Eye health care for Infants
It is the wish of all parents for their children to be healthy
and live happy fulfilled lives. To achieve this they may go to any length to
provide their children with the very best.
When a child is born, to give him or her a healthy future, the
parents make sure that their child gets vaccinated on time, and may also go for
regular checkups to assure that there is nothing wrong with their child’s
health.
However one thing that is generally ignored in this regimen, is a
child’s eye health. Due to which a child may suffer long before any kind of
diagnosis is made regarding any problems with the eyes or vision. Until and
unless the problem is acutely visible, parents generally ignore the fact that
like any other health checkups, regular eye checkup should also be an essential
part of a child’s healthcare routine.
The need is for the parents to be aware of the progress of an
infants vision, the same way they are aware of other milestones in a child’s
development. Milestones like their growth patterns, feeding progress, a child’s
cognition development for example, when should a child walk and talk etc.
In the same way, it is equally important to keep an eye on the
vision progress of an infant. From birth to twenty four months of age, regular
checkups are required for early detection of any ailments or problems of the
eyes and vision. However parents should also keep in mind the normal patterns
of vision progress so as not to get alarmed without cause or concern.
From birth to 4 months
of age, eye hand coordination begins to develop as the infant starts
focusing on moving objects with his or her eyes and reaching for them. In the
first two months, an infants eyes may appear to wander or to be crossed. This
is usually normal. However, if an eye appears to turn in and out constantly, an
evaluation is warranted as that may develop into a squint.
From the age of 5 to 8 months, an infants eyes slowly
become capable of working together to form a three-dimensional view of the
world.
From 9 to 12 months, babies can start judging distances
fairly well and throw things with precision.
By 2 years of age, a child’s eye-hand coordination and
depth perception should be well developed.
Even though it is rare in infants to have vision or eye problems,
and most babies begin life with healthy eyes, occasionally, eye health and
vision problems can develop.
Following are the signs that parents need to look for that may
indicate problems in eyes or vision:
-Excessive tearing in an infants eyes may indicate blocked tear
duct.
-Encrusted or red eyelids could be sign of an eye infection. A
large chalazion ( also known as sebaceous cyst) or an infection may need to be
treated.
-If a parent detects extreme sensitivity to light in his or her
child, it may be an indication of elevated pressure in the eyes.
-In very rare cases, if there is an appearance of a white pupil,
it may indicate the presence of an eye cancer
-When the eyes of a child do not align properly, it results in a
squint. While one eye focuses on one spot, the other eye can turns inwards,
upwards, downwards or outwards. It can happen intermittently or all the time.
-Some children may have a condition called Amblyopia also
commonly known as the lazy eye. In this condition the eye and brain cognition
is weak due to which a child will develop good vision in one eye and poor in
the other one. The most common concern regarding this ailment is that infants
or children get used to using their ‘good eye’ and may not notice if there is
anything wrong and so will not mention it to their parents. Only timely and
regular checkups can diagnose this problem.
The most important question is, what can parents do to help their
baby’s vision develop properly?
A few suggestions of activities that can assist an infant’s
visual development are as follows:
From Birth to 4 months, keep reach-and-touch toys within
the baby’s focus. Also, change the crib’s position frequently, talk to the baby
as the parent walks around the room and alternate right and left sides while
feeding so that the baby learns to adjust his or her eyes accordingly.
From 5 to 8 month, hang a mobile, crib gym or various
objects across the crib for the baby to grab and pull. Give the baby plenty of
time to play and explore on the floor.
During the age of 9 to 12 months, the game of hide and
seek can be played with toys or face to help the baby develop visual memory.
Objects can be named out loud while talking to the baby to encourage the baby’s
word association and vocabulary.
From the ages of one to two years the child can be engaged
in games like rolling the ball back and forth so that he or she can track
objects with the eyes visually. Also stories can be read or told to stimulate
the child’s ability to visualise and pave the way for learning and reading
skills.
Most importantly, even if no eye or vision problems are apparent,
even then, at about the age of 6 months, a baby should be taken to the doctor
of optometry for his or her first thorough eye examination, followed by a check
up every six months. This will help the doctor to rule out the following eye or
vision problems after a complete check up;
-excessive or unequal amount of near or farsightedness and/or
astigmatism
-eye movement ability of the child. And
-eye health and vision disorders
Amanat Eye Hospital branches across Pakistan are known to be the
best at providing the latest treatments available and state of the art
technology to provide eye health solutions. We have got ophthalmology
specialists and staff to provide the most advanced diagnostic consultations and
medical and surgical management of children’s eye and vision disorders. Our
full and part time clinical faculty members understand the needs of caring for
infants and children and their families, and have expertise in a range of areas
from strabismus (Abnormal alignment of one or both eyes also known as a squint)
surgery to paediatric neuro-ophthalmology, retinopathy of prematurity, vision
screening and amblyopia (visual defect or impairment) treatment.
We are also very pleased to inform the readers that Pakistan’s
best Squint specialist and paediatric ophthalmologist, Prof Dr Mubashar Jalis
is providing his services at Amanat Eye Hospital Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
For further information regarding the child eye and vision care
services, please visit our website
www.amanathospital.com
