3 year old with amblyopia - use of atropine drops

Our 3 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with
amblyopia. her vision in her right eye is 20/160.

she started with glasses to align her eye and that went very
well, she likes to wear the glasses.

we then were told that she needed to wear a patch and this
did not go well. we tried different kinds of patches but no
luck. our doctor agreed to try the atropine drops and he'll
check her eyes in two months to see if there's progress.

We're giving her the drops every night (one drop). It's been
very easy to give her the drop and her eye looks dilated.

our questions are:
(1.) are any of you currently using drops
for your kids, and if so what is their vision? Our daughter
is 20/160.
(2.) do you give the drops at night or morning?
Our doctor said it doesn't matter but I'm wondering if they
loose any of their effectivness. She is getting along
extremely well with the drops, we cant help but wonder if
they are really blurring her vision enough to make her use
her weak eye.
(3.) if you have used drops, how long did it
take to notice any improvement?

we're new to this so we appreciate any input.

 

In general, atropine penalization doesn't work well with visios worse than
about 20/70, probably because the blur at near with the atropine isn't
enough to switch fixation to the amblyopic eye. This can be augmented by
putting a minus lens over the atropined eye to blur it more, but I usually
look the fixation switch in the office before I commit to a couple of months
of treatment.

That said, some people find some response even without these trick, in some
kids.


David Robins, MD
Board certified Ophthalmologist
Pediatric and strabismus subspecialty
Member of AAPOS
(American Academy of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus)

 

When using the drops, protect her eyes from sunlight with UV
sunglasses. It can damage her eye permanently. not a doctor