Importance of Children's Eye Health checking

Importance of Children's Eye Health checking

 many children have vision problems threatened. Early detection is very important in order to fix it before it's too late. Children's eyes have its own growth schedule so that when it reaches a certain stage it becomes difficult eye problems corrected. In addition to examination by a pediatrician or eye doctor, parents play an important role for the detection of eye disorders in children, provided they adequately understand the signs.



Visual development in children

Child's visual system develops very rapidly in the first 18 months, which was later to be perfect at the age of 5 or 6 years.

• At the time of birth, the baby can see the pattern of light and dark, but the focus is still obscure. Baby world consists of "unlimited space" is no farther than about one meter. Babies who can see normally would respond to people's faces, especially her mother, who stared at him from close range.
• Between the ages of 4-6 months the baby will move his head, not just to follow moving objects, but also when looking in the direction of another object.
• At the age of 6-8 months baby's vision should be steady and straight. At this age your baby can see full colors, reaching for objects, and his eyes are well coordinated so that the eye movements began to control. Your baby will be able to obtain visual information with eye movements, so that the head movement is reduced following objects.
• At 8-12 months your baby will use both eyes together to judge distances and develop depth perception.
• As the growth of children aged 1-3 years, hand-eye coordination will improve and the children begin to better understand their environment. At this stage, children begin to explore their surroundings.

Children's eye health problems

there are different eye problems that can befall a child at each stage of growth. Eye abnormalities in less than one year are generally congenital / congenital.

Retinopathy of prematurity * (ROP), a condition in which immature retinal development and only partially overwhelmed so easily damaged blood vessels and detach, causing blindness. The condition is more common in babies born prematurely.

• Conjunctivitis gonorrhea infection in infants born to mothers exposed to vaginal gonorrhea.
• Infantile Cataracts are opacities in the eyes of newborns.
• Congenital Glaucoma is a congenital condition in which the eye drainage channels are not formed properly before birth.

Abnormalities in a more advanced age due to developmental disorders or diseases. Here are some health problems that can befall a child's eyes:

• Amblyopia (lazy eye) is the lack of visual acuity defects that cannot be fully corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses. Two common causes of amblyopia are eye crossing and refractive difference between the eyes. If left untreated, amblyopia can lead to permanent vision loss in the affected eye. Amblyopia should be corrected in the pre-school age.
• Strabismus (crossed eyes) is a visual defect in which the two eyes point leads to a different focus. One of the eyes can lead to the right, left, up, or down, while the other eye fixed on the other. Strabismus causes loss of stereoscopic depth perception. With early detection, strabismus can be corrected by closing your eyes focused right eye forcing out of sync to work. Surgery or special glasses can also help eye alignment.
• Abnormalities of refraction so that the lens does not refract or reflect light properly, so images appear blurred. Nearsightedness, farsightedness and Astigmatism / cylindrical refractive error are the most common.
• Retinoblastoma is a malignant tumor that usually appears in the first 3 years of life. Affected eye may lose visual and white pupils.

Signs of eye disorders

Rarely move the eye, do not close your eyes when in bright sunlight, or lack of a consistent response to the mother's face is a sign the baby has vision problems in both eyes. Delay stages of vision, eye complaints, watery eyes, like squinting / blink or frown and squint eye is another common sign. Examination by a trained ophthalmologist is recommended if these signs are present. Especially, watch out for the following developmental delays in your child:

• in the first week after birth, the baby does not set his sights toward the light or vice versa, just avoid the light.
• At the age of one to two months have not looked at his mother.
• At the age of three to four months did not see his hands. She did not smile on the faces are familiar.
• At the age of six months are not capturing objects to be brought into his mouth. He does not seem to distinguish familiar faces to strangers.
• At the age of nine months do not react to sudden movements. He's not looking for things that disappear from view.

In children of school age, the following signs may be present:

• Inability to see objects at a distance
• Inability to read the board
• Frequent squinting
• Difficulty reading
• Sitting too close to TV

How to test your child's vision?

Try putting an interesting object in front of one eye and observe how your baby reacts to that object. The object could be your face or small toys, such as brightly colored dolls. Reaction would indicate the presence and quality of vision in the eye that was tested. In this case you should not use the object that says, for example, a small bell, because it will be difficult to determine whether the baby see or hear the bells.

After the toddler began to speak, he may be invited to participate in the testing process. Pictures or familiar objects, such as toys, dolls, and others can be used for testing. Children were asked to identify objects shown. Each eye should be tested separately, with the other eye closed, because that's the best way to find out whether there are differences in the ability of sight.

If the child shows any vision problems, immediately consult an eye specialist professional to identify and address existing visual problems. Early diagnosis of eye problems is the key to the success of correction or cure.