Anyone patching for amblyopia? | Imamother

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Forum -> Children's Health

Anyone patching for amblyopia?

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amother

Tue, Nov 17 2009, 9:41 pm

Wondering if anyone out there is also going through eye-patching a child to treat lazy eye and how is it going?

ROCHELLE

Tue, Nov 17 2009, 11:28 pm

im going through eye-patching a child to treat strabismus, I think its the same family as amblyopia. After patching for 1 year it got much better so dr said to stop patching. After 4 months of not patching it became a little worse so I started patching again. Im going back to the dr next month to see whats happening. I hope she wont have to end up having surgery.

mandksima

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 12:58 am

ROCHELLE wrote:

im going through eye-patching a child to treat strabismus, I think its the same family as amblyopia. After patching for 1 year it got much better so dr said to stop patching. After 4 months of not patching it became a little worse so I started patching again. Im going back to the dr next month to see whats happening. I hope she wont have to end up having surgery.

I patched both of my twins when they were young (started around 1 1/2 - 4 or so) and my dd had better results because her eyes weren't as bad. The patches strengthened her muscles so that she was a candidate for surgery. I wanted her to have it as she looks normal now, B"H. My son, however, has terrible vision in one eye and no matter how we tried patching, drops or whatever, he couldn't see well enough to thrive with the terrible vision in his really bad eye and we had to stop. His eye is still very weak and noticeably crossed in. He wasn't even a candidate for surgery years ago because the surgery won't take if the muscle isn't strong enough. I hope that he will be a candidate at some point as kids sometimes ask what's wrong with his eyes and he feels funny about it. It won't help his vision though.

If you're patching to avoid surgery, good luck and I hope it works. It probably depends how bad it is to begin with. There are cute patches you can order with designs on them (and also furry glasses patches if your child wears glasses) but they still attract tons of negative attention from others and there's nothing you can do about it but be strong. If your child protests, bribe him with anything you can so he keeps it on. It really does help if done correctly, I'm just not sure if it will hold like surgery can. That was a really hard time I had with the patching but not the worst I've been through. Keep strong and hatzlacha!

the world's best mom

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 7:34 am

ds is sixteen months and wouldn't keep a patch on. We tried drops, which didn't help, so his sugery is planned for next week, BE"H.

ROCHELLE

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 9:52 am

thank you so much mandksima. I did go to more than 1 doctor and 2 of them said to do surgery right away so it doesnt get worse, her eyes dont look so bad now. The third doctor im dealing with now says that her eyes are not that bad to perform surgery before trying anything else.The reason why im trying to avoid surgery is bec dh had the same problem and grew out of it. She is bh not giving me any problems wearing the patch. May I ask you with which doctor you did surgery?

ROCHELLE

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 9:53 am

the world's best mom wrote:

ds is sixteen months and wouldn't keep a patch on. We tried drops, which didn't help, so his sugery is planned for next week, BE"H.

May I ask with which doctor you are doing surgery?
Thanks

chocolate moose

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 9:54 am

My daugher wore a patch for a lazy eye from age 2 until about age 7. It was really hard - but now, age 20, she doesn't even need glasses !!

We used Dr Ben David in Boro Park.

greenfire

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 9:58 am

as a girl who should have worn a patch ... I regret tremendously the lack of eye strain and inability to focus that I could have gained ... hindsight is 20/20 or at least would have surely been better to wear that patch ... 8)

the world's best mom

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 10:53 am

ROCHELLE wrote:

the world's best mom wrote:

ds is sixteen months and wouldn't keep a patch on. We tried drops, which didn't help, so his sugery is planned for next week, BE"H.

May I ask with which doctor you are doing surgery?
Thanks

Dr. Campolaterro, in Manhattan. He's supposed to be excellent, but each appointment takes hours and I wonder if he's rushing to operate too soon, Oh well, it's a little late to get a second opinion the week before the surgery.

mandksima

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 11:38 am

ROCHELLE wrote:

thank you so much mandksima. I did go to more than 1 doctor and 2 of them said to do surgery right away so it doesnt get worse, her eyes dont look so bad now. The third doctor im dealing with now says that her eyes are not that bad to perform surgery before trying anything else.The reason why im trying to avoid surgery is bec dh had the same problem and grew out of it. She is bh not giving me any problems wearing the patch. May I ask you with which doctor you did surgery?

I used Dr. Mori Mayumi in NJ. We did the surgery at Hackensack hospital.

STovah

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 11:59 am

I had the strabismus surgery done when I was 8 - Dr. Raab in Mt. Sinai was my dr. - at that time, he was supposed to be the top doc for that.

amother

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 12:29 pm

Usually with Amblyopia there is no option to do surgery. It is NOT a muscle problem. Rather, it is just that the brain stops using the amblyopic eye to see. So when we patch his good eye, he is FORCING his brain to use that eye. Baruch Hashem, my 5 year old has gone from being halfway legally blind in one eye to almost 20/30 vision. Also, supposedly this is something that can only be treated when child is young and still developing his eyesight until about age 10.
He really is a champ with patching. Originally he needed to patch 6 hours which was hard, but now he only needs to do 2 hours.
The difference is that when he was younger he wasn't conscious about the patch and would go outside to play. Now, he refuses to even open the door when someone knocks lest someone see him like this.
I used Dr. Muchnick in Manhattan.

ROCHELLE

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 12:30 pm

STovah wrote:

I had the strabismus surgery done when I was 8 - Dr. Raab in Mt. Sinai was my dr. - at that time, he was supposed to be the top doc for that.

since my daughter was diagnosed with strabismus, you're the first person I hear who had surgery for strabismus. Did u have surgery in both eyes or just one?

chocolate moose

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 1:40 pm

I've know ppl who did the surgery. It can reverse itself, too. But that's a muscle problem, not a brain problem.

STovah

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 2:02 pm

ROCHELLE wrote:

since my daughter was diagnosed with strabismus, you're the first person I hear who had surgery for strabismus. Did u have surgery in both eyes or just one?

They operated on both eyes - I think my right eye was the lazy one, but they operated on both to better coordinate the muscles.

realeez

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 2:34 pm

We recently graduated patching with my 6-year-old son. In March, he will be reassessed if he needs to restart or not. In the beginning it wasn't too bad - he needed a couple of hours after school but towards summer it was much harder since it was extra hot for him. We really liked the Ortopads brand.

ROCHELLE

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 5:15 pm

realeez wrote:

We recently graduated patching with my 6-year-old son. In March, he will be reassessed if he needs to restart or not. In the beginning it wasn't too bad - he needed a couple of hours after school but towards summer it was much harder since it was extra hot for him. We really liked the Ortopads brand

what was the reason for the patching, if I may ask?

realeez

Wed, Nov 18 2009, 5:22 pm

A lazy eye but B"H the vision in both eyes has become pretty much the same since patching. He also has a bit of cross eye and has been wearing glasses since age 2 for this.

amother

Thu, Nov 26 2009, 8:43 pm

amother how you detect amblyopia? we are suspecting our daughter has this

the world's best mom

Thu, Nov 26 2009, 8:54 pm

Ds had his surgery on Tuesday. Now his eyes are all awollen and bloody.
We knew he had a lazy eye because his left eye kept going out instead of moving together with his right.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if being a righty or lefty affects which eye is stronger? My dh and I are righties with stronger left eyes, and ds is a lefty with a stronger right eye. Is this just a coincidence?

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