amblyopia patching

[jessielaura]

my 4 year old child was diagnosed with amblyopia a few weeks ago. He has started patching 4 hours a day which is proving very stressful. Has anyone noticed any impact in the behaviour of their child after patching ? He seems very angry and is having trouble sleeping. During patching he is fine as we let hime play games or watch films on the computer> I am also feeling very angry and emotional > would be good to hear about other peoples experiences and get some advice about how to help him understand what is happening and why he is different to to other children.

Ds2 now almost 14 was patched for 18 months at this age. I can't remember any really obvious change in his behaviour. He was a very timid child and also had very bad ezcema but appeared to be ok with it. His bad eye is now almost as good as his good one (which is not perfect) so it is well worth the effort. I don't remember having any strong feelings about it myself. I have a lazy eye which was diagnosed when I was 9 or 10, so too late to do anything and although they tried patches I was non compliant

Ds3 [5] was diagnosed 17 months ago aged 3.8 and was patched until yesterday (4 hours a day). We have to stop patching at the moment and go back in 2 months. He too has had a very good result although will probably always need glasses as does ds2. He has taken it in his stride although was quite frustrated by how little he could see when patched but this improved very quickly. I have found it much harder to come to terms with this time. I was near to tears when he was first diagnosed and have found it much more stressful. I don't relly know why.

Amblyopia is not uncommon. I wonder if the eye clinic couldn't put you in touch with another parent and child in the same position. It may mean you leaving contact details and them asking other parents if they would get in touch with you. We are in the North of Scotland so probably nowhere near you.

It's early days yet. Hopefully as he gets more vision and more used to the patches things will improve.