Any experience with atropine drops for toddlers?

[Disx5]

We have a toddler (just under 2) who has one eye that turns in slightly. The eye dr believes she is not using that eye as much as the other and is trying to correct the problem (lazy eye).

She has had glasses for the last 8 months and, while her eyes look better, we have a lot of trouble getting her to keep them on. When she does, she tends to look over the top anyway.

The dr. has prescribed atropine drops which will blur the vision in her better eye and make her other eye work harder.

I am wondering if anyone here has used these drops with any success. I am very apprehensive about them especially as we don't know if it will help or how long she will have to use them.

Thanks very much.

 

[JessicaR]

Is this for amblyopia? My son had that when he was a toddler. We patched and it was corrected. I guess the drops came about more recently. We patched 15-16 years ago. We had to be diligent but the effort paid off.

Interesting article on the drops.

http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/about/news/release/2002/3-eye-drops.htm

 

[Disx5]

Yes, it is. The doctor talked about patching but by the way my daughter reacted to keeping her eye covered during the exam, she knew it wouldn't really work. She doesn't think a patch would be tolerated.

Thanks very much for the article - and sharing your experience!

 

[klj27]

My 14 year old used the drops 11 years ago. She started with patching at the age of 2, drops next and when she was 3 we did bifocals. She had surgery after a year of no success with any of these.

My 7 year old started with patching at age 4 and bifocals at age 5. He is scheduled for surgery on 4/27.

 

[minkydog]

Never used the drops, but i wouldn't have ruled it out. Christian had lazy eyes when he was little. He has brain damage and his vision is impaired. We patched one eye, then the other, every 3 weeks for about a year. It wasn't easy to get him to wear the patches but we made it work. He went from having very little useable vision to having functional vision in a year. Due to his particular brain damage, wearing glasses doesn't correct his vision. But the patching helped strengthen the muscles in his eyes until he could use them together. Before the patching, he had no binocular vision and in fact, could not see things in the left field of vision. Patching improved his binocular vision 100%. Christian can identify people he knows, things on his plate, and favorite toys and objects. He still only has 2-D vision, but at least what he has is workable.

Like I said, we never used the drops. But believe me, if drops had been an option I would have tried it. Anything to preserve my child's vision. The longer it goes untreated, the harder it is to reverse the problems.

 

[Debbie7452]

My niece was patched and the adhesive on the patch really irritated her skin and she had an angry rash. It did not work and she had surgery later. I would do the drops over the patch any day!

 

[Mandy_in_NC]

We had to use the drops and patches on my youngest daughter. She ended up having the surgery to correct the lazy eye. We also had to use them on my oldest child and good Lord that was a chore. I never knew a 3 year old could move that fast and was that strong. It took 2 of us to get the drops in her eyes. Both of my kids wear glasses and we still hold out hope that they will out grow having to wear them.

 

[crjack]

We used the atropine drops on DS about 8 years ago and had good success with them. He was a little older than most when he was diagnosed with amblyopia and the preferred treatment was the drops over patching to help with compliance.

If I remember correctly we would give him the drops at night before bed. It helped him to strengthen his weaker eye.

Good luck.

 

[Louiepipbgeeco]

My DS has had 2 corrective surgeries for strabismus.He has used both patches and atropine drops. The surgery was the biggest and most remarkable in terms of making the alignment of the eyes appear "normal" Patching and drops have gradually made a difference--showing some slow and steady improvements in the use of the weaker eye. He has been under treatment since age 9months and is now 6. We continue to use both atropine and patching. Glasses not necessary since his was also due to a nerve palsy which only effects his eyes. Drops nor patches have NOT slowed him down.