The vision problems in children are common. Fortunately, most can be solved effectively, without any sequelae in adult life. But for this, early detection is essential. For example, lazy eye can only be completely resolved if treatment is started at an early age. After that, it is very difficult to achieve significant improvements.

Another extraordinarily common problem such as myopia, although it can be corrected later, can lead to problems of school failure if it is not corrected in time.

Most Common Visual Abnormalities In Children

Refractive errors cause poor vision at certain distances as a result of the blurring of objects on the retina. The causes are usually an excess of the power of the lens or abnormal shape of the eye that causes the image, instead of forming on the retina, to focus in front of it, behind or at various points.

Although refractive errors can have a hereditary component, this is not always the case. Hence, we will look into the comparison; Amblyopia vs Strabismus.

Lazy Eye

Lazy eye or amblyopia is also a very frequent affectation that occurs when one of the two eyes, without having an organic reason that justifies it, is used less than the other.

It is usually associated with strabismus problems, which is when there is not a correct convergence in the direction of gaze, or there is a significant difference in graduation in an underlying refractive error.

Symptoms

  • Often rubs or winks eyes
  • Frequent headaches
  • The child has trouble focusing
  • Bows head when reading or writing

Treatments

Placing a simple patch on the dominant eye is usually enough to reactivate the lazy eye. However, it is essential to start therapy very soon since it is not effective after a certain age. Other treatments are:

 

  • Place penalty filters on the glass of the glasses
  • Eye drops to dilate the pupil of the dominant eye

Squint

Childhood strabismus occurs when one eye looks in one direction and the other in a different direction. This problem of parallelism in the gaze can occur in a fixed or alternate way, changing the direction of the gaze of each eye but, in any case, producing a distortion.

Strabismus is an anomaly that should not be underestimated since in addition to aesthetic problems in many cases, it also causes vision problems of various degrees.

Symptoms

  • Lack of parallelism or synchronization in the gaze
  • Double vision or diplopia
  • Headaches
  • Visual fatigue

Remember that early diagnosis through frequent check-ups by the ophthalmologist or visual specialist is the best way to detect any eye problem in time and avoid greater evils.