognize images from the weak eye) as well as a vision problem (because the strong eye compensates for the weak eye) and you have only until about age 8 to correct it or your daughter could lose vision in that eye. Depending on the type (I think) there is a surgical option, but not always.

We started out with her wearing glasses where the strong eye was blurred by the lens to make the weak eye work. When the Dr. didn't see the results he wanted they recommended a patch and then later an ointment in lieu of the patch because the patch was really difficult for our daughter to wear. If you do end up with a patch recommendation feel free to e-mail me and I will share our experience.

Don't wait on this. The best results to correct this is when it can be caught early.

Best of luck!

It sounds like her body needs energy and her eye is being effected from not having enough of it. I would suggest a special sleep system it will help balance her energy and I would add good nutrition also. When you balance the body many challenges change. If you would like more info let me know.

Have a great weekend.

N. Marie

I think instead of a patch now, they will give your daughter glasses with the lens over her "good" eye being blurred. My daughter has a slight astigmatism and her ophthalmologist told me that is how they do it now, rather than an actual patch. I would take her to a specialist to be sure of the treatment though, and make sure they're doing everything possible to correct the problem.

I grew up with this condition and majored in neuropsychology, and cannot emphasize enough that for your daughter's sake you *must* consult a pediatric ophthalmologist ASAP so as to definitively ascertain the underlying cause of your daughter's amblyopia.

In my case, the cause was a congenital cataract, and thus was uncorrectable within the critical period window (~6 years) using the medical procedures of the day (the early 70s) without what my parents considered unacceptable restrictions on my activity. Today, surgically removing a congenital cataract is an outpatient procedure.

There are other possible causes of amblyopia ranging from neurological to muscular, and almost all of them are entirely correctable if identified at an early-enough age. Some are even correctable without surgery. For example, Botox was originally invented precisely to non-surgically correct some types of amblyopia; its repurposing as a general cosmetic came much later.

In my case, even though the problem wasn't correctable the doctor prescribed an eye patch so that the lazy eye could develop as much vision as physically possible, and he asked my mom to have me wear it for a certain number of hours a day (I believe 2, but can't say for sure).

My mom reports that she did her best to turn it into a game, but that wearing the patch would change me from an energetic, irrepressible 4-year-old into a despondent, pouty child, and it nearly broke her heart to have to do it.

Most importantly, she had to constantly interact with me the whole time the patch was on to ensure I wore it for the prescribed daily period. One trick she discovered was to spend some of the time "watching TV" with me (though not much because I was allowed very little TV time as a child). Of course I couldn't really see what was happening on the tube, but apparently I thought the random flashing blobs of color were cool, and so she would have me make up stories about what I thought I was seeing.

Flashing forward, even though the underlying problem couldn't be fixed, in the long run it was worthwhile to patch the eye because not all vision is lost even with something as severe as a cataract. Instead, in my particular case the peripheral vision in the eye was strengthened to the extent that today it can nearly-normally detect motion as well as detecting larger objects based upon color and (longer) edge cues.

Furthermore - for the many years before I got the eye Botoxed last year to appear normal to casual inspection - I had a 175-degree field-of-view (most people have around 150-degrees), with my brain stitching the signal from my left eye together with the peripheral vision from my right eye to create a seemingly continuous peripheral visual field to my left. This gave me a "special skill" while driving: I never had to look over my left shoulder to change lanes to the left because slightly angling my head to the left would reveal any cars in the lane next to me.

Point being: even in the worst case scenario where the problem can't be fixed, the brain will adapt to create the best outcome *if* the eyepatch is worn faithfully as a child.

Additionally, Botox can usually sufficiently-fix the cosmetics of a wandering eye in an adult, though I definitely would *not* recommend using it purely for *cosmetic* purposes on a child. Rather, IMO (which you're welcome to disagree with of course) Botox should only be used on a child if the expected outcome is that its use will result in normal binocular vision development.

Finally, current science is in the process of discovering that the end of the critical period for developing normal binocular vision may not mean that an adult's amblyopia can't be fixed. There was a good article in Scientific American about 6 months ago describing video training software that is being developed for the purpose, and that has met with unexpected success for some types of amblyopia. All of which is to say that if the problem can't be fixed within the critical period, there's still hope that in a few years the science will be at the point that the end of the critical period will not matter for much.

My son has a lazy eye and I agree with everyone else that you need to get your daughter to a pediatric opthamoligist. The eye doctor expalined to us that some lazy eye's need surgery, some need patching, some need glasses and some need exersize games but all need soemthing to correct it while the brain is still young and maleable. Also many kids who need patching only need it for and hour or two per day. My son needed patching and later games to help move both eyes and reading glasses as he was seeing double when trying to read. Even though he had the lazy eye diagnosed and treated as a baby we did not realize it was still affecting him until he was still unable to read at 7. Within weeks of getting his reading glasses he was reading at a 2nd grade level. He could read he just couldn't see properly.

Good job in noticing the eye turn on your part. Seeking treatment with a Pediatric Optometrist or Ophthalmologist is now the next step. There should be plenty of specialists in your area and your own Pediatrcian should be able to point you in the proper direction. If you live near Berkeley, there is a great Pediatric Optometry Clinic at the school there that even has a whole department specialized for this very thing! Best of luck in helping to resolve your daughter's eye turn.

Praise and reward for doing it?

Tracey, since you are talking about a proble that left unchecked can be serious then you force the issue. You can decorate it, and have several , use a pirate theme and watc some great childrens pirate movies.
We have two 3 year olds as Grandchildren and I really understand how hard this might be. But if yo make it fun she will be fine. It's a lot better than if her eye gets worse.

If you havent gone to the specialist, I urge you to. My husband has amblyopia (lazy eye) his case could have been corrected through surgery, only he wasn't diagnosed on time, so now he has to wear glasses and might lose his eyesight at some point (way into the future, dont panic)
Make sure she gets diagnosed correctly by a specialist, it is never to soon, I took my child the moment he turned three as I was told this was a hereditary condition, fortunately my son is ok.

Hope you find this helpful and go to a specialist soon. Best of Luck.

I agree with everyone who has said to get to a pediatric opthamologist. There are several things that can cause this and waiting may cause you to miss the window to fix it. You cannot correct this yourself.
Good luck and God bless.
Victoria

Updated

I agree with everyone who has said to get to a pediatric opthamologist. There are several things that can cause this and waiting may cause you to miss the window to fix it. You cannot correct this yourself.
Good luck and God bless.
Victoria