Consumer Voice :: Eye Care

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Eye Care

Why do you need
An Optometrist?

Dr. Karan Raj Agrawala

Eye conditions affecting children

Did you ever think of getting your child’s eyes examined?

Look out for the following signs and symptoms that may signal vision trouble in school years:

Appearance:	Crossed, red or watery, encrusted lids, frequent styes.
Behavior:	Squints or closes one eye, rigid body posture, avoids close work, rocks back and forth, turns head, moves head excessively, too close to work, uses finger to read, rubs eyes during or after short periods of reading.
Complaints:	Blurred vision, headaches, nausea, burning, sees double, tires quickly while reading.

Myopia:

Vision problems develop at any age but sudden increases in myopia seem to occur at the time when the child is learning to read and when demand for close work is high. Myopia also tends to occur when the child gains height suddenly. Make sure that your child has a complete vision exam from a qualified optometrist preferably every year after age four.

Reading habits:

At home, be sure that there is enough indirect light for homework, and have a desk that does not face a wall. The child should be able to look up and focus for distance from time to time. Ask her to look far away for one minute after every 20 minutes of reading. A safe reading distance is 14-16 inches from the eyes to the page. Give the eyes a chance to relax when doing lots of close work and have routine eye exams to be sure the visual apparatus is working properly.

Strabismus (also called squint) is a technical term for crossed eyes. It may either be due to a genetic predisposition or a malfunctioning of eye-brain coordination. Non-surgical therapeutic techniques and exercises that teach the eyes to work together are often helpful.

Amblyopia is a condition of having a disease-free eye that, due to some functional anomaly, cannot be fully corrected to 6/6 despite optical correction. This can be prevented almost all the time if it is detected early enough (before age 9, but preferably by age 4) and if the cause is effectively treated.

Dyslexia is inability to read and understand written language despite normal intelligence and educational opportunities. Dyslexic children have good visual acuity, although they seem to have difficulty scanning their eyes across the page.

What to look for when children read

Poor comprehension, misses a line, short attention span, omits words, writes uphill or downhill, mistakes words, fails to visualize, confuses left-right directions, draws poorly or loses interest.