Causes of Amblyopia

Amblyopia is caused by a number of easily treatable conditions. These include:

Strabismus or Crossed Eyes

This is when the two eyes point in two different directions. One eye is focused ahead while the other one turns in, out, up, or down. To avoid seeing double vision, the child's brain may ignore or turn off the image from the eye that is not focused straight ahead. And this can keep that eye from developing properly resulting in amblyopia.

Refractive errors

Having a refractive error means being near-sighted, far-sighted, or having a distorted or blurry vision called astigmatism. A child may have a refractive error that is worse in one eye. The brain may ignore or turn off the image from that eye and vision will not develop properly. This can be difficult to tell since the child's vision seems fine when using both eyes.

Cloudiness of the eye

Some children are born with a cataract (congenital cataract), where the eye's normally clear lens becomes cloudy. This can keep vision from developing properly in that eye.