Vision is a significant sense for children to experience the world around them. When infants and children have difficulty seeing, it is necessary to get their vision checked and treated immediately. Diagnosing the root cause of the vision problem and on-time intervention by can help prevent permanent damage to your child’s eyes. However, treating children for vision problems is quite a challenge, and pediatric ophthalmologists come to our rescue.
Pediatric ophthalmology is a subspecialty of ophthalmology that includes diagnosing and treating eye problems faced by infants, children and adolescents.
Pediatric ophthalmology includes conducting routine eye checks, correcting vision errors, prescribing corrective glasses or lenses, treating eye illnesses, and performing surgeries. These eye specialists are also experts at treating allergies and wounds affecting the eyes and vision.
They often work in tandem with other specialists like pediatricians, nutritionists, and neurologists for the holistic treatment of vision problems in children.
Eye problems in children have several known and unknown causes. Some eye problems are observable like squint eyes and lazy or droopy eyes. Many vision issues are identified through symptoms like the inability to see or read clearly. Also, persistent symptoms such as rubbing of the eyes, headaches, and watering of the eyes may be indicators of vision problems.
However, refractive errors often go unidentified for a long time since children are unable to understand whether they can see clearly or not. These problems are often (or should be) noticed by parents or teachers by being more observant. Behavioural changes like watching TV from a close distance, straining to read from a book or blackboard, and dropping performance at school can be cues to identifying eye problems.
Refractive errors are caused when light is not focused properly on the retina due to the eye shape or cornea. Refractive errors in children may create an inability to see distant objects clearly (myopia or nearsightedness), near objects (hyperopia or farsightedness), or distorted vision at all distances (astigmatism).
These conditions have a huge impact on daily activities for children such as their routine chores, reading, writing, viewing objects, walking, and even playing.
Refractive errors are often managed with corrective glasses or contact lenses and rarely eye surgery. Refractive surgery is typically considered only for older adolescents with stable vision and, in special cases, to avoid wearing lenses or glasses.
As the name suggests, lazy eye or amblyopia is when one eye doesn’t focus as clearly as the other. Thus, the vision in the lazy eye is decreased.
Amblyopia is caused when the brain suppresses input from the weaker eye, leading it to rely more on the stronger eye. The stronger eye compensates for the lazy one and the vision in the weaker eye decreases.
Amblyopia is tricky to diagnose unless during a routine eye exam. The main symptom of amblyopia is poor depth perception. Some children may also have squinting, or looking at objects with a tilted head.
Amblyopia can be identified during an eye test at least once between ages 3 and 5. Treatment includes strengthening the weaker eye by closing the stronger one, eye drops and glasses.
Strabismus or cross eyes are caused when eyes don’t move simultaneously as a pair. One of the eyes may drift in, out, up, and down, making the eyes point in different directions.
This misalignment may cause blurred or double vision.
Strabismus may be caused due to problems with the eye muscles, weak nerves or the part of the brain that controls eye movement. Some conditions, such as premature birth or Down’s syndrome etc, may be causal factors.
Treatment includes aligning the eyes through lenses, medications, eye exercises, or eye surgery.
Cataract is commonly known to be a disease of the elderly and is quite uncommon in children. A cataract is caused when the eye’s natural lens is clouded and becomes opaque. This leads to gradual loss of vision and may impact one or both eyes. The causal factors are often genetic or metabolic.
Cataract treatment may differ based on the severity of the condition and may or may not need surgery.
Crying is the most natural reflex of an infant or child to express discomfort or pain. Blocked tear ducts, also called dacryostenosis, usually happen when the tear ducts are not developed correctly. This can be caused in one or both eyes.
Symptoms include excessive accumulation of mucus or tears in the corner of the eye, and reddening of eyes due to excessive rubbing. Blocked tear ducts could also lead to other eye infections.
Depending on the severity of the condition and the age of the child, treatment ranges from massaging the tear ducts to eye surgery.
Fairly uncommon in children, pediatric glaucoma occurs when the aqueous fluid is not drained properly and increases the intraocular pressure in the eyes. This affects the optic nerve.
Common symptoms are eye pain, blurry vision, seeing rainbow rings or halos, headache, or nausea. The causes may be congenital or due to any other medical condition, eye disease or injury.
Eye drops, oral medication or pediatric eye surgery are glaucoma treatment options, depending on the severity.
Children are prone to many eye infections or allergies due to hygiene issues and lower immune systems. Some common eye conditions are conjunctivitis (pink eye), styes, and keratitis (infection of the cornea).
Allergies can be caused due to dust, pollen, or pets.
Children are also prone to eye injuries due to their playful nature or lack of alertness.
Detecting eye problems in children and infants can be very tricky since they have very little awareness of how clearly they can see. Thus, pediatric ophthalmologists use multiple tests, child-friendly approaches and techniques to ascertain the nature of the eye problem.
Some common tests used by pediatric eye doctors are:
There are many new technologies and automated tests for accurate diagnoses and treatment of your child’s vision. Some common treatment methods in pediatric ophthalmology are:
For infants, developmental milestones are references for healthy vision. For children, being aware of their changing behaviour and persistent symptoms can be helpful in timely intervention.
Some symptoms that call for immediate medical attention from pediatric eye doctors are:
Annual checkups can start from the ages of 3 to 4.
Treating children can be tricky because, unlike adults, they are unable to pinpoint their challenges with vision. This calls for expert and seasoned pediatric eye doctors who can engage the child while evaluating their vision. Nethradhama offers expert and reliable medical services with child-friendly clinics and doctors trained to work with children.
Nethradhama creates personalised treatment plans for children involving primary caregivers in every step of the treatment. Pediatric Ophthalmologists offer end-to-end care, right from routine eye exams to caregiver education to complex surgeries.
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If your child is reading with the book too close to their face, watching TV at a close distance, is unable to focus and see objects clearly or has persistent headaches, an eye exam will ascertain if your child needs glasses.
Causes of vision problems in children could be genetic or metabolic. Refractive errors, improper eye development, infections, allergies, or injuries could be causes of problems with vision.
Regular eye exams could be conducted between ages 3 to 5. However, eye screenings could be conducted for newborns once every 6 months.
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