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Amblyopia (often called “lazy eye”)
Amblyopia develops when one eye, although it may look healthy, fails to work correctly while the other eye functions without difficulty.  When this happens, the brain receives two different messages from the eyes.  The brain will choose not to use the vision from the weaker eye, and eventually this eye will stop functioning if untreated.  It is difficult to detect without a screening test, so make sure your child’s eyes are examined.

What causes amblyopia?
There are two main causes of amblyopia. 

• Improper alignment of the eyes causes one eye to look in one direction and the other eye to look elsewhere.
• One eye has normal vision and another eye does not.  Or one eye might be farsighted and the other nearsighted. In all cases, the brain receives two different messages and has to choose one of them.

Treatment for amblyopia is successful when detected early, usually by the age of four.  Either glasses or eye patches are used for treatment.

If treated early, your child will need only glasses or an eye patch to correct the problem.  However, in severe cases surgery may be required. 

Hyperopia (Farsightedness)
Farsightedness is when one has poor vision of things that are close. It occurs when the shape of the eye does not bend light properly.  It is usually treated with glasses

Myopia (Nearsightedness)
Nearsightedness is poor distance vision, and it is usually treated with glasses.

While a few vision disorders require an operation to fix them, many problems can be corrected with glasses and vision therapy. If your doctor recommends surgery for your child, be sure to get a second opinion before going ahead with the procedure.

Very rarely do children outgrow vision problems. Instead, the problem will either remain the same or become worse if left untreated. This can lead to learning and behavioral disorders, since seeing and interacting with the sights around us is such an important part of learning and development. Therefore, it is best to have your child's eyes corrected while young.