Squint in children is one of the few diseases that can be detected independently, without various studies. Pathology is characterized by the asymmetry of one or both eyes relative to the central axis, as a result of which the baby loses the ability to focus on any object. According to statistics, the disease occurs in 3% of children, with the same frequency in boys and girls. The risk group includes babies aged 2-3 years, because at this moment the formation of eye work occurs. Newborns are also sometimes diagnosed with pathology, but it is often temporary and resolves soon.
It is worth noting that strabismus in children is not only an external defect, but also a dangerous disease. The affected eye does not see well and stops developing. If the disease is not cured before the age of 7, serious vision problems can occur, in especially severe cases the child will not be able to see. In this article, we will look at the causes and treatment of strabismus in children, as well as talk about the signs of pathology.
Why does sickness occur?
In medicine, there are two main types of diseases: congenital and acquired. The same goes forstrabismus. Many people ask why a child can be born with an external defect. This trend directly indicates the presence of congenital problems that are inherited. These include Brown and Louis-Bar syndromes, as well as neurodevelopmental dysfunction.
The cause of strabismus in children of a congenital nature may be the pathological course of pregnancy or the presence of birth injuries. There are situations when a woman during childbirth does not have enough oxygen due to suffocation. This can easily become the basis for the appearance of an ailment.
Now for the acquired causes of strabismus in children. These include:
- damage to the nerve endings that monitor the functioning of the oculomotor muscles, as a result of injury or infection;
- reduced visual acuity due to the presence of ailments such as farsightedness, myopia, retinal dystrophy or cataracts;
- swelling or swelling in the eye area;
- damage to the cerebral cortex or pituitary gland;
- strong stress, fear, psychological trauma;
- Improper functioning of the thyroid gland.
It can be concluded that it is not enough to protect the baby from the effects of infections and physical injuries. Strabismus can also develop as a result of an emotional breakdown. As you know, it is very easy to offend a child, so parents should not allow such a development of events.
False, true and hidden disease
As already noted, at the age of 2-3 years, children usually develop the disease. Exactly thenthe child seeks to explore the world around him, as a result of which his eyes strain. If your baby's eye movements are not coordinated at this age, there is reason to start worrying.
In infants, the gaze does not concentrate at one point, so it is difficult to determine the pathology. Usually, at the age of 3-4 months, the eyes stop running back and forth, we can already talk about the presence of pathology. If problems are found, contact a specialist to avoid consequences.
Strabismus in children under one year old is possible only in case of congenital pathologies. It is better to check the state of vision several times a year, even if there are no obvious violations. To say with confidence about the presence of pathology, the ophthalmologist conducts a series of examinations. Often the alarm turns out to be false, and the doctor diagnoses an imaginary strabismus, which appears due to the asymmetry of the face. The analyzers work well, but as a result of the different shape of the slits, it may seem that both eyes squint. In this case, we are only talking about an external defect.
In medicine, hidden strabismus is also distinguished, which is characterized by insufficient development of the muscles of the eye. What is the feature? From the side, the defect is invisible, but if you close one eye, the other will deviate. During a visual examination, the ophthalmologist always conducts a mini-examination to identify possible problems.
Classification
Squint in children is divided into many types depending on the symptom under consideration. These may include time of onset, stability of symptoms, eye involvement.and type of deviation. When a doctor makes a diagnosis, he has in mind all sorts of classifications. However, the most common is by type of deviation:
- Convergent strabismus in children. This is the most common form, according to statistics, occurs in 80% of victims. The disease is formed at the age of 2-3 months. As for the symptoms, there is no bifurcation, the deviant eye sees much worse, as a result, a full-fledged image cannot be formed. This type of disease is usually diagnosed at 3-4 years of age.
- Divergent strabismus in children. The form of the disease is often congenital due to intrauterine pathologies. One eye squints in the direction of the nose, the second can be absolutely normal or static, that is, it cannot look in different directions due to paralytic damage. Manifested by the duality of the image, its blurring, coupled with a headache.
- Vertical type of disease. The peculiarity is that such strabismus appears as a result of muscle paralysis. Vision correction is complicated here, surgery is required.
- Mixed kind of ailment. The bottom line is the presence of two other types of strabismus at the same time. Usually a convergent or divergent deviation is combined with a vertical one. If we talk about treatment, this option is the most difficult, complex therapy is required.
What is the danger?
We have already said that the disease in question is not only an external defect. The presence of an ailment indicates problems in the functioning of the visual apparatus, which leads to a certainkind of consequences of a negative nature.
Normal is the situation when the image is displayed simultaneously in the central retina of each eye in the process of observing the object. In other words, visual images merge into one picture. If two different images enter the baby's brain, we can talk about strabismus. The eyes of children in this case focus on different objects. The images do not merge, and as a result, the central nervous system does not perceive a complete image.
It turns out that the double load falls on the he althy eye, while the second atrophies, visual acuity is significantly reduced. It is possible to develop the disease amblyopia, characterized by the inability to process images due to the lack of interaction between the cerebral cortex and the retina. Violations of the visual apparatus have a negative impact on the psychological factor. The child becomes withdrawn, insecure, and in some cases aggressive.
Symptomatics
In most cases, parents notice the external manifestations of the disease. Due to improper physiological development, moms and dads understand that the child is not developing as well as we would like. So, the main symptoms include:
- The impossibility of concentrating the gaze at one point with both eyes. This sign is easy to identify by observing the facial expressions and facial expressions of the baby.
- Deviation of one eye up/down or left/right. If the child has a clear strabismus, then the symptomeasy to detect, otherwise only in bright light.
- Asynchronous eye movement. In principle, it is very easy to check. It is necessary to show the baby an object, gradually moving it to the side, and follow the expression of the eyes. If the movements follow the same trajectory, everything is in order, otherwise strabismus is possible.
- To examine the subject, the baby tilts his head. It becomes a full-fledged sign only if this is the main way of looking at the child.
- The baby often runs into obstacles. A classic example: leaving the bathroom, the child hits the jamb. You need to watch him, if this situation is repeated constantly, there is cause for concern.
Strabismus in children (see photo below) can only be diagnosed after they are 4 months old. Until this age, the gaze of babies is often unconcentrated. This is a temporary symptom that goes away after a few months. But if the problem persists, you need to see a doctor.
In older children, experts identify additional signs:
- excessive sensitivity to light, pain in the eyes, they involuntarily close;
- blurred vision, objects are perceived fuzzy, foggy;
- eyes get tired quickly, the baby constantly complains of pain when reading or drawing;
- double, the child cannot determine the number of objects shown to him.
Diagnosis
When the problem of strabismus in children is necessarymake an appointment with an ophthalmologist. It is this doctor who deals with everything related to the eyes. To confirm or refute the diagnosis, he uses the following methods:
- Visual inspection.
- Determination of visual acuity using well-known methods.
- Perimetry, thanks to this study, you can determine the field of view.
- Checks the amount of eye movement. Refers to visual examination of the detailed type, the specialist observes the reaction of the eyes to the movement of the object up and down and left and right.
- The four-point color test, thanks to which they determine the number of eyes with which the baby sees.
If the above methods are not enough to make a diagnosis, the doctor sends the baby for computed tomography and ultrasound. Often, an ophthalmologist appoints an appointment with his colleagues: a neurologist and an endocrinologist. This is due to the fact that first of all it is necessary to determine the cause of the disease, and then engage in therapy.
Treatment of strabismus in children
Immediately after diagnosis, treatment should begin. Some people think that the baby will outgrow the disease, and everything will normalize by itself. Unfortunately, this will not happen, and therefore it is impossible to postpone treatment in any case. After all, the sooner you start following effective therapy, the faster you can get rid of an unpleasant defect.
The attending physician chooses a method for treating strabismus in a child after an individual diagnosis. Any therapy begins with the elimination of the cause that gave rise to the disease. There are several effectivemethods, a particular ophthalmologist chooses depending on a number of factors. Needless to say, strabismus can be corrected, don't worry about it.
Exercise for toddlers
How to treat strabismus in children at home? One of the methods is gymnastics for the eyes. Exercises should be performed with glasses, otherwise it will not be possible to achieve a positive effect. On average, classes will take about two hours a day, while the baby should not be capricious. You can use all sorts of improvised means to attract attention.
The most effective exercises include:
- Improve visual acuity. To do this, you need to turn on a table lamp and place a bright ball five centimeters from it. Then you need to close the baby's eyes and plant from the lamp at a distance of about half a meter. The task of the child is to keep his eyes on the ball for thirty seconds. Then you need to show the baby various color images to relax the eyes.
- Increased muscle mobility. It is also recommended to use a bright ball. You should hang it on a small stick and drive it from side to side so that the baby follows the movement, closing his eyes one by one. Try to bring the wand closer to the face, the baby should bring his eyes to the bridge of his nose.
- General development. Divide a regular sheet of paper into cells and draw something in each of them, and several drawings should be repeated. The goal of the child is to identify and eliminate a repeating figure from the game.
Optical correction and pleoptics
You need to understand that the method of correcting strabismus in children depends on the cause of the disease and the type of disease. There is no universal way. For example, optical correction is most effective for farsightedness, nearsightedness, and astigmatism. This kind of treatment can be applied to children from 9-12 months. As a result, the problems of the visual apparatus disappear, and with them the strabismus. In addition, optical correction is a good prevention against lazy eye syndrome, that is, a situation where the eye goes blind when there is no load.
But if a child develops amblyopia, doctors recommend using pleoptics. This method is aimed clearly at the treatment of the lazy eye syndrome, the essence is to turn off the he althy eye from the visual act. How to achieve this? There are many ways, the most popular is to close one of the glasses in glasses. It is also common to put a bandage on the seeing eye. As a result of simple manipulations, the entire visual load falls on the squinting eye.
But what if the syndrome is detected on both pupils at the same time? Then experts recommend sticking in turn. The eye that sees worse should be blocked for one day, and the other for two or more. It is better to ask your doctor for details, he will indicate the duration of wearing bandages depending on visual acuity.
Hardware therapy
The advantage of the method is that it has practically no contraindications. Even the smallest children can easily enduresuch a treatment. Usually they conduct courses for several procedures. Specific methods are assigned individually after the examination. Among them are:
- Amblyocor. The action of the equipment is aimed at correcting the lazy eye syndrome, as well as the development of binocular vision. With the help of this apparatus, the control of the nervous system over all the processes of the visual analyzer is restored.
- Synoptofor. It also develops binocular vision, plus it trains the baby's eye mobility. The essence of the method is to separate the fields of view. In other words, one eye of the child sees the circle and the other the mouse. The task will be to move the mouse to the circle.
- Amblypanorama. The method is intended for the correction of lazy eye syndrome in the smallest. Thanks to the panoramic blinding fields, normal vision returns to the baby.
- Fresnel lenses. Wearing allows you to come to an excellent cosmetic result. They are used to make glasses with thin lenses.
Surgery
An operation to correct strabismus in children is performed to solve external problems with the subsequent restoration of vision function. That is, sharpness increases, blurring and duality disappear. The intervention is carried out on an outpatient basis within one day. If we are talking about babies, mild general anesthesia is used. For older children, local anesthesia is used as anesthesia. This is not to say that the appointment of an operation is a rarity. The doctor makes a choice in favor of surgical intervention, if the extern althe deformation proves fatal.
This method is of two types:
- strengthening, the essence is to shorten the eye muscle;
- weakening, the place of attachment of the muscle changes, it is transplanted further from the cornea, in other words, the actions of the muscle in the direction of deviation are weakened.
Rehabilitation period is one week. Strabismus in children disappears after surgery, and in most cases this problem does not torment the child throughout his life.
Reviews
Modern medicine involves a huge number of ways to treat this problem. There are techniques that are most effective in one situation, but completely powerless in another. Global Network users daily express their opinion about strabismus in a child. Reviews about therapy vary. Some say that surgery is the only right decision. Others argue that the problem can be solved by optical correction or hardware treatment. As already noted, there is no universal method, you need to analyze a specific situation.
Prevention
It is easier to prevent a disease than to treat it later. In this case, you can give the following advice to parents:
- timely fight against ophthalmic diseases;
- do frequent check-ups with a doctor;
- follow the rules of eye strain.
If you notice that the child has become worse to see, you should not buy glasses yourself. If you choose wrongoptics, vision can only worsen. The sooner you deal with your baby's strabismus, the better. It is necessary to get rid of the disease before school time in order to avoid psychological trauma. Watch your child's posture, do not allow him to sit at the computer for a long time.
In our material, we talked about the causes and treatment of strabismus in children, and also discussed the symptoms and classification. This information will be useful to young parents, because the disease can affect every baby. If the disease is cured at an early age, it will not affect the quality of vision in the future. In this situation, the principle works: the sooner the better. The specific method of therapy will be selected by the attending physician after a series of studies.
