For early detections, eyes have it

When a child is first born, we examine her eyes to rule out conditions that could cause problems with her vision.

It is important to do everything possible for a child to develop normal vision within the first few years of life. Visual development includes the eyes, brain and the nerves that connect them.

The eyes take in the message of what you are seeing, the nerve carries the message and the brain interprets what is seen. If anything is wrong with part of this, vision may be damaged.

Brain, eyes and nerves begin to grow during the first couple of months of pregnancy, so it is crucial to ensure that women have good nutrition and early prenatal care for a newborn to have normal development.

Your child’s health care provider will check your baby’s eyes each time she goes in for well-baby exams. If she finds signs of impaired visual function or one eye functioning differently than the other, your child may need to visit a pediatric ophthalmologist.

You can expect your child to have to look at an eye chart during well-exam visits starting at 3 years old.

Some eye problems run in families and others can be linked to development issues, diseases or eye damage.

When both eyes cannot look in the same direction at the same time it is called strabismus. A lazy or wandering eye is called amblyopia. If you have these or other inherited eye conditions, your children may be at increased risk of developing them as well.

Children with chronic health problems such as neurofibromatosis or diabetes need eye exams more frequently because these diseases can contribute to serious eye problems.

Because children do not know that they may be seeing things differently than everyone else is, it is up to you and their health care provider to watch for signs of vision problems.

If there is a difference in vision or a problem with one of the two eyes, it needs to be addressed before a child is 4 to 5 years old, which is when the brain’s vision center becomes more “hard-wired” and less capable of adapting. Delaying treatment of some eye conditions until after 5 years old may result in permanent partial or complete loss of vision.

After 5 years of age, we continue to monitor each child’s vision at least annually and watch for changes in the shape or size of an eye, crossed or wandering eyes or an abnormal appearance to one or both pupils.

If your child complains of eye pain, her vision does not line up or appears crossed or you have other concerns, take her in for an eye examination.

You should also have her seen for red, crusty or swollen eyelids; watery or red eyes; rubbing eyes frequently; covering or closing one eye to see things; struggling with reading; holding things close to see them; squinting a lot; complaining of itchy, burning or scratchy eyes; dizziness, headaches or nausea; and blurry or double vision. Any sudden change of vision needs immediate evaluation the same day.

If your child is in school, vision difficulties can result in some performance problems: not wanting to go to class, trouble paying attention, problems learning to read and write and struggling with homework.

Should your child need glasses, let her pick out her own frames if you can agree on a style, but be sure they are plastic frames. A strap on the glasses can prevent loss and reduce damage to glasses.

An older child may ask for contact lenses. Your decision on whether or not to allow your child to wear contacts needs to take into account her maturity level and ability to properly clean and care for them. Contact lenses that are not kept clean all the time can result in eye infections.

Many eye conditions can be stopped and corrected if treated early, so help guard your child’s future by making sure his eyes are checked regularly. As my chemistry professor used to tell us in the lab if someone forgot to put on his or her lab safety glasses, “You only get one set of eyes, so take care of them.”