Amanda's youngest daughter Zoe was diagnosed with Amblyopia when she was two years old. This is their story.

Every night I sat with my 3 kids as we ate our dinner, it was chaos, the kids were 2, 5 and 6 years old. I remember my youngest Zoe sitting in her highchair at the end of the table eating her dinner. I sat next to her as she was always messy. Every time she turned her head something didn’t look quite right. Her eyes seemed to move differently. I was so tired by dinner time, I thought I was going crazy. So I spoke with her day-care teacher and asked them to see if they noticed it too, they did.

Off to the Doctor we went, she confirmed the eyes were not tracking together. We were referred to an Ophthalmologist in the City. We had to wait a month for the appointment. It was hard as her eye seemed to get worse during that time. Dr Frank Martin was worth the wait, he was so calm, knowledgeable and been doing this for a lifetime.

Zoe was quickly diagnosed with Amblyopia

She was quickly diagnosed with Amblyopia, otherwise called a ‘lazy eye’. It was a little scary at first but we knew we were in safe hands. Zoe got her first pair of glasses.

She was so good, she wore them all the time. We had the ongoing issues of her scratching and breaking them, and they were always dirty. I still don’t know how she saw through them.

Improvement slowed after a year so we had to patch

We went on like that for a year, but the improvement was slowing so we had to go to the next level up in treatment. She needed some patching, Dr Martin said she had to wear one on her good eye for 2 hours a day. At first, she totally refused, it was a huge battle each day. I was stressed and tired and had no idea how to get her to wear the patches.

Then I came across Kids Eye Gear, their store had so many brightly coloured patches. They also had sticker kits to decorate them. Genius idea I thought.

Zoe loved her creations and wore them so proudly

I ordered a few different colours and a variety of stickers. I had my fingers crossed that this would work.

The afternoon they arrived, I told Zoe we could do some craft. We spent about an hour decorating the colourful patches. She loved her creations and wore them so proudly and loved how everyone complimented her on her designs.

For now we are on the right path

Zoe is now 8 years old and has been wearing her glasses for 6 years. She is full of energy, messy and still have no idea how she sees through her glasses. We still have a few more years until we know if the glasses and patching has corrected her eye but for now we are on the right path.