How is lazy eye treated?
• Children should have regular eye check-ups to have their vision tested. • If lazy eye is not treated, the weaker eye’s vision may never improve and it may even become blind. • Treatment should begin as soon as possible. • If a child has lazy eye, there are a few choices for treatment. • The most common treatment is wearing an eye patch over one eye. When the eye that sees best is covered, the brain will use the weak eye to see. This makes the weak eye stronger. • Instead of using an eye patch, some doctors use eye drops to blur vision in the strong eye. This has the same results as using the patch. • In some cases, the problem can be corrected by wearing eyeglasses or contact lenses. • Some patients can do eye muscle exercises to make the weak eye stronger. • Other patients need eye surgery.