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- Big Problems Can Plague Little Eyes
- Doctors recommend that even infants get vision tests
- By Dennis Thompson Jr.
HealthDay Reporter
SUNDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDayNews) -- Many parents wait until kindergarten to have their children's vision tested.
They could be taking a big risk.
Severe eye diseases can begin in infancy or early childhood. And if they aren't caught early, the chances for successful treatment diminish, says Dr. Jack T. Swanson, past chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine.
As many as one in seven children need vision correction to see well, according to the Vision Council of America and the American Optometric Association.
"Parents need to realize there's more to vision than seeing the eye chart," says optometrist Joel Zaba, a spokesman for the vision council. "Screening will catch some problems, but we recommend a comprehensive exam for children."
And infants and young children can't tell you they can't see -- or even tell you something is wrong.
"A child who has problems from birth won't know how things are supposed to look. So even if they can talk, they have no point of reference from which to know something is wrong," says Dr. Robert Cykiert, an associate professor of ophthalmology at New York University School of Medicine.
Young children can suffer from such serious eye diseases as cataracts or strabismus, an eye muscle disorder in which the eyes aren't aligned properly.
Another disease common to children is amblyopia -- also known as "lazy eye" -- in which the brain will not receive images from a poorly functioning eye.
"They have one eye working better than the other, then the brain will suppress the vision of the eye that's not working well," Swanson says.
About 2.3 percent of American children have strabismus, and another 3.4 percent suffer from amblyopia. If these conditions aren't caught, they can lead to the loss of vision in the weaker eye, Swanson says.
"It's not reversible as much if it's not caught early," he adds. "It has to be picked up in the first few years to have an optimal chance for treatment."
Undetected vision problems can also be the cause of poor performance in school, according to Dr. Steven Lieberman, a pediatric optometrist in New York City.
"A lot of the school-age children who are having reading problems may be having vision problems, especially in focusing," Lieberman says. "Even if they pass the screening test, they may have a problem that has not been detected."
The vision of infants and young children can be tested using an optical system known as photoscreening, in which the child looks into the lens of a camera for a few seconds. The resulting photo captures the amount of light bouncing off the retina and can provide clues to numerous vision problems, including cataracts, strabismus, and nearsightedness and farsightedness.
The American Academy of Pediatrics urges parents to have their children's eyes tested from as early as 6 months of age, with continued screening through their developing years.
Swanson suggests testing children's vision no later than age three.
"We usually start trying to screen their vision by then, which does take some effort by screeners," Swanson says. "Screening at that age is preferable to waiting until school age, because some of these things can be treated better at the younger age."
Swanson and Lieberman disagree on whether parents should seek out a specialist in pediatric optometry to perform a vision screening on a child.
Swanson says any pediatrician should be able to detect a vision disorder. "We feel that if a pediatrician is screening properly in their office, they can screen most children properly," he says.
But Lieberman says many children suffering from eye disorders may slip through the screening because the pediatricians do not have enough training to detect them.
"A lot of pediatricians in schools do vision screening, but we don't know how many [problems] are missed," Lieberman says. "My feeling is it's better to get an eye examination from someone who specializes in children's vision."
Treatment varies depending on the disease.
Cataracts usually require surgery, Lieberman says. A child suffering from strabismus might be given exercises to strengthen the weakened muscles and thereby realign the eyes.
To treat amblyopia, doctors want to make the child use the weaker eye. A patch may be put over the stronger eye, or eye drops or special glasses used to blur vision in the stronger eye.
The treatment usually lasts until vision is normal. For most children, this takes several weeks. A few children need to use eye patches until they are 8 to 10 years old, Lieberman says.
More information
To learn more about children and vision problems, visit the Optometrists Network. For more on photoscreening, check with the American Academy of Pediatrics.
- SOURCES: Jack T. Swanson, M.D., pediatrician, Ames, Iowa, and member, American Academy of Pediatrics; Joel Zaba, M.A., O.D., spokesman, Vision Council of America, and optometrist, Virginia Beach, Va.; Robert Cykiert, M.D., ophthalmologist, New York University Medical Center, and clinical associate professor, ophthalmology, New York University School of Medicine, New York City; Steven Lieberman, M.D. pediatric optometrist, New York City
- Doctors recommend that even infants get vision tests.
- Copyright © 2003 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
- This is a story from HealthDay, a service of ScoutNews, LLC.
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