In the
first few months of life, infants can only see clearly objects that are 8 to 10
inches from their faces. It is not until 12 to 16 weeks that their eyesight
begins to improve, and they start seeing things more clearly and further away.
Over the next year, kids develop depth perception, eye-body coordination,
eye-hand coordination, and the ability to judge distances. It's rare for
children to have vision problems at this age.
Silent
Symptoms: Vision Problems in Children
Vision
problems in kids tend to emerge between 1½ - 4 years. The two most common
issues are:
1. A crossed or wandering eye, which
troubles 3 - 5% of children. Symptoms include an eye that drifts or appears
crossed in respect to the other eye, though "it isn't really the eye
that's the problem," says Dr. Geeta Srinivasan, M.S., DNB, Paediatric
Ophthalmology.
2. Uneven focus, where one eye is more
farsighted than the other, affects 2 - 3% of kids. This vision problem is the
hardest to detect, because young children don't know that their vision is
compromised. "Seeing that way, it's all they've ever known," says Dr.
B.S. Goel, MD, Ph D and HoD Pediatric Ophthalmology, ICARE eye Hospital,
"so they won't say anything about it.”
Most of
the eye problems go unnoticed in children, as they are too young to understand
that something is wrong with their vision. It is for the parents to take the
child for an eye checkup to a Doctor. ICARE Eye Hospital's Pediatric
Ophthalmology Department has special faculty, equipment ambience and
sensitization for the children problems.