Carine researched and wrote in her post that if amblyopia is not treated until the child is 8 years old, it may become irreversible. I hope that both Lucca (who is 4) and Linton can fully recover the vision in their affected eyes. I'll let you know how the doctor's visit goes. All I know is that I am going to ask the ophthalmologist lots of questions. I just don't know if he'll be able to give many answers. It will probably take time (up to a year with an eye patch!! that sounds so hard!), but we'll have to deal with it.
Edited to add: I wasn't paying attention to my own links, look at what Google Health says about the prognosis: "Children who receive treatment before age 5 usually have a near complete recovery of normal vision. Delaying treatment can result in permanent vision problems. After age 10, only a partial recovery of vision can be expected."
OH NO!!! He's six! Now I'm despairing a little bit. or a lot. or... oh, wow. my poor baby, we failed him! :-(
Please, go take your own young kids to the optometrist right away!! They have these cool machines that "read" a person's eye prescription. I can't believe I didn't take Linton earlier. :-(
I know you are probably googling the heck of amblyopia, but make sure you investigate vision therapy in addition to regular optometry. It is somewhat controversial for some diagnoses, but some people (including me!) swear by it. Vision therapy made rapid, probably life-changing improvements in Lili's vision. It was expensive, but solved the problem very effectively in a short time.
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AmericanFamily
Don't beat yourself up too much. He's much closer to 5 than he is to 10. And now that you know, you can be aggressive about doing something to take care of it.
ReplyDeleteThe eye patch scenario could be difficult, but he's a boy; it might be cool. I think he can rock it.
I agree with the commenter above, vision Theraphy is awesome! And don't dispair, children are VERY very flexible and can create neuronal conexions way faster than adults, he can overcome this!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has amblyopia and we've been patching now for over a year. I blog about it at adventures in amblyopia and also have a facebook page for it. It is great to connect with other parents.
ReplyDeleteI too read that about it needing to be fixed by age 7 or 8, but have since learned it can be reversed even beyond that. A friend of mine's 9 year old just beat it in a years time!
Remeber that a cut-off age is just a very general thing--they need to pick an age, but there are huge variations within...I'm sorry you're going through these worries--I hope the visit to the doctor will help.
ReplyDeleteI have this, Lilian. It's a bit of a struggle and always has been -- my doctors noticed it when I was three but there were no treatments available back then (late 1970s). My left eye is still very weak (they tried to strengthen it by putting a patch over my right eye, but to no avail) and I always fail the left side of my vision test for my driver's license (!), but other than that I don't really notice it anymore. My right eye has almost completely compensated for my left. So... in the event that your son's vision is also irreparable, it's not the end of the world.
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