Amblyopia, Squint, Lazy eye- Anyone with any experience please come and share......

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My friend's baby (8 months) is in the early stages of being diagnosed with some form of amblyopia.

I wanted to ask if anyone here has any experience or advice they could give her?

TIA.

Hi, my son was diagnosed with strabismus (not the same but related to amblyopia), when he was 6 months old, as one eye kept turning in. I think with strabismus the eye can see but the other eye is stronger and so it kind of overrides it, so he wears eye patches to try to strengthen the weak eye. It turned out he was also long sighted so they prescribed him glasses which really helped, although it was a big shock at first and I still get upset when people make weird/nasty remarks about his glasses...At one point they thought he had amblyopia too and we had to have an ERG scan. I'd be happy to offer advice if your friend wants to know anything specific.

Thanks JoMaman. I'm not entirely sure what he has been diagnosed with yet. He's seen the Gp who has referred him to the paediatric ophthalmologist for further tests.

I think he may have strabismus too. Is strabismus an umbrella term for a few conditions? My friend mentioned another one which I can't remember now.

The Gp talked about eye drops and a possible operation. Were these options discussed with you?

My DS has Amblyopia - diagnosed earlier this year at age 7. Unfortunately once they get to 8 it is hard to treat. So, your friend's baby is fortunate to receive early diagnosis.

With DS, there are no obvious clues that he has it - it is the brain not the muscle that is causing one eye to read images more strongly so there is no misalignment of his pupils as you might imagine there would be when you hear about it.

He has to wear patches on the good eye and has prescription lenses too.

I had a lazy eye/squint/amblyopia, which was operated on when I was four.

You would now never know it ever wasn't straight to look at me, but the eye is still lazy, so consequently the good eye is getting progressively weaker.

I only have vague info from my mum, whose story has changed over the years.

Apart from the fact that I suspect she didn't have it investigated early enough (in spite of my auntie insisting I had a squint from early toddlerhood), she always said I stopped wearing the eye patch when I started school (me being five and all, she obviously left the decision to me!), which left the neural pathways undeveloped.

Then recently, when I was looking into whether I could 're-train' the eye, she insisted that I wore the patch for as long as the doctors specified, so I was just unlucky.

I'm afraid I can't say what normally happens nowadays - but I think it's positive for your friend that it's been picked up so early. There's no reason her DS shouldn't end up with a straight eye, and hopefully, if she can keep up the patching, good vision as well.

I'm Agra

Hi Amblyopia can be the result of several different eye problems. It is caused when the brain ignores one eye in favour of the other. it only occurs in early childhood up until about the age of 8 but also needs to be corrected before this age.

The most common reasons for amblyopia are 1 squint- when the brain ignores one eye to avoid double vision 2 having one eye with much more longsight shortsight or astigmatism than the other, in this case the brain ignores the more out of focus eye.

Surgery does not fix amblyopia though it may staighten a squinting eye. unfotunately the only treatment is to ensure the 2 eyes are in focus with the right glasses and to patch the good eye if necessary

in the uk an ORTHOPTIST is the specialist who will deal with all these problems