Eye patches cure astigmatism in children?

[Fuz]

I noticed the following reply in another thread about children and astigmatism...is what this poster says true? I thought that the purpose of making a child wear an eye patch with corrective lenses was to train the brain to see out of the bad eye equally as well as a good eye, but that the person would still always have to wear corrective lenses for the blurriness. I have never heard that severe astigmatism can be self corrected like this. Experts?


"My son has the exact same problem in the same eye.  He was 20/200 and 20/20 when he was 3 years old.  Put the patch on and don't stop.  He is going to hate it at first because he can't see much out of that eye.  My son ran into things and hurt himself a lot at first.  It really didn't take much time at all for that eye to develop.  Once he is able to see out of that eye, things will get better.  my son is now 9 years old and he has TWO good eyes!  success!  He is 20/20 in both eyes now!   In fact, the doctor said his vision is so good that glasses will be optional when he turns 10 (eye development is finished at that age).  You are soooooooo lucky this was caught at an early age.  If this wasn't caught he could have remained blind in that eye for the rest of his life.  Eventually the eye would stop moving.  Good luck! "


This discussion is related to 3 year old with severe astigmatism.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

The treatment of amblopia with patching (occlusion therapy) must be done under the direction of an ophthalmologist Eye MD.  Too much occlusion can cause the "good" eye to become amblyopia.  patching is to improve the vision, it does not cure myopia, farsightedness or astigmatism. Sometimes kids outgrow farsightedness and astigmatism but not always. Allowing a child to hurt themselves while patching is also not a good idea.

JCH III MD