Vision therapy for lazy eye? 8 year old son has amblyopia and esotropia

[mommy22pumpkins]

Hello. My son is 8 years old and has a lazy eye. He was treated with patching on and off from age 3 till now. We did not realize there was a window of time where patching would be effective as his doctor did not explain anything to us and we are currently looking for a new doctor.

He has 20/40 vision in the *lazy* eye. I believe that is with his glasses on. He started off with 20/80 so the patching did help somewhat. I am worried now though as he cannot see well at all without his glasses on. We lost them a couple weeks ago and his gym teacher said he is having trouble seeing the ball etc. And my son tells me he has been tripping alot. He has always been prone to falling down and I asked his eye doctor if his depth perception could be off or if it is related to his vision and he said no. Told me Babe Ruth had a lazy eye on and on but not sure I believe him. Why else would he be so prone to falling down- he has even fallen down the stairs several times We took him to a neurologist for the falling down as even his teacher was concerned about it- he was falling out of his chair at school- and he didn't find anything wrong on exam that would indicate a neurological problelm.

I am wondering if anyone has ever tried vision therapy for esotropia- his one eye turns inward. Or amblyopia (aka lazy eye). I am trying to look it up online and there are websites with doctors who specialize in it but I am leary of people advertising online. And playing off people whose children have this problem.

Any advice or info about where to find a legit doctor who provides vision therapy would be much appreciated. We are located in South Jersey so anyone within driving distance would be great. Sorry so long! Thanks for reading and I am very grateful for any advice.

 

[seashoreCM]

(copied from another thread)

Something I would suggest, but not for long periods of time at a stretch.

See if you can find some of those novelty drawings that look like 3D pictures if you stare at them long enough. No red/blue or polarized glasses or other accessories are used.

Can he get the 3D effect? It requires getting both eyes locked onto the diagram just right.

Now the hard part. Have him move the diagram away from his face slowly. Can he continue to see the 3D effect? See if he can maintain the 3D effect as the diagram is moved up to 24 inches away and then closer in to about 12 inches, back and forth a few times.

Also try moving the diagram slowly from side to side.

Health hints: http://www.cockam.com/health.htm

 

[clanmcculloch]

To find an eye doctor trained in Vision Therapy, I recommend the College of Optometrist in Vision Development (COVD) website. IMO getting the evaluation is very much worth your time and money. I'm so glad we did Vision Therapy for my youngest.

 

[AuntieK]

I'm an adult that was born with esotropia and have had multiple surgeries throughout my life. I was a very clumsy child.

Vision therapy is a very controversial topic between optometrists and ophthalmologists. There is a great yahoo group for parents and adults with amblyopia and all forms of strabismus:

health . groups . yahoo . com / group / EyesApart

Amblyopia means that even with glasses you can't achieve 20/20 vision. Correcting amblyopia through patching and therapy doesn't mean that he won't still need glasses. Amblyopia is the result of the brain ignoring the input from that eye. People need glasses because their lens is misshaped.

Hope that helps.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I do agree that vision therapy will not correct a vision problem involving the physical eye. My daughter will always need glasses but at least now her brain correctly interprets the visual inputs as her eye actually receives them and her eyes coordinate correctly, things that her glasses were unable to correct.

Yes, VT is considered controvertial. What finally convinced me to give it a try was this:
1. My insurance company considers it a valid therapy that they will cover and I know they try to avoid covering anything if they can show it's unproven.
2. My other daughter's Occupational Therapist who I trust based on our history with my other daughter has done a lot of reading on the subject and is a strong supporter of it as a therapy and even spent time trying to get the state to support training her to provide it for students at our school (unfortunately the state educational board deemed it a medical therapy so it's something that parents have to arrange privately).

I figured there was no harm in trying it. My daughter loved her VT sessions and was actually upset that it ended. I'm amazed in the difference and would not hesitate to recommend at least getting the evaluation done.

 

[timbuktoo]

Hello. My daughter also has a Lazy Eye - a general term for a couple of conditions - she has Amblyopia. She has difficulties seeing with her right eye. We have patched for quite a while and now are happy to say she is seeing 20/20 with her right eye with glasses. There is a great blog which provides a lot of information that may help you with many questions. I have found it so helpful through my experiences in managing her condition.

To find the blog (sorry but I can't post links) google PREVENT BLINDNESS AMERICA AMBLYOPIA and click on their site, then select WEB FORUM FOR AMBLYOPIA, then select CHILDREN AND EYE PROBLEMS.

I hope you find it as helpful as I did!

 

[Minniemouse07]

My sister (now 42yo) was diagnosed at 4yo w/ amblyopia.

She had her stronger eye patched to strengthen the weaker eye for a year or so, then the drs discovered that her strong eye became weak and the weak eye became strong.

So they switched the eye that got patched for another year or so.

At this point her amblyopia was corrected and she needed no further patching or glasses.

Halfway through this process, sis started kindergarten and was doing fine...until the work got harder!

It took until 6th grade...after years of the school district bouncing her in and out of special education "enrichment" classes labeling her too smart for them and/or too lazy to do her work... until the discovered that the years of having one or the other eye patched had caused my sister to not be able to focus both of her eyes together. In other words, each of her eyes works independently of the other...most of the time.

She has a functional eye disability with a floating blind spot. If given any five letters or digits she sometimes can't see the center letter/digit. Makes spelling and math fun, doesn't it!

School was BRUTAL for her those years between 1st and 6th grade. Sis would come home w/ lists of spelling words she copied from the board ...misspelled. Math was a horror story for her. She always read on a higher grade level, but only with her finger tracking each line of text...otherwise she skipped lines!

She tells this to eye doctors now and they don't believe her but then think it is really cool once they start their exams!

Sis wasn't diagnosed until my mom read a story in one of the women's magazines of the 70's/80's (Good Housekeeping, et al) about a young person who was frustrated by school and discovering they had a functional eye disability.

Luckily, one of the doctors in the magazine story was located just 20min from our home. Mom took sis there and she started vision therapy pretty quickly. Sis went for an hour 2x/week for a few years. They used 3D glasses and played "games" to teach her eyes how to work together better.

It definitely helped her, she also needed special prismatic glasses that help her eyes focus better.

She still has issues, but over the year she became a talented horn player (trumpet, soprano bugle, & mellophone)...memorizing her music so she wouldn't skip notes!

Sis is about to graduate (yes, a bit late in life) from nursing school this June with a GPA just a few tenths from a perfect 4.0!

So ...yeah, I would fall on the, "I think vision training is worth it" side of the argument!

 

[wlake]

My son's problem was quite different (unable to use both eyes at the same time), but his OT and his PT for his sensory issues kept encouraging us to get an eval from a behavioral optometrist. We were very skeptical but finally did, and after three years of VT, he can now use both eyes! He wears prisms to do close up work (reading, writing, Legos, etc.).

The evals are expensive (and his wasn't covered by insurance. PP, you're very lucky!), but we decided it wasn't going to hurt him to go and listen to what the behavioral optometrist had to say then give the VT a few months' trial. The nearest one is 90 minutes from our house, so we did all of the therapy at home. We're glad we did now!

Many of the doctors seem to have websites, so I guess I wouldn't rule them out based on that. Ours is too far away from you, but if you're interested, you can call your son's school and ask if the OT or PT would be able to recommend one to you. Good luck!

 

[indimom]

I don't have experience with lazy eye, but I do think the loss of his glasses could have affected his depth perception.
Our daughter has a different eye condition, where her vision changed suddenly in one eye (from 20/20 to 20/200 or worse). She definitely had depth perception issues (and volleyball in gym class was impossible, she couldn't "find" the ball).
It was explained to us that any sudden change in vision can cause depth perception issues because the brain is accustomed to interpreting the information from the eyes in a certain way. When the information coming in from the eyes changes (like losing glasses you have become dependent on??), the brain has to retrain itself to the new information. Our daughter's depth perception issue passed with time (until treatment changed her vision yet again Then she had to repeat the process).
Hope this helps. Good luck with your son.

 

[Piper]

My daughter, who is in her mid-forties now, had amblyopia and retinopathy of prematurity. We did visual therapy from the age of 2 until she was 6. One eye was patched and we did things like put a red filter on one eye and a blue filter on the other. Then I would draw with one side of a red/blue grading pencil and she would trace the lines with the other side. We also put a large red and blue filter on our TV. My son jokes and says that we had the first "color television" on the block! She had depth perception difficulties and was unable to drive because of this until two years ago (after many eye surgeries.)

Although doing her therapies with her every day was challenging, it absolutely paid off. Without it her vision would have deteriorated (several opthamologists have told us.)

 

[buffettgirl]

.the OP is over 2 years old.....

 

[indimom]

.the OP is over 2 years old.....

I HATE when that happens.

 

[buffettgirl]

I HATE when that happens.

I know LOL. I sometimes wonder how these threads get found.

 

[PigletsPal2]

My daughter, who is in her mid-forties now, had amblyopia and retinopathy of prematurity. We did visual therapy from the age of 2 until she was 6. One eye was patched and we did things like put a red filter on one eye and a blue filter on the other. Then I would draw with one side of a red/blue grading pencil and she would trace the lines with the other side. We also put a large red and blue filter on our TV. My son jokes and says that we had the first "color television" on the block! She had depth perception difficulties and was unable to drive because of this until two years ago (after many eye surgeries.)

Although doing her therapies with her every day was challenging, it absolutely paid off. Without it her vision would have deteriorated (several opthamologists have told us.)

Piper, you described my DD#1 and her vision training almost to a "T"! She was diagnosed with amblyopia at age 6 and her opthamologist gave us the option of vision training or surgery. A former Air Force opthamologist had just been dscharged and was recommended to us. I took DD#1 to VT for 2 hrs a day twice a week for two years. She did the drawings and we had the red and green screens for the TV (don't know why we had green and you had blue). She also wore an eye patch and delighted in terrorizing tbe little boys in her class by claiming to be a pirate.

The VT worked well while she was doing it and until she was about 13, when the eye started to drift again. To my shame and embarrssment as a mother, we didn't do anything about it at that time; it wasn't terribly noticible, and she said if she concentrated, she could force the muscle to move the eye to where it belonged.

Fast forward to last year: DD#1 has moved down here to Florida and has accompanied me to several of my own opthamologist appts. (I've had both eyes lifted twice due to brain surgery and I've had cataracts removed from both eyes.) She really liked Dr. H and knows how much confidence DH and I have in him. I have my last cataract follow-up tomorrow and she's taking me, at which time she's going to schedule a consultation with him to see what he thinks he can do to fix her eye. (I didn't tell her, but I already sounded him out, and he's very optimistic that he can fix it.) She's a photographer, and she feels like she could work faster if she didn't have to work so hard focusing one of her eyes. She also has beautiful chocolate brown eyes with loooooong black lashes and would like to feel that people were looking at her eyes because they're beautiful, not because one is wandering!

I'll try to remember to post the outcome of her consultation.

Queen Colleen