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We're talking about health issues that are important for school children this week on Healthwatch. It's difficult for a child to succeed in the classroom without good vision. The leading cause of vision problems in children is a condition called amblyopia, or lazy eye. In this condition, the eye is healthy, but there's interference with visual processing that keeps the eye from working properly.
Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas recently participated in a national study of treatments for lazy eye that found it's possible for even older children to see improvements when they're treated with eye patches and glasses.
Dr. David Weakley,
a UT Southwestern pediatric ophthalmologist, says the condition is more easily treated in younger patients - starting at about age 7 - because the visual system is more responsive. But even teenagers who haven't been treated before will respond to treatment.
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September 2005
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