VISION PROBLEMS IN CHILDHOOD
Symptoms: Tilting or cocking head; looking out of corner of eye; squinting; crossed eyes; sensitivity to light; headaches; dislike of reading; school problems.
Home care: Have your child’s eyes examined regularly, and be aware of the signs that might suggest the child has a vision problem.
Precautions
- A child s vision should be checked annually from the age of four or younger.
- If your child holds books very close to his or her eyes when reading or cannot see the television screen from a distance, have the child’s eyes checked.
By age four or five, 5 to 10 percent of all children have a problem with vision. By the end of adolescence, the percentage has climbed to 30.
The usual vision problems that occur among children and adolescents are nearsightedness (myopia), lazy eye (amblopia ex anopsia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism. Nearsightedness or the inability to see distant objects clearly, is hereditary. It is rarely present at birth but develops as the child grows. Lazy eye develops during the first six or seven years of life. Farsightedness (inability to see nearby objects clearly) and astigmatism (blurred vision at all distances) occur at an early age and don’t usually grow worse with time.
*242/84/5*
