Lazy eye/patching/surgery?

[cg88]

Has anyone had any experience with their child wearing an eye patch for a lazy eye? DH noticed a turn in dd's eye about 18 months ago, after a visit to the opticians and a referral to the eye clinic at the hospital it turns out she has very very poor sight in one eye and has been wearing a patch and glasses since last September.

While her sight has improved vastly in her poor eye the turn only seems to have gotten worse. When she has her glasses on it's fine but when she takes them off for sports or swimming it is absolutely awful and whilst it doesn't bother her now I am so worried about how this will affect her in the future as she gets older. The kids in her class are as a rule brilliant, she's only ever had 2 comments about her patch that upset her but we talked about it and she got over it pretty quickly.

I know there is a surgery that can be done to try and fix this but I'd be interested to know if anyone has gone down this road and how successful it has been? She has an appointment in 2 weeks with the eye clinic so obviously I will discuss this with them too.

Me and my son, my sister and my cousin have all had this. We all had patching, which helped a little bit and then we all had the surgery around age 4/5. My son is 12 now and has perfectly straight eyes but still needs glasses for his sight.

I have virtually no sight in my bad eye. I had the op to correct the squint at about 3 (40 years ago). You wouldn’t know except for when I’m tired. In my case the patches were a waste of time as the optic nerve hadn’t developed.

My daughter had patches and very poor sight in the eye. The patches have strengthened the eye but not the turn. When she wears glasses her eye is straight. But when she takes them off it turns (the later in the day / the more tired she is, the worse it gets). This won't change. The eye dr talk about surgery but the problem is that her eye will then turn in the opposite direction once she puts glasses on and so actually the turn would be there with the glasses and straight without instead. She wears glasses all day and so this seemed pointless. She has never mentioned it and no child has ever mentioned it to her. She may decide to go down the contact lens route when she is older so that she doesn't have to take them off as much, but that is a choice she can make when she is older.
Sorry to ramble!
I think each child is so different though and so I would write down all the questions you have and then you won't leave the dr's without asking the question .

Dd was patched through nursery and reception which she found incredibly difficult, but did seem to make a difference. She could not tolerate it for long periods and it was a bit of a battle.

Thanks for all the replies, I don't know anyone else who has been through the patching so it's good to have some people to ask.

The patching has definitely helped improve her sight in her poor eye, she's reading 8 lines smaller from 3m which compared to where she started is brilliant. And for now at age 5 she's great at wearing her glasses and patches and the kids at school are very accepting. My worry is when she gets to the later years of primary or high school, kids can be absolutely horrific to those who are different and I hate the thought of her being upset. But that being said I need to speak to the optician to see if this is actually even an option.

Those who have had or have a child who has had the surgery how invasive was it?

If the turn is fine when she’s wearing glasses though, surgical treatment wouldn’t be indicated. Otherwise as cric said the turn could go the other way as she’s still need glasses for that eye to see.
She can just wear contact lenses when she gets older.