My son has a lazy eye and has been given Atropline Opt, is it safe to use in his good eye?

It wont hurt his good eye permanently. It will possibly give him headaches because it is blurring his good eye. I understand the theory behind what the ophthalmologist is wanting to do. What happens in ambliopia (the name for "lazy eye") is that the childs eye is drifting due to weaker muscles in his "lazy" eye causing the child to see double. Eventually the brain will compensate by ignoring the signal from the lazy eye. This will reduce the vision in that eye to no better than 20/400 even with glasses correction. So what they want to do is to train the muscles in the lazy eye to work harder. Usually done by patching the good eye to make the lazy one work harder. Atropine eye drops will blur the eye because it dilates the pupil. If you have ever had a dilated eye exam at the eye Dr, they usually use atropine to do the job, so you know how difficult it is to see after dilation.

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The side effects of this medicine include confusion, headache, blurred vision, increased eye pressure, irritation, sensitivity to light, and a few others. Once you stop using the drug the dilation will go back to normal in a few days and side effects will diminish. That being said, if you wish to treat this lazy eye and prevent him from losing most of his vision in his lazy eye permanently you need to do it NOW! Your son is already 7. My ophthalmolgist I worked with said the damage was often done if this was not treated by the age of 5. Your sons ophthalmologist must think there is still time to correct this. Can I ask why patching is not working for him? It is your best alternative to these drops. At 7 years old he should be old enough to explain the consequences of not keeping a patch in place. It will be awkward and uncomfortable for him to get the ambliopic eye working. It is awkward for him to wear a patch, the other kids will ask why he is wearing it, but it is temporary. He wont have to wear it long and he needs to know his vision is at stake. He will be legally blind in one eye without treatment.