seeking best protocol for 7 year old with lazy eye
My seven year old was recently diagnosed with Strabismus and Amblyopia by an optometrist in SF. His recommendation was glasses along with six months of patching the good eye for 30-45 minutes / day while performing a focused task. He will then revisit and see if vision therapy is necessary.
Does this sound like the right treatment? If not, are there more effective therapies out there?
I've read about binocular vision therapy as well as the need for a visit to the pediatric ophthalmologist. I'm curious about experience with Rising Star Optometry and UC Berkeley's binocular vision center.
Thanks in advance!
Aug 5, 2023
Parent Replies
A pediatric ophthalmologist is what you want, if you’re looking for a second opinion. We use Dr Good in SF, but that does sound right. My son had a pediatric cataract at age 1, had surgery, and patched until age 9. (He’s 19 now.) My other son (21 now) had a lazy eye and patched daily for 6 months for a short time while doing focused exercises and also had vision therapy once a week and it cured him. That’s standard treatment. The unaffected eye is dominant, and the brain turns off the lesser eye more and more unless you force the brain to use it and make those neurological connections that take place as we learn to see. Once non invasive therapy is done, they can better tell if further intervention is needed, such as therapy or surgery to release the muscle. Sounds like a conservative and appropriate approach.
Our 4 yo was diagnosed in December with amblyopia as well. We took him to UC Berkeley and they actually have a clinical trial going on for kids to determine the effectiveness of patching & glasses vs glasses alone. We were randomly put into the "both" group (patch 2 hrs/day) and after four months (with some days being harder than others to convince him to patch), his amblyopia is gone. Obviously your results may vary, but we liked being part of the trial, everyone was really nice and my son's glasses were paid for, and we received compensation for the extra checkups (every six weeks). I would highly recommend their services & expertise.