What is Amblyopia?

•Lazy eye or amblyopia is an eye issue that is diagnosed in children and adults each year.   This problem causes the brain to decrease its use of the affected eye over the other,   This will cause vision in one eye to be significantly greater than the vision available in the other eye.   The muscles in the affected eye will be less strong because of it is used less.

Treatment for Amblyopia

•One of the treatment methods for lazy eye is through using eye patches to help to strengthen the muscles in the amblyopic eye.   Some vision can be restored through the use of eye patching as eye muscles are strengthened and the brain begins to use both eyes together again.   There is no clear answer what causes lazy eye.   However, eye patching has been used for decades to help correct the vision loss.

Eye Patching

•Eye patches are worn on the affected eye for certain length of time each day depending on the recommendation by your physician.   Given your eye condition, it could be from 2 to 3 hours a day or much longer.

Nearsighted Activities

•While patching, many optometrists recommend performing nearsighted activities.   Near sighted activities are simple exercises that you can perform at close distance to your eye to help work the affected eye.

Challenges

•Getting a toddler or a young child to wear an eye patch can be very challenging because wearing a patch feels very unnatural and causes them to use the eye where vision is not clear.   One thing that you can do to help a child begin to enjoy wearing their patch is by introducing them to activities that are enjoyable and fun.