Protecting Your Eyes

Making sure that your little one receives the appropriate level of eye care is an important thing as a parent, but many parents have no idea just how many common vision issues there are that could affect their children. The American Optometric Association recommends that children have their eyes checked between birth and two-years old, between two and five-years old, and when they start school, with checkups every other year thereafter. Of course the main objective with regular eye exams is to make sure that your child can see well, but visits to the optometrist for little can also be due to some fairly common childhood vision problems.

Conjunctivitis

Known as pink eye by most parents, conjunctivitis is an infection of the eye that causes extreme irritation and can be incredibly painful to a little one. Conjunctivitis can be either relative to a viral or bacterial infection, but is almost always highly contagious. Children with one pink eye will almost always rub their eyes and transfer the condition to the other eye as well. Treatment usually involves prescription eye drops for pain and antibiotics.

Droopy Eyelid

Medically termed ptosis, droopy eyelids are rather common with children. Even though this may not sound like a threatening issue, an eyelid that droops low enough to get in the way of a child's line of sight can be a big problem. This condition is caused by lack of development in eye muscles, but is usually fairly simple to address through a cosmetic procedure to move excess skin.

Crossed Eyes or Lazy Eyes

Crossed and lazy eyes are often caused by problems with the retinal muscles improperly communicating with the visual pathways to the brain, but can also be related to muscular conditions as well. To address issues with lazy or crossed eyes, an optometrist will work with your child through visual therapy to train the weak eye muscles to move in specific directions. This may involve the use of a patch or pair of glasses that keeps the unaffected eye covered, but can involve surgery to repair the muscles as well.

To make sure that your child has the best chance to visualize the world as he or she grows, regular optometrist visits are vital. However, you should always be on the lookout for signs that there is something more serious going on with your child's eyes. Talk to a pediatric optometrist for more information about childhood eye conditions.

For professional eye care, contact an office such as Linden Optometry PC.