Lazy Eye Symptoms and Treatment in Children

Lazy eye, an eye disease that occurs in early childhood, is a subject that affects the person both in terms of social and physical health.

What is lazy eye in children, what are its symptoms, how to stop its progression and treat it, we have explained all of them in our article.

What is lazy eye?

Lazy eye, also known as amblyopia; Although there is no structural defect in the eye, it can be explained as seeing less than the other eye. In lazy eye, also known as dull eye, visual function decreases as a result of not stimulating the retina and the visual center of the brain connected to that eye. It mostly occurs in one eye.

Amblyopia is an eye disease that can be detected from infancy to 7 years of age and can be seen in 1.6% to 3.6% of children.

What causes lazy eye in children?

• Imbalance in the eye muscles,
• strabismus ,
• droopy eyelid,

• Visual disturbances such as myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism in one eye more advanced than the other (refractive amblyopia),
• Rarely, conditions such as cataracts in the eye are among the conditions that cause lazy eye.

What are the symptoms of lazy eye in children?

It can be difficult to spot the signs of lazy eye in early childhood. Therefore, first of all, we should say that you should not neglect your child’s regular eye checks.

Lazy eye symptoms include;

• blink frequently,
• Do not rub the eyes and squint,
• One eye closing
• Strabismus in one eye
• Inability to accurately detect the distance of objects,
• Avoid looking close
• There is a lack of attention and a state of thoughtfulness.

How is lazy eye treated in children?

If it is noticed that the child has amblyopia when he consults a doctor with the above symptoms or during regular eye check-ups, first the cause of the problem is determined and the treatment for the problem is planned. In this case, early diagnosis and treatment are very important because depending on the underlying factor causing the problem, even eye loss may occur.

First, let’s answer the question “Can amblyopia improve in children”. In cases of lazy eye detected before the age of 7, the problem is completely resolved. That’s why early diagnosis is so important.

If lazy eye is caused by visual disturbances, treatment with glasses and contact lenses is preferred and mostly positive results are obtained. So if you are wondering if amblyopia can be corrected with glasses, we can answer yes if the problem is caused by visual impairments. Again, if there is strabismus, the use of glasses or contact lenses may be preferred.

Eye closure method is one of the most preferred treatment methods. In this method, the healthy eye is covered with a tape and it is aimed that the child learns to see with the other eye. In this way, the activities of the eye with weak visual function increase and the functions of the two eyes are equalized. In this method, the eye patch is used for 2-6 hours during the day.

A similar method is done with the use of eye drops. A drop is instilled into the healthy eye that will decrease the visual function a little, and as long as the effect of the drop lasts, visual exercises with the lazy eye are performed. This drop is used 2-3 days a week.

If there is a lazy eye caused by cataracts or droopy eyelids, surgical intervention can be performed.

Apart from these, if you are wondering what is good for lazy eye, methods such as painting, jigsaw, focusing on a point can also be applied to improve the activities of the eye.