In young children, vision problems often go undetected

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.