This question just came in from Jen. Anyone out there in a similar situation? -Ann Z
My daughter was diagnosed at 20 months old and we have been patching since. She was also prescribed glasses a month ago, her prescription is +1.5 ONLY but our doctor says we should give it a shot to see if that will help straighten her eye. So it turns out that the prescription is so low that it does not help her “see” better at all so it’s been a struggle to get her to wear it. I’m just getting frustrated that nothing is helping her yet. She has been a trooper in patching and we just had another baby so there are so much changes in her world. I want to see if there are anyone here with a child in similar prescription and has seen a difference in straightening out the eyes or successful in keep the glasses on?
For Little Eyes 
I am not exactly in your same situation but our experience has been that we see immediate results from patching the stronger eye. I am not sure what the results are from glasses as we can’t get our daughter to wear hers either…but we keep trying. 🙂
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Hi, Thanks for replying me. When we do patching her crossed left eye will straighten out and remains that way as long as patch is on and she can see fine with it. She can draw, play and read. What I understand is that her vision is not bad at all but her brain just seems to ignore her left eye. We are still trying to get her to wear her glasses, it’s been a month she’s still yanking it off the minute I take my hands off her. sigh~~~
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Hi there! Take heart–you’re not alone! Here is my admittedly basic understanding… We had a similar experience despite a higher prescription. I think it’s because most little ones are farsighted (even those without “vision problems”), and even with greater farsightedness than is typical, they can bring things into focus anyway. I was told that they have tremendous focusing power at that age. So often in cases of low to moderate farsightedness the glasses don’t often feel like an improvement to them, because they can see fine without them–the problem is that with kids like ours, there is too much strain/turning involved with the effort to focus, which can cause the eyes can cross in some cases. I wonder if your daughter has a high AC/A ratio (which is basically the relationship between how much the eyes have to turn in in order to focus at certain distances–it’s different for different people, some people’s eyes turn more than others). If she only had farsightedness without the high ratio, then her eyes probably would not turn in. I’m no doctor but to me trying glasses seems sensible. They could make focusing easier at near, reducing the strain, and may therefore prevent crossing. (Again, I’m not expert, this is just based on our experience.)
My daughter got glasses at 20 months and her prescription is something like +3 and +4 and even she, with a much higher prescription, didn’t see the point of the glasses. Because she saw fine without them! She could always see very small details, etc. In time she got used to them, and came to accept them. They prevent her eyes from crossing, hooray! And she’s generally amazingly good with the glasses now. They are normal and we’ve come to love them, as Ann, the founder/author of this site, has said about her daughter’s too!
Good luck–it’s tough at first, but I bet you’ll be amazed at how much easier it gets. (Sorry for the long-winded reply!)
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I am having the same problem as you are Jen. My little guy is 20 months and has a ‘lazy’ left eye. We are first trying glasses but he will not keep them on for more that 20 seconds before ripping them off. The only thing that seems to work is when we read a bed-time story he will wear his glasses. Other than that I am at a total loss on how to keep them on his face!
Does any one else have any tips to help keep these on?
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What I found with my boy when he first got his glasses to keep them on was getting them to do something with you that you know that they love and that distracts them from thinking about what is on their face.
Untill their eyes ajust and they go WOW these things are actually helping me see better! So this is what the world REALLY looks like!
It didnt take long for us fortunatly. Because his vision was so bad, started at +5 he is now a +8 and loves his glasses.
Either that or you could try a stronger prescription since you thought that it was a very low one??
Best of luck!
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I am not exactly in your same situation but our experience has been that we see immediate results from patching the stronger eye. I am not sure what the results are from glasses as we can’t get our daughter to wear hers either…but we keep trying. 🙂
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What I found with my boy when he first got his glasses to keep them on was getting them to do something with you that you know that they love and that distracts them from thinking about what is on their face. Untill their eyes ajust and they go WOW these things are actually helping me see better! So this is what the world REALLY looks like! It didnt take long for us fortunatly. Because his vision was so bad, started at +5 he is now a +8 and loves his glasses. Either that or you could try a stronger prescription since you thought that it was a very low one?? Best of luck!
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Hi, Thanks for replying me. When we do patching her crossed left eye will straighten out and remains that way as long as patch is on and she can see fine with it. She can draw, play and read. What I understand is that her vision is not bad at all but her brain just seems to ignore her left eye. We are still trying to get her to wear her glasses, it’s been a month she’s still yanking it off the minute I take my hands off her. sigh~~~
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