Visual impairment in children:
Before talking about visual impairment in children, some diseases that need to be treated at an early age must be diagnosed, because when they grow up, this becomes difficult. These diseases are:
- Cataract in the eye: whose symptoms are clear, such as whiteness in the pupil of the eye and high intraocular pressure (navy blue), which makes the eye unusually wide and large. Pediatricians and obstetricians and gynecologists, after the development of medical imaging techniques, can carry out early detection of these diseases even before Birth to treat it before it develops.
Low vision in children:
It consists of 5 types:
1- Farsightedness:
In this case, the child can see well the distant objects, but he cannot see the close objects well.
Symptoms:
One of the symptoms of this condition is the observation that the child in kindergarten approaches the leaves a lot when coloring them.
When entering school, he gets a lot of headache, and makes a lot of effort to get exhausted at the end of the day. His handwriting is not good and he writes words of large size without committing to writing on the line.
2- Myopia:
It is the most common case in the world where the child is able to see close things but cannot see far things.
This situation can be noticed in the child when he gets too close to the TV screen and is unable to see when sitting in the last seats in the department.
This condition gives a distorted image of distant objects.
3- Curvature of the cornea:
It is normal for the cornea to be spherical in shape, and it is the transparent front area of the eye. In the case of corneal curvature, its shape is oval, and the image is blurred from near and far.
One of the symptoms of corneal curvature is a mixture of symptoms of nearsightedness and farsightedness, where the child is unable to see from near or far and makes an effort to do so, which will result in headaches, blurred vision of things, and writing in an unbeautiful handwriting.
4- The lazy eye:
There is no problem with myopia or farsightedness in this case, but the real problem is in the brain.
It is natural that there is an identical image of the things that we see at the level of the left eye and the right eye, and it is two-dimensional so that the brain creates a three-dimensional image.
When only a good image is available at the level of one eye, and the image of the second eye is blurry, the brain dispenses with the blurred image, which causes laziness in one eye, especially when the lack of vision is not in the same way.
5- Strabismus:
It is a result of poor eyesight, not a cause. There are 3 types of strabismus:
- Strabismus due to lack of vision, especially due to an increase in vision, which gives internal or external strabismus due to myopia.
- Strabismus due to weakness in the eye muscles.
- Compound strabismus due to deficiency of sight and weakness of the eye muscles.
the reasons:
- The child complains from birth from farsightedness and gradually adjusts to be at its maximum at the age of about 7 years. There is a certain rate of vision that should not be exceeded so that there is no congenital deformity due to exceeding the natural rate.
- Therefore, the first reason for farsightedness is the birth of a child with a state of farsightedness, and despite its decline, the condition remains associated with a number of children, so periodic monitoring is required.
- Myopia, which is the most common in the world, and studies have shown that the genetic factor is a pivotal reason for this.
- Retinal disease due to premature birth
- The height and speed of growth, and whenever the child has a tall stature, he loses sight, also if the growth is rapid.
- Lifestyle and excessive use of screens (mobile phone, computer, TV...).
- Do not exercise in an open place.
- Corneal curvature is a congenital disease that can be gradually repaired in some children, but it will not disappear completely.
- Eye infections can cause vision impairment, but not congenital vision impairment.
Diagnosis:
The diagnosis is made by optometry after placing a type of medication in the eye that helps to dilate the pupil and anesthetizes the eye muscles to obtain the correct optometry rate.
Doing a regular examination through a microscope to diagnose all parts of the eye, to monitor its pressure, fundus, and retina, and to measure the rate of vision.
Heartburn and eye tears:
Burning and tears in the eye can be a symptom of poor eyesight because it is evidence of an effort.
protection:
Prevention is to protect the child from a significant lack of vision.
Medicines can be taken to reduce the pattern of myopia.
Doing sports and activities in open spaces.
Using a type of rigid contact lens to control the pattern of deficiency in vision and to avoid glasses in children.
treatment:
The treatment is to wear medical glasses.
There is a type of nearsightedness that does not result in worrisome symptoms, so it is not necessary to wear glasses.
Wearing contact lenses, and it is desirable that they be solid, to prevent bacterial complications and dry eyes.
Flexible lenses may be used in some cases.
It is not possible to resort to surgery to correct vision in children only after the completion of growth, which is within the limits of twenty years.
Labels
Ophthalmology