Child With Lazy Eye

[Beau]

I was speaking to one of my mum's yesterday about her child (3 1/2). She was diagnosed with 'lazy eye' when she was 2 and she has been wearing glasses for some time. I was also aware of the fact that she had to wear a patch over her good eye in the afternoons.

 

As a bit of background I need to say that I have had slight concerns about this child. She really doesn't mix well with the other children and can often seem very withdrawn, although she is animated enough if you spend any time with her 1:1. However, I am also aware that the mother doesn't mix at all with any others and apart from going to a toddler group once a week her daughter has never really mixed with her peers. All this added to her visual problems went some way to explaining her nature.

 

During our discussion her mum mentioned that her daughter has to do 'close work' whilst the patch is on and expressed her relief that the patching was now down to 2 hours, rather than the 4 it used to be. I expressed an interest into what this required and she said that she had to 'make' her child do activities such as drawing, puzzles etc for the entire time that the patch is on.

 

This is not something I have had any experience of (and am ashamed that it was not something I had bothered to find out about before now). However, it has certainly given me an insight into why this little girl is perhaps not developing 'normally'. (Not sure how else to put it - not wanting to stereotype but she is certainly not a 'normal' child, if you know what I mean!!) I can see that the patching is important if she wants to correct the eye problem but how necessary is it that the child has to do close work for the entire time? And isn't expecting a child to do this slightly unreasonable given that she is only just 3 1/2?

 

Would really appreciate any insight into this, particularly if you have first hand experience either with your own children or through work.

[Susan]

Carol, my son had a squint corrected at 22months and I was under the impression that the sooner this was corrected the better--certainly before 7yrs.

It may be that there are different causes for squints and I thought the terminology " lazy eye" was frowned upon. Aaron's squint was congential and picked up at 6 week check. He was alot younger than this child already is but 4 hours seems like an excessive amount of time to be doing close work. I think I patched for about half hour or maybe an hour max and that was agony as he hated wearing the patch and tried to pull it off all the time. And indeed that seems more than understandable when you consider that the vision in the "lazy" eye was impaired. The function of the patching is to encourage the brain to accept and use the visual stimuli received by the weaker eye and I am surprised therefore that any activities are better than others within reason.

 

Carol, have you not googled this one for yourself!?

[Inge]

we had a child with us that had to wear a patch for part of the day, and do 'close work' but not for such a long period. It does seem a bit difficult to achieve in a child of that age and will explain the need for 1:1 . we suggested that the child wore the patch while with us so he could do close work during the session and this took pressure off mum , and gave the child had more freedom at home as it was easy arrange a lot of the session to help him. it caused no problem in pre-school as the other children were used to seeing him in glases anyway and with a simple explanation they all took no notice of the patch. he eventually had different pictures on his patch ech day which he was always proud to show us when he arrived.

 

(he was a more outgoing child but was vey concious of the patch to begin with, and this may not be any help but thought I would share anyway)

 

inge

[hali]

hi

 

i had a 4 yr old who had to wear a patch for her last 6mths with us. She used to put it on at 9.30 ..had an hours freeplay with 'close work' of 20 mins in that hour and we used to take it of at 11am.

 

she also usd to have different piccys on the patch which helped

[Beau]

So you don't think it's necessary for the child to be doing close work for the whole of that time then? It's just that I know this particular mum is a real stickler for doing things right and worrying about things and wondered what she had actually been told.

 

Susan I did google but there were so many hits - many from the US or out of date - that I gave up. Like I said, this is not something I know alot about. Mum called it lazy eye - is that no longer pc??

 

Apparently mum has spoken to her daughter and the child is reluctant to wear her patch at playgroup. Will talk to her again and find out why exactly her daughter is not keen. Maybe, with some of your suggestions of pictures, she might be more open to the idea.

[Rea]

I'm as lost as you Beau on this. We used to have a child who needed to wear an eye patch, but I've never heard of having to do close work. His mom was actually one of the better ones that come our way and she certainly never mentioned it. He used to do all the things you'd expect a 3 old to do, running, racing, riding bikes, dawing, painting, threading, playing with bricks, cars, everything we provided. The other children were ok about his patch, and he was very matter of fact about it. The Harry Potter specs helped boost his standing too! What is the close work for?

[mundia]

Hi carol. Perhasp your mum could check with the ophthalmist that she got the instructions correct. I cant imagine an instruction saying close work for all that time. Using eyes in poor conditon, for whatever reason, is very demanding and tiring, for 80% of the brain is used in vision. Even 2 hours of not seeing too well, is probabaly exhausting for the child, which may well explain other things.

I think Id get mum to go back and ask for clarification

[Beau]

Thank you for all your replies. I didn't want to go blundering in before I knew more about it and all your comments have helped to clarify a few things for me. I will speak to mum and hopefully improve the situation for all of us, but most importantly for the little girl.

[Guest]

A daughter of a friend of mine had her squint corrected awhile back and we were chatting about how different it was to when i had mine corrected many years ago!

I pointed out how someone had mentioned that it's not a squint anymore it's a lazy eye.

well not so, they are actually two different things. sorry to say i don't know what the differences are.(i'll stop waffling know!)

I can't imagine anyone being told to do 4hrs closeup work .my experience with my own son is they have been told to encourage activites such as puzzles ,drawing etc.

maddy.

[Beau]

Unfortunately in this mum's case she takes that to mean she has to do it for the whole time. Spoke to her today about encouraging her daughter to wear the patch to playgroup and she looked very relieved. Said it would be great to have her afternoons free and that she wouldn't end up getting cross with her daughter for not co-operating. She wasn't keen on the patches with pictures as she felt they were too noticeable.