Lazy eye, or amblyopia, is an eye condition in which one eye seems to wander. Generally appearing by age seven, early intervention and treatment is often extremely effective in curing amblyopia. There are three main causes of lazy eye, but all tend to portray the same range of symptoms. Here’s a look at the symptoms of lazy eye.
Causes of Amblyopia
Understanding why lazy eye develops can help to make sense of the symptoms it produces. Strabismus is a disorder largely caused by an imbalance in the muscles of the eyes. It can be characterized by an eye that tends to drift in any direction. Wandering left to right is generally characterized as amblyopia.
A lazy eye can also develop from a major difference in the refractive error of the eyes. Having astigmatism or a cataract, or being severely near- or farsighted in one eye can also lead to amblyopia. Basically, the brain has so much trouble with the weak eye it ignores the visual input and focuses on the stronger eye. For children, when connections between the brain and eyes are at their most developmental, this can be extremely detrimental.
Visual Cues of Amblyopia
If you are concerned that your child may have a lazy eye, there are a few obvious cues that may exhibit the presence of amblyopia. First, the reason amblyopia is synonymous with lazy eye -- the affected eye appears to be “lazy.” It may drift toward the bridge of the nose or out toward the corner of the eye.
Additionally, particularly in the case of strabismus, the eyes may not move in tandem as a normal pair does. While one eye moves firmly to focus, the other may seem to struggle along after. These will not always be obvious or evident, but one key to being able to tell if your child’s eyes move separately from each other is where the point of light hits. For example, if the eyes are looking straight ahead, you may notice a point of light directly off the pupil on the stronger eye -- but in a totally different spot on the other.
Visual Difficulties
Lazy eye, refractive errors, and other vision inhibitions often go hand in hand. Particularly if your child’s amblyopia is because of a refractive error, they may have difficulty seeing. Myopic (nearsighted) eyes cannot see far away, while hyperopic (farsighted) eyes cannot see well up close; farsightedness is more often the cause of strabismus than nearsightedness. This is often physically evident as a propensity to squint or completely shut the weaker eye while focusing and may be accompanied by a tendency to tilt the head.
Depth perception can also be inhibited by amblyopia. All of the extra effort to focus can cause a lot of strain, which may lead to headaches, particularly when looking at things out of the comfortable range of vision. Eventually, without treatment, amblyopia can lead to complete vision loss in the affected eye as the brain pays less and less attention, and the connection becomes more and more detached.
