1. The medical term for lazy eye is Amblyopia. 3. Amblyopia
always begins in childhood, usually before age 3. 4. Don’t blame
the eyes! The brain decides whether or not an eye becomes
amblyopic. Remember, the eye is healthy! 5. When a conflict
exists the brain is forced to make a choice between processing
visual information from the better of the two eyes. 6. Visual
conflicts include crooked eyes (strabismus), blockage of the
normal visual pathway (as in a dense infantile cataract), or a
marked difference in the refractive power of the two eyes (as an
example: one eye nearsighted and the other farsighted). 7. A
child can have a densely amblyopic eye and not complain. 8.
Visual penalization of the better eye is the recommended
treatment for lazy eye. Methods include patching the better eye
or administration of atropine ointment to blur the better eye so
as to force the lazy eye back to work. A specific treatment
schedule is customized for each child’s needs. 9. Parents of
amblyopic children need to be very aggr