Elijah's eyes

We spent over 3 hours this morning at the Ophthalmology Pediatric Clinic. Elijah has Strabismus. Only his left eye is affected.

Strabismus is a common condition among children. Normal alignment of both eyes during childhood allows the brain to fuse the two pictures into a single 3-dimensional image. Strabismus or abnormal alignment can block this normal binocular development and cause amblyopia or reduced vision in one eye. If vision is reduced, the brain of the child will only learn to recognize the stronger image and ignore the weaker image of the affected eye. This will eventually cause a loss of depth perception and, if not treated before 6-7 years of age, can result in permanent visual loss in the affected eye.

Dr. A has determined that Elijah does have reduced vision in his left eye, so he is patching the right eye to try and strengthen the muscles in the left eye. Elijah will wear the patch between 2-4 hours per day for the next two months. Then we will go back to see Dr. A and he will determine if the patching was successful or if Elijah needs surgery.

I was very happy that only after a little bit if fussing, Elijah left his patch on for over 2 hours today before pulling it off.:)