Have you ever thought about whether your children might have trouble in seeing? Think about it, children have no idea whether they are seeing clearly or not, how can they? They have nothing to compare with. And since they rarely complain, parents dont realize their child may be having poor vision. As a child develops the eye's ability to change focus, follow target and remember what they have just seen ( Visual Memory ) also develops accordingly. When a child enters the school age, visual demands increase as the writing in printed materials gets smaller and closer together. Reading speed needs to increase and reading task requires more accurate eye movements to be efficient. If the eyes have not developed certain eye muscle skills, a child may not be able to read at age appropriate levels.

Sight disorders are the fourth most common disability and most impeding condition found in children. It is estimated that 20% of school aged children have a learning disability of which 70% of these have some degree of vision impairment and in 74 million children only 14 % have vision evaluation by the age of 5. Most common eye diseases which can occur in children are Refractive Errors, Strabismus ( Squint ), Amblyopia, Paediatric, Cataract, Paediatric Glaucoma.

Refractive Errors actually constitute a major portion of defective vision in children. The common type of refractive errors are, Myopia or short Sightedness, Hyperopia or Far Sightedness, Astigmatism.

Abnormal deviation of eyes from normal position is called Strabismus. This condition may be due to any uncorrected refractive errors or any other ocular pathology. If left untreated it may lead to decrease in vision of the squinting eye.

Partial loss of sight in one or both eyes in the absence of any other ocular disease is termed as Amblyopia. It is normally associated with squint or abnormal variation in power between both the eyes.

Paediatric Cataract - Development of any opacity in the lens of the eyes is called cataract. Usually Cataract occurs in adults but cataracts can occur in children due to various factors which disturb the normal metabolism of the lens in one or both eyes.

Paediatric Glaucoma - Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness worldover. It could rarely present at birth or early childhood with typical presenting features of a large eye ball, profuse watering and photophobia. It becomes an onus of the attending paediatrician to immediately refer these children for an ophthalmic opinion and demands immediate treatment to save the eye. Examination and evaluation of the child under general anaesthesia becomes necessary. Once diagonised, specific eye drops or surgery is planned.

Dear Parents ! A regular comprehensive eye exams to detect signs of serious vision problems in your child would help your doctor to prescribe proper treatments.

So if

• The family has a history of childhood eye problems, especially genetic eye diseases.
• The child was born prematurely
• Signs of misaligned eyes ( strabismus ), lazy eye ( amblyopia ) or near sightedness ( myopia ) are present.

Then contact your doctor and get your Child's eye check done now.

• Colour Vision Screening
• Eye focusing and eye teaming ( Muscle Control ) Examination
• Vision and learning Examination
• Headache Evaluation
• Strabismus ( Crossed eye ) Examination
• Squint Evaluation
• Myopic / Hyperopia Examination
• Amlyopic ( Lazy eye ) Examination
• Paediatric Glaucoma Evaluation
• Paediatric Cataract Evaluation

The results will be verified by the senior consultants and specific preventive and therapeutic options are discussed with the parents.

We at TMS Eye Hospital treasure your eyes because every eye " Deserves the Best"