You’d never know it by looking at him, but Aaron had a pretty rough childhood. It actually started before he was even born. When five months pregnant with him, his mom suddenly started bleeding while shopping at the neighborhood grocery store. She was immediately hospitalized. The physician wanted to abort Aaron. She asked whether the baby was still alive, to which the doctor reluctantly replied in the affirmative. So she refused the abortion. Thankfully.
Then, when he was about 18 months old, he ate Drano, and miraculously survived that.
The roughest part of his childhood, beyond the typical naughty older brothers teasing him, was chatting with his dad at dinnertime. Of course, it was difficult for all eight children. They never knew who Dad was talking to. Because Dad had a lazy eye.
None of the children or grandchildren ever developed one. Did they just get lucky? What are the risks of a great-grandchild being afflicted? And what if it happened when ophthalmologists weren’t accessible?
The leading cause of vision loss in children, amblyopia, or lazy eye, affects about 3-4% of children under the age of 7 years. That is when it is most successfully treated. There is a genetic component to it, so it can run in families, though Aaron’s dad is the only one we know of on that side of the family. And there is at least one on my side, but about a hundred years further back.
When most of us think about a lazy eye, we think of an eye that actually wanders inward (like my relative’s) or outward (like my father-in-law’s). But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes it can’t be detected without an eye exam.
Signs and symptoms of a lazy eye in younger children include:
· Baby cries or fusses when one eye is covered
· Head tilting
· Squinting or shutting one eye
· Moving closer to objects
· Bumping into furniture or other objects (poor depth perception)
· Tripping or accident prone
In addition, school-age children may have
· Difficulty catching and throwing objects
· Difficulty paying attention
· Poor eye-hand coordination
· Slower reading speed and comprehension
· Poor depth perception
· Rubbing the same eye frequently
Risk factors for developing lazy eye include:
· Premature birth
· Low birth weight
· Developmental disabilities
· Genetics
TREATMENT
We won’t likely have access to current treatment methods, which include surgery, eye drops, and/or corrective lenses. Eye patches are still used for some forms of lazy eye. Children wear them for an average of 2-6 hours per day over the good eye to strengthen the afflicted eye. Wearing the patch too long each day may cause problems in the good eye.[1] Treatment generally lasts from six months to two years. [2] Up to 25 percent of children with lazy eye experience a recurrence, in which case treatment must resume.[3]
Was actually nearsighted in one eye, farsighted in one eye. Only kept vision (at all) in nearsighted eye because i would read with eyes closed. Encouraging kids to do things that require seeing out of each eye for hours per day (like reading with alternate eyes covered) may help maintain nerve connection.
ReplyDeleteDepth perception is a skill that can be taught, but it means much more work on throwing/catching, judging distances, and requires EFFORT.
Also, there is now surgery to fix it, if available, GET IT for your child. There are also prism glasses, etc to fix vision with mild muscle imbalances.