Eye troubles are not just an adult’s prerogative. Even your li’l one can suffer a host of eye problems. M&B unravels some of the eye troubles your child can have, sometimes right from birth, which might slowly and steadily degrade his good vision.

Do not ignore the symptoms. We give you ways to identify various conditions and treat them early to empower your tot with healthy eyes...

Look into your baby’s eyes and you will see how those innocent peepers stare back at you in awe with an attempt to recognise your face and the world around him. Infants depend largely on their eyesight to learn from and familiarise themselves with their surroundings. Grown-ups might not realise, but it’s quite a task for little ones, as vision is all that they have to rely on, to get to know the world around them. Therefore, your child’s vision plays an important role during his early years of life because his learning abilities depend largely on his visual inputs. It’s as important for you to pay attention towards the health of his eyes as you would his nutrition and diet.

That said, we don’t mean you worry about your child’s eyesight right from day one. As Dr Ashwin Sainani, paediatric ophthalmologist at Mumbai’s PD Hinduja Hospital & Medical Research Centre, explains, “A child’s vision starts to develop only after one month of age and accurate vision sets in only after the child is four months old.” This is when your child responds promptly to light and bright-coloured toys. As development of vision progresses, it also stimulates the development of the brain. The eye-brain connection has its foundation built during the years of infancy.

IDEAL AGE FOR EYE CHECK-UP
1st check: At six weeks, to ensure that your child doesn’t suffer from any congenital eye troubles

2nd check: At two years, to catch any troubles early

3rd check: A preschool check-up, at four years, is the best you can do to find out problems as the child responds well to visual inputs at this age.

4th check: At seven years, is vital since beyond this age, treatment can be less effective.

5th check: Ensure that your child enters early adulthood with trouble-free vision by ensuring a check-up at 10 years of age.

Often, eye problems in infants or young children are silent. They show no signs or symptoms and hence, go unnoticed during the early development stages. “Children will not complain about any vision problems as they believe that what they see is what the world sees, so it’s important for you to keep a tab on your child’s eye health and hygiene,” says Dr Sainani, who believes that the best age for a child to get an eye test done is before pre-school. But there are doctors who believe that the earlier you do this, the better. Dr Deepak Garg, paediatric ophthalmologist from Eye Solutions, Mumbai, advises, “The first eye check-up should take place when your baby is six weeks old. This ensures that you pick up any eye problems, if at all they exist, at the earliest.”

“There are certain eye problems that are visible, like say a squint or droopy eyes, and others that breed silently. So, an eye check-up at an early age is important,” says Dr Sainani. Also there are many myths related to eye care, like a squint at birth goes away on its own as the child grows. This is not the case, so parents should take care to resolve the problem of a squint at the earliest. He adds, “Vision develops fully around age seven or at most, when a child is nine years old. Any visual problem corrected during early childhood promises better vision in the future. If your child has blurry vision during his infancy or early childhood, which is addressed only at age 10, the problem probably cannot be completely resolved but can be addressed with external aids, say glasses, lenses, etc.”

Here is a run down of possible eye troubles that your child can encounter at an early age, their signs and symptoms and what you can do to counter them...