Will a child's strabismus go away or will this disease last a lifetime? It depends on the reasons for its appearance, on the age of the child and on other factors.
What is strabismus?
In medicine, the term "strabismus" is used when talking about the pathology of the organs of vision, in which one or both eyes look in different directions. In this case, the lines of sight do not have an intersection point. One eye looks at the object, and the other is directed past. In such cases, the muscles of the visual organ work inconsistently.
Pathology can be either congenital (present from birth or appears in the first six months of life) or acquired (appears before 3 years).
Vision in children under one year old: the norm
As soon as a happy mother returns from the maternity hospital with a newborn, she is surrounded by caring grandparents and other relatives. Everyone is looking at every part of the baby's body, watching his every movement, every breath. And often pay attention to the fact that the newborn's eyes squint. Does it go away, do the parents worry? ATin most cases, yes! Therefore, do not immediately panic and run to the doctors.
The fact is that for a newborn it is quite normal. The baby is still a tiny, not fully formed organism. Many organs and systems are just beginning to adapt to new environmental conditions. Including vision. The eyes are a complex analyzer. He begins to work in full force only by the end of the first year of life.
Immediately after birth, the baby's eyes can only distinguish between the presence or absence of a light source. This is exactly how they check their eyesight even in the hospital, they direct the beam to the eyeball, if the baby closes his eyes, then the reaction is correct. In the first months of life, the child does not distinguish objects well, sees them as if in a fog. The gaze turns out to focus only on large objects. At 3-4 months, the baby tries to catch sight of smaller objects and their movement. During this period, the vision of each eye develops separately. The muscles there are still quite weak, and it is difficult for the baby to focus on the subject. Therefore, it is absolutely normal when a child's eyes squint. When does strabismus go away in newborns? This usually happens by 4-6 months. Until six months, there should be no signs of physiological strabismus.
Converging strabismus
Strabismus is a pathology in which the visual axes are displaced. With convergent strabismus, these axes are located closer to the bridge of the nose. This can affect both one eye and both at once. They kind of get together. Eyeballshifted from the center to the bridge of the nose. This problem occurs most often, in 90% of cases, and most often in newborns. Most likely, you should not worry if the baby mows only from time to time, and not constantly.
Divergent strabismus
Much less often, only in 10% of all cases, the visual axes are shifted relative to the center not to the nose, but in the opposite direction, to the temples. Often divergent strabismus is also accompanied by farsightedness.
Treatment of strabismus
When does strabismus in newborns go away? Babies usually get rid of it by 6 months. But if the child is already six months old, and the look does not normalize, in such cases it is important not to waste time and start treatment. You can help the baby with a whole range of special measures:
- Create the right conditions for normal visual function. That is, provide a mode of visual work, monitor good lighting of the play area, bright toys should not be close to the crib.
- Correct other diseases accompanying strabismus. For farsightedness and nearsightedness, lenses or glasses are used. Thus, the load on the weak muscles of the eye is reduced, and the disease disappears.
- Temporarily close the he althy eye. To do this, use a special bandage or simply smoke one glass of glasses. Thus, the muscles of a he althy eye are temporarily turned off, forcing the muscles of its "lazy fellow" to join in the work and train.
- Hardware treatment. These are computer techniques, magnetic stimulation, laser stimulation, electrical stimulation and others.
- Surgical surgery. This is a cardinal method, but it is necessary if all the above conservative methods have not brought improvement.
When will strabismus in a newborn go away? This question worries parents. Does strabismus in newborns go away quickly? In a baby, the physiological age feature will pass by 6 months. And if treatment is required, it will take about 2-3 years. The sooner the disease is discovered and treated, the sooner it will go away.
Prevention of strabismus
Like any disease, strabismus is better prevented than treated. There are simple tricks that will help prevent the onset of the disease:
- do not overload the visual muscles and nerves, toys should not be too close to the eyes;
- do not start emerging eye diseases, treat them immediately;
- pay close attention to the planned examination of the ophthalmologist.
Squint in children. Reasons
How to cure and when strabismus passes, we found out in this article, but why do some children suffer from this disease, while others do not? Why does this disease appear? The reasons for which it may appear in a child are different:
- viral and chronic diseases transferred by the mother during pregnancy can affect the he alth of the baby;
- difficult labor;
- various infectious diseases and inflammatoryprocesses in a newborn;
- external damage and injury to the organs of vision;
- hereditary predisposition;
- obvious violation of eye hygiene;
- wrong mode of visual function, when toys are too close to the baby's face all the time in the crib and stroller.
This pathology belongs to the small number of diseases that can almost always be diagnosed by the parents themselves, without the participation of a doctor. You just need to carefully monitor the development of visual functions. And when the strabismus in a newborn passes, a caring parent will immediately notice. You just need to carefully monitor the baby.
Squint in newborns when does it go away? Komarovsky answers
Oleg Evgenievich agrees with other doctors on this issue. Komarovsky says that such a physiological feature is quite typical for newborns. Moreover, it is the norm. When does strabismus go away in newborns? It passes on its own without any treatment by 4-6 months of life. By this time, the muscles of the child's eyes should be strong enough. If this does not happen, without wasting time, you need to contact a specialist, he believes. Parents should be especially careful if there have been cases of such ailments in the family. The main thing is not to waste time. Indeed, for babies, an untimely visit to a doctor can lead to the fact that binocular vision (the ability to simultaneously clearly see the picture with both eyes) does notwill form.
They won't be able to see objects that are voluminous. And it will not be possible to correct this at a more mature age. But when strabismus in newborns passes, parents can completely forget about the disease. She probably won't show up again.
