Parents stay in constant touch with their pediatrician when a child is born, but as the years go by, doctor visits only happen when the child is hurt, injured or down with an illnesses that cannot be managed at home. An extremely crucial aspect of child health that gets even more neglected than others is the eyes. Few parents realize that an annual eye exam is vital to a child’s overall growth and well-being, and do not bother making appointments for annual check-ups with an opthalmologist.
This is a big mistake. Unlike adults, children cannot understand or express deficiencies of any kind in their eyesight, and they adopt defensive behavior patterns, like shying away from activities that cause discomfort, not joining games in the playground, squinting constantly, sitting too close to the TV, receiving lowers grades in school etc. If identified and treated on time, a lot of childhood vision-related issues and vision loss risks, can be reduced.
Annual Eye Exam For Children: Early Detection Of Vision Defects
• Eye power often gets detected late. According to the American Academy of Opthalmology, 5 % to 10 % of pre-schoolers and 25% of school-aged children have vision problems. Late detection of near-sightedness, far-sightedness and astigmatism significantly affects a child’s social and mental development and learning capabilities.
• `Lazy eye’ (amblyopia) can be detected very early in a child’s life, and when treated with a corrective eye patch on the normal eye, the weak one is forced to work harder and improve. The younger the child, the better to avoid a grade-school eye patch.
• Focusing ability, depth perception and ability to see the entire color spectrum are concerns that should be referred to a doctor as soon as parents suspect their child may be displaying poor hand-eye coordination and other tell-tale signs of sight difficulties.
• Misaligned or `cross eyes’ (strabismus) mostly happens in children because of eye muscle control weaknesses. Found out early, the condition can be rectified, so that vision and eye teaming skills can develop normally.
• Streff syndrome, or non-malingering syndrome, causes both distance and near vision to deteriorate temporarily. Most common among children aged 10 to 14, this condition decreases the eye’s ability to focus (accommodate), and is often caught because the child is struggling more than usual with her/her schoolwork.
• Finally, anterior eye and eyelid health. Typically, your eye doctor will examine your child’s eyelids to look for abnormal phenomena and examine the cornea, iris, and lens to look for cloudiness (opacities) or other irregularities.