In these three situations, your child's brain starts to ignore the eye that is misaligned, that is more out of focus, or that has a cataract or lid droop. The eye not being used by the brain starts to lose vision, causing vision in that eye to be abnormal and out of focus even when a child wears glasses. Treatment of amblyopia is based on forcing the brain to use the amblyopic eye instead of ignoring it. The brain is then forced to use the amblyopic eye, and vision improves as a result. The handicapping therapy is tapered off once the amblyopic eye obtains good vision.
Some children require only a few weeks of therapy, whereas others require many months.
Amblyopia must be diagnosed and treated in a timely fashion. As your child ages, amblyopia will become increasingly resistant to treatment. Once your child is 7 or 8 years old, patching therapy may not be able to improve vision in the amblyopic eye. Strabismus is the name medical professionals use to refer to any eye misalignment, whether your child's eyes turn in, out, up, or down. Medical personnel give specific types of strabismus specific names based on the direction your child's eyes turn.