anyone have experience with vision therapy for lazy eye?

[Julie Billingsley]

My son Logan has been wearing glasses for a year. He has to have a vision test every 6 months because of how bad his eyes are, and today was another eye exam. Well, he needs new glasses again (3rd prescription in a year!) and this time the doctor suggested vision therapy for mild amblyopia... aka lazy eyes. I don't even notice it at all, but the doctor mentioned it was probably one reason his vision is changing so rapidly. He said vision therapy is like physical therapy, exercises for strengthening the eye muscles. I've never even heard of this treatment before, and was hoping someone has firsthand experience about it.

[nesser1981]

My DH had one, you can't even notice it now. He had surgery to correct it and wore a patch for a while over the good eye, it helps improve the bad one I guess.

I know my friend Amber's daughter wore a patch and had surgery for hers too, she was like 5 maybe. Amber posts here, so maybe she'll see this and can tell you.

[isaacsmom]

My son Isaac has had lazy eye problems, but we have not done vision therapy. We have done patching for several years (finally finished last spring), glasses for several years (went through 15 pair in 3 1/2 years) and surgery twice. Good news is, you can't tell at all anymore that he has a lazy eye. And once we had the second surgery and got his eyes completely straightened out, his vision improved and he no longer needs glasses.

I will be anxious to hear if others have had experience with vision therapy.

[Paula]

What they did with my son was they had me put drops in his good eye that would dilate his good eye and then patch it, and he had to use his lazy eye to see with along with his glasses. It helped his lazy eye become stronger because he was using his good eye to compensate.

[jaylensmom]

my cousin had surgery for her eyes when she was younger...she also had a patch to help make her eye stronger...

[tanyiadeskins]

My now 18 yr old had vision therapy for this when she was about 8 or so I think. She went once a week, if I recall and did all kinds of little computer games aimed at helping her focus. In the end that and the patch completely fixed the problem. I would say its worth the shot to try before anything more drastic would be need to be done, kwim?

[Julie Billingsley]

thanks everyone! Luckily his problem isn't bad enough to need surgery, but BOTH of his eyes supposedly drift away from his nose a little. I don't see it at all, so it's not bad... but it's causing his nearsightedness to get worse and worse. The doc mentioned it would be special computer games, like you mention Tanyia. I don't know if patching would help since it's both eyes. I am glad to hear it worked for your daughter! Was it hard to have her do the eye exercises at home?

And I should mention the doc is not affiliated with the vision therapy clinic.

[Nonna2Dreja]

Julie, my daughter (now 27) had to have Vision Therapy for a mild case of lazy eye when she was about 8 yrs old....She also had a problem with spatial relationship and depth perception....Once a week we had to meet with a specialist who did little fun eye exercises in his office for about 40 minutes AND the rest of the week, she and I did some different ones at home once a day for about a half an hour....One of the things we did were to put a patch on one eye, then she had to keep her head stilll as I held a tiny ball suspended by a string and I just swung the ball in a circle gently, as she watched....So many minutes with each eye....Another exercise, we took an old glass milk jug and she had to drop the wooden clothes pin in the opening....

Oh yeah, she also had trouble tracking with her eyes, so she got to do alot of those little mazes that you normally would use a pencil on to follow the path to the end, but instead, she would just use her eyes....To her, at the time they were all fun little things to do with me....

[ayaandjudah]

Julie,

How old is Logan? I have strabismus/amblyopea and I have such eye issues. I was only 10 months old when they suggested surgery and my mom balked. I used to resent her for that but now that I'm a mom I totally understand and am fine with it. You can't see my turn anymore, years of patching as a child corrected it. But I have monocular vision instead of binocular vision and it sucks.

All this to say that if you can get him the therapy, do it! It will help him so much as an adult.

[MamaBee]

I have this problem... but mine was/is more severe... you could actually see my eye float away when I was really tired. I had surgery on both eyes when I was 6 and 7. Then they started the glasses when I was 10... I was suppose to do eye exercises - which I didn't - back in the 80's it was the whole focus on your finger and bring your finger to your nose and hold... to this day I can't do it - I almost black out. My left eye is okay - but my right eye still floats when I'm tired.

I would try go for the therapy... and make sure he does the exercises...

[tanyiadeskins]

No it was not bad to have her do the exercises at home, she kinda had fun with it and felt special cause it was only therapy for her and it was helping her, etc. I am pretty sure that they also alternate the patch when its more than one eye. I was so confused when the doc prescribed it lol. I was like what on earth is vision therapy? Seriously?

[emmasmommy]

emma has strobismis, but hers was a muscle placement issue rather than her muscle being too weak. she had corrective surgery and every once in awhile we can see it float, but she still wears glasses to help correct it.

i hope the therapy helps, julie! probably a good thing you caught it when it's not so bad!