Baby with limited vision in one eye

My friend is totally blind in one eye. I've known her for over thirty years and I only found out about a year ago when she mentioned it in passing. She lives a totally normal, active life.

Sorry you've had to deal with this shock - it must be very hard.

That's exactly what DH has - who knew it was possible to have two lazy eyes?!

I have a friend in her 70s lost use of an eye following a stroke. That caused her to lose confidence in going anywhere, which she worked on, and after a year she simply doesn't let it stop her doing anything she did before. Other than be careful with wearing sunglasses / hat in strong light, getting eyes checked at opticians regularly etc.
So I would say it doesn't have to restrict you at all. Your son has the advantage he won't know anything different so will not have the lack of confidence in going places.

He can't register as partially sighted because he has one good eye. But he's classed as visually impaired in the sense that his visual impairment can't be corrected by glasses.

When this happens from birth or in utero, the remaining functioning eye compensates for the one with limited vision. This also happens if both eyes have limited function. It's not so much to do with the physical parts of your eye, but how the brain processes visual information. Your own field of vision is not actually what your eyes are picking up – it's your brain filling a lot of blank space. If you could see what your eyes were actually seeing, it would be black stripes alternating with strips of visual information.

My sister was born with very limited functioning parts of both her eyes and particularly in one. She leads 100% a normal life. She is also now an optician.

There are certainly things that are more difficult, I’m a good driver, but have always hated parking between cars in a car park - I always feel my weak eye struggles to gauge the gap. It’s not impossible, but I always park in the quiet end to make my life easier.

On the other hand, my depth perception is very good (though I was very slow to get the hang of catching a ball, and can no more play tennis than fly) and I can tell instantly whether an item is central (like a mirror on a wall) or off level.

Honestly, I’m sure he’ll find his way and work with what he’s got. Plus he’ll have you in his corner, never underestimate the power of that.

Also I have never worn sports goggles to play netball/basketball.

My husband has very poor vision in one eye but can see totally normally - drives plays sports etc. It’s from an injury that happened as a child so his other eye and brain have adapted to totally compensate for the damage and it’s only if he shuts his good eye he can tell. Your child will have even better compensation with it being from birth.

I have very limited vision in one eye. Like @Blasting my vision is completely dominated by my good eye, my brain only uses my bad eye if my good eye is covered. My life is almost completely normal and I am able to drive. However I can not play small ball sports like tennis and I have been scared of stairs with gaps in them since I was a small child (as a child I thought I would fall through the gaps due to depth perception). My eyes track together so no one can tell.

i surprising number of people have poor vision in one eye and they do really well visually.

He will have less good depth perception and he’ll not be able to be an HGV driver or a policeman or a pilot for example. But yes, he’ll learn to drive and lead a completely normal life.

He does need to be slightly careful with the other eye though.

@maudelovesharold unfortunately it’s a feral developmental condition which causes the eye part of the neural tube to not close properly (which is what creates the gap). You’d need to replace the eyeball and possibly the optic tract too, in order to solve the issue.

My dad only had vision in one eye, it never stopped him in life. He flew in Lancaster planes in the second world war as a navigator and later trained as an architect. He drove, ran marathons and enjoyed hill walking. Having vision only in one eye never seemed to be a hindrance at all.

My DH had such bad eyesight as a kid that they patched his bad eye, so he has very very limited vision in it. His brain essentially just uses his good eye.

Zero impact on his quality of life. Drives etc. Not an issue at all.

I'm sure your son will be absolutely fine.

My DM is blind in one eye from birth. You would never know.

She was rubbish at sports but TBH she was never interested so it wasn't a hardship to her.

The only time anyone notices is when she sees a new doctor and they get fascinated.

My eye veers off to the side so it does look a bit different but most people don't realise that I'm blind in it until i tell them and they still forget and don't realise i don't always see them if they approach in that side.

Sorry to hear this.
My uncle when very young, think teen, was involved in a motor accident and he lost all vision in one eye. It is worse in way, as he hadn´t grown up with this I think, and had to adapt. He is a lawyer and was a judo champion. It didn´t affect him in the sense that he didn´t achieve his potential. We all would forget he didn´t have vision in one eye, because said eye look totally normal.