Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Children's health

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Amblyopia - Lazy eye

27 replies

Nellybell · 07/08/2010 18:23

My son (4 in Sept) went to th eoptician today and they think he has this condition, where one eye has not been working. He has to go to hospital to get a proper diagnosis.
Does anyone else have experience of this and advice on what happens next and how far his vision can improve?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Seona1973 · 07/08/2010 20:51

DD has had glasses since she was 18 months. She is long sighted in both eyes and her left eye was lazy (had poorer vision than the right eye). She was prescribed glasses to help with the long sightedness and also had patching treatment to improve the sight in her left eye. (the patch goes on the 'good' eye to force the poorer eye to work better). She had to patch for 2 hours per day to start with which dropped to 1 hour and eventually the sight in both eyes was pretty much equal. She is 6 now and still has her glasses - the patching treatment finished long ago - thank goodness!

Seona1973 · 07/08/2010 20:52

p.s. all dd's early appointments were through the orthoptist at the hospital. She has had a couple of appointments at the opticians but still has hospital check ups too.

imwaiting · 07/08/2010 22:22

Similar here to Seona - caught condition when DS was 3. Again, glasses and patching ( 3hrs every day ) and now eyes are almost equal. He will need glasses forever, but them suit him.
With his glasses on, he can see as well as anyone else.
Re hospital appoitments, he hated the 'stingy' eye drops he had about once a year to dilate the pupil. Other appointments were every 2 months at the most frequent. He had hospital care from age 3 - 7 I think, now he just goes to the optician once a year for usuall check-ups.
I think the first app at hosp may well have the dreaded eye drops. Be prepared with bribery!!!!
With his patch on at first he just sat looking at the tv trying to stimulate the 'bad' eye. He was very good at wearing the patch both out and at home.
Good luck, it'll all be fine.

Original poster

Nellybell · 08/08/2010 13:33

Hi thanks for replies. The optician said he would likely need patching for a couple of hours a day and she said that tv was a good stimulant for the bad eye.
We feel bad that we didn't notice sooner and that he is nearly 4. We're worried it will be too late to catch it and try and improve it. It's silly that we didn't do anything sooner as 4 of his 5 cousins have glasses.

We have a DD too (18 months), should we book her an optician appointment too or do you go to docs first when they're so young?
Thanks for the tip about the stingy eye drops imwaiting :)

OP posts:

chipmonkey · 08/08/2010 14:00

I am an optom and have seen tinier babies than 18 months but check with your optom first to make sure they are happy to do this and be prepared for the possibility that she may have to have a further visit if she doesn't co-operate on the first one!
If your ds has a an amblyopic eye and it runs in the family, I'd say your dd has about a 50:50 chance of inheriting it so do get her checked.
And don't feel bad! I have seen children of 12 and 13 who were never picked up and I have still managed to improve the vision in the lazy eye. And how were you to know? If they eye doesn't obviously turn in or turn out, it's not something you would notice.

imwaiting · 08/08/2010 21:36

Our DD started getting tested at the hospital from age 1 because of her brother. She is fine though and has good vision. The eye hospital arranged it all as a 'sibling test' and no referal was needed for her.
Hope you get on ok.

SonicMiddleAge · 09/08/2010 04:35

Nelly ? hope you don?t mind the shameless hijack here, but I thought that as we?re asking for pretty much the same info thought it made sense to keep it on one thread. Regarding your question, our orthoptist asked us to schedule an appointment with the younger sibling when she got to 18 months, and said he?d also probably want to check again at 2years. DD also not fond of the eye drops ? but they put some anaesthetic in them, and we get her to count to ten by which time it seems to have stopped hurting. He also told me that patching etc is really effective as a treatment until 7 or so, so as long as you catch them in time to allow treatment before that stage a lot can be done.

Anyway, I posted on here a while ago when my two year old had to go to hospital re a squint, and got some really helpful responses. 6 months on she?s wearing her glasses really well, and the squint has straightened out, and it?s all been much easier then I?d dare hope for, however at her last checkup we got told she?d have to wear a patch on the strong eye 3 times a week, for two hours. Anyway, it took us over an hour to coax it onto her, with many tears and upsets (during which it emerged that because we?ve never put band aids on her, and the only time she gets them is for injections, she actually thinks it?s the band aid that hurts ? not very helpful right now!) So, I was hoping people could also share any tips they had re getting patches on (preferably involving less liquorish, ice cream and new jigsaws than Sunday took...) and also on how long one generally has to patch for.

Thanks

Original poster

Nellybell · 09/08/2010 11:45

hello,
Thanks for all the replies again, its really reassuring :)
Its good to hear that eye patching is effective and its not too late for the eye to improve. Just waiting to hear now from hospital with an appointment time.
Sonic, i hope its gets easier to get the eye patch on next time, I'm sure you'll get some good responses on here.

OP posts:

chipmonkey · 09/08/2010 13:52

Sonic, most children do learn to tolerate the patch but there are cloth ones like this available which are non-adhesive. Now, some opthalmologists don't approve of these as they don't totally cover the eye at the sides but IMO they are better than no patching.

imwaiting · 09/08/2010 21:31

We had the fabric ones which went over the glasses. It did tend to slip down at the sides, but a small snip at the sides allowed us to thread it over the arm of the glasses better, and that held it in place nicely.
I think we patched every day for 3 hours for about 6-9 months, then gradually reduced to nothing over the next 3 months. I'm sure it was about a year in all. Then we had a quick bout of 3 months for 2 hrs a day.
By the end of patching, he used to be running around the same as every one else, regardless of the patch. Other kids got used to it as well and never bothered him about it, other than the initial "whats that?"
The chance to watch tv or computer worked well at first for getting him to wear it.

imwaiting · 09/08/2010 21:33

Oh, I also remember us all having to wear a patch around the house at first too, so he didn't feel the odd one out!

Dawnybabe · 09/08/2010 22:00

I would just like to say please do persevere with your dc's patches. I hated mine and tore it off whenever possible. I certainly didn't wear it for anything like the recommended time and now at 34 I can safely say I have been half blind in my left eye all my life and will continue to be. They do work if you give them a chance but I didn't and bloody well should have done. If I could wear them now I would.

I don't mean to scaremonger but tell your kids!

SonicMiddleAge · 10/08/2010 03:10

Thanks guys, will try a bit longer with the adhesive patch (was also told by the opthalmologists that they are better than the cloth one) but may resort to that if we can't get anywhere with the other. DH tried again last night, but she got hysterical and crys whenever we mention it... Also spoke to her daycare today,our inital thought was to do all the patching at home, but sometimes she does stuff better for other people than us, and I wanted to ask them if they could at least discuss it with her and keep hammering home the party line of "patches are good and don't hurt at all". Anyway they said they will have a pirate theme week next week, with lots of pirate stories and dressing up, and and make everyone cardboard patches to try and make it fun, and also maybe do some stuff about "eyes and how they work" so hopefully that helps too...

WelcometotheJungle · 10/08/2010 03:46

Chipmonkey - How would you pick up a lazy eye if it doesn't look lazy. My DS (nearly 4) has an almost imperceptible size diff in his eyes. One very slightly smaller than the other. Only noticeable when newborn and it droops when tired. Should I be chasing a referral to an optometrist?

NickOfTime · 10/08/2010 04:18

dd2 had a very noticeable squint from about 2 months (she's nearly 7yo now) but hers wasn't suitable for patching (alternating converging). she had surgery two weeks ago and it is really odd to see her with straight eyes! she's worn glasses since teeny tiny.

just wanted to say hi, though.

Furball · 10/08/2010 11:03

sonic - this is a mumsnetters blog on how to make your own felt eyepatches - which might be more appealing to your ddd

chipmonkey · 10/08/2010 12:55

Welcometothejungle, I would definitely seek a referral. It may be just an issue with the eyelid rather than the eye but occasionally a drooping lid can be a sign of a lazy eye or an underlying medical condition. Are his pupils the same size?

SonicMiddleAge · 11/08/2010 01:47

Furball - Thanks, will give that a go,

at the moment we are having some sucess with a ?patch poster? where she gets a sticker every time she wears a patch. We spent over a week doing the nice explaining why it was important and mummy and daddy wanted her to wear it, and mummy was wearing a patch, daddy wearing a patch piggy wearing a patch etc, shamelessly offering bribes etc but she was just getting hysterical as soon as we mentioned it, and spending the whole conversations crying. We changed tack last night and this morning, and I held her, and dh put the patch on. It feels all wrong forcing her like that but being pragmatic, she cried and shouted while we were doing it (approx 2 min) but by time she?d been given a biscuit and put her sticker on she was happy again, kept the patch on fine, and was laughing and playing etc so I think I?m going to have to swallow my qualms about forcing it on, and go with 2 mins crying not a couple of hours... Hopefully after a couple more times when she realises it doesn't hurt she'll find putting it on less distressing.

Furball · 11/08/2010 06:37

We were given stickers by the hospital to go on the patch.

Ds never used them though, apart from as stamps for his friends birthday/christmas cards!

Original poster

Nellybell · 11/08/2010 13:24

Hello,
Can i ask how long it took from referral to getting your appointment at hosp. I know it will vary a lot but just wondered what people's experiences were.

Sonic - I'm glad to hear your DD was ok once the patch was on. I hope it gets easier :)

OP posts:

imwaiting · 11/08/2010 13:27

4 weeks for us in oxfordshire.

bigcar · 11/08/2010 14:23

sonic, with a little bit of luck she'll soon realise a big fuss isn't required, just takes a few goes to see it doesn't hurt. You could always search google images for "kids wearing eye patches" and show her how many other kids wear them happily, obviously check yourself first! There's a couple of pictures of my dd3 with her patch on on my profile, she was only a few months old at the time so a big girl like yours should be fine

nelly, it's about 4/5 weeks here to get the appointment through. If they do the eye drops on the first visit it can involve quite a wait for the drops to work, so go prepared just in case.

CalloftheHaunted · 11/08/2010 23:51

DS was diagnosed with this at 4 and was patched for two hours per day initially then dropping down to one. After 2 years his bad eye improved slightly then stabilized, but is still long-sighted in that eye, requiring glasses.

My local hospital provided a range of patches (plain or patternedwith stickers), which he could choose from. We had both and had fun drawing silly-looking cartoon eyes on the plain patches for school! If finances allow, I found it's worth letting them choose their own glasses too so that they're happy to wear them.

One thing you should ask for, which I wasn't aware of at the time, is that if the hospital gives you a prescription for glasses is to ask for two (they don't offer) so you can get a spare pair of backup glasses - it's inevitable that they will get bent/broken over time!

All the best

NickOfTime · 12/08/2010 00:29

or even half an hour after you get home. the puppy ate one of dd2's pairs.

our local optician had a bag of 'dd2 spares' which they used to fish out and try to piece together a serviceable pair whilst the other was being sent off... forunately now she's older it's less frequent.

SonicMiddleAge · 12/08/2010 04:26

Nick - I raise your puppy to a seagull stealing dds glasses from a park bench...

Nelly, we were told about 6 weeks waitlist , but made sure when we booked in the appointment we emphasized that if they had any cancellations etc we would make sure we were available to take her in after two weeks we got a call saying they had a slot come free in two days time, so it's well worth making that point.

bigcar: your daughter looks very cute with her patch!

Flip

1 2