Should we make our child wear glasses over the sticky patch? Yes, they may have poor vision without the glasses.

Can we put the patch on in the morning before school, and then do the rest of the time after school?

Definitely, this is fine with school aged children. It is the total, added (cumulative) time that is important. You may have 3 days in the week where patching is almost impossible because of sprot and other committments - and do very well by patching for 4 hours Saturday and Sunday, 2 hours on 2 other days, and 2 hours here and there. This 14 hours total should have a similar effect to doing 2 hours per day.

If my child wants to wear the patch can they do so all the time?

Yes,  it is partly the total hours that brings or at least speeds vision improvement, so 6 weeks patching 6 hours every day could have the same effect as 2 hours a day for 4 months! However, if your child is young (especially <1 year old) be sure not to patch all their waking hours unless instructed to. In that case you would have been told to return for a check in a few weeks at most (around 1 week for each month of age).

When can we switch from the sticky patch to the patch that fits over glasses?

If your child is compliant you can do this from the start. Be sure to puy a purpose-made patch (look at Patch Pizazz ) and to carefully adjust it and trim the soft leather flap that it has to hug the side of the nose. In this way it is very hard for the child to peek around it.

If you use a patch over glasses and the vision fails to improve I'll sometimes switch you back to sticky patches to ensure no peeking is happening.

Atropine drops - when are these used?

Atropine is similar to the drop we use when examining your child to dilate their pupil and relax their focusing power (acccommodation), but it's effect lasts for up to a week.

By relaxing the focusing mechanism of the eye that has had drops put in, this eye will find things difficult to see (especially if up close, like when reading or playing with small toys). Assuming this blur makes things worse than the vision in the good eye, the brain shifts it's attention to the 'bad' eye and begins to use it, and this makes amblyopia recover.

Atropine can be used when it is difficult or impossible to use patches, and is known to work as effectively as wearing a patch for 2 hours every day. At least 1 hour of close work should be done each day, such as reading and craft. 

When do I put the drops in?

Because their efect lasts for 5 days, it is only necessary to put the drops in the good eye on 2 days of the week (one drop). These days can be anywhere in the week, 2 days in a row (Saturday and Sunday for instance are easy to remember). The drops can be put in while the child sleeps if you find this easier to do.

Why has my child shifted their focus from the good eye to the 'bad' one, since the drops started they only look at me with their worse eye?

This is a good sign. The brain will only choose the previously weaker eye and start using it if the treatment is working. Don't be concerned, it does not mean that the 'good eye' is losing vision.