How many times have you seen a young child with a patch over one
eye or wearing glasses with one lens blocked and wondered why?
Chances are that child has something called amblyopia (sometimes
called "lazy eye"), where one eye is not being used by the brain
because it doesn't see as well. After looking at more than 10
years of data, researchers now say children as young as a year
old can be reliably screened for amblyopia; by using a camera
that takes pictures of the eye, symptoms of the condition can be
detected long before it becomes apparent, according to a study
published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. The goal is to
identify children with this problem as early as possible, says
lead study author Dr. Susannah Longmuir, "so we can start
treatment before they have a problem or treat it before it gets
worse." She says very young children can already be developing
amblyopia, but they do not know they have a vision problem
because it's all they know - and they appear to parents to have
normal vision. But as