Children often squint to see things, kindergarten or school physical examination found that the child’s vision decline, so parents take their children to the hospital to see the ophthalmology, the doctor did not find other eye problems, and finally gave a diagnosis of “refractive error”, parents look at these four words, often do not understand what is going on. Now let the ophthalmologist give you a detailed explanation.
Refractive error means that when the eye is not adjusted, parallel light rays passing through the eye’s refractive action cannot form a clear image on the retina, but are imaged in front of or behind the retina. It includes farsightedness, myopia and astigmatism. In recent years, an increasing number of children with refractive errors have been detected.
Causes of Refractive Error in Children
There are many causes of refractive error in children, and genetic factors are an important aspect. For myopia, unreasonable eye use is also a very important cause. When children are growing and developing, if they do not pay attention to eye hygiene: incorrect posture of reading and writing; bad light; too close to the eye and the book; too long reading time; reading while walking or riding in the car, etc., they can cause excessive eye strain and contribute to myopia. In addition, with the popularity of smart phones and tablet computers, prolonged viewing of cell phones, computers and TVs can easily cause myopia.
Refractive irregularities and amblyopia in children
Refractive error in children is an important cause of amblyopia, because during the critical period of visual development (1 to 3 years old) and the sensitive period, children are not given corrective glasses in time, and the objects falling on the retina are always blurred, resulting in the cells on the retina not receiving the correct optical signal stimulation and failing to develop normal visual functions.
Treatment of Refractive Error with Amblyopia in Children
For amblyopia with refractive error, early detection, early treatment and training make it possible for most children to return to normal, but the degree of recovery varies from person to person. For correction of refractive error, masking therapy is commonly used for children under 8 years of age, while keratoplasty or frame glasses are available for children over 8 years of age, and laser surgery is an option for patients over 18 years of age. Intraocular lens implants or replacements are available for patients with hyperopia or refractive error.
Occlusion therapy
Masking therapy is one of the simplest, most cost-effective, and most effective methods of treating amblyopia in children. Masking therapy involves covering the eye with good vision and forcing the amblyopic eye with poor vision to see, giving the amblyopic eye the opportunity to use it independently and encouraging the amblyopic eye to gradually improve its vision. Including.
1.Strict masking of one eye: applicable to children with refractive amblyopia and strabismic amblyopia.
2.Bilateral alternate masking method: applicable to refractive amblyopia and monocular strabismic amblyopia.
3.Half masking method: Applicable to children whose visual acuity of amblyopic eye rises above 0.7.
4.Short masking method: applicable to those whose amblyopic eye vision has returned to normal but is still lower than the healthy eye, in order to consolidate the treatment effect, the healthy eye can be covered when doing homework or reading books, but usually not covered.
Some suggestions for parents
1. Test vision regularly and establish a visual health file for children.
Children as young as 2 to 3 years old can have their vision tested regularly, once every six months or once a year.
2. Do more outdoor sports to reduce the burden on the eyes.
It has been shown that as the time spent outdoors increases, the incidence of myopia in children decreases and the progression of myopia slows. It is recommended that children spend at least one hour outdoors every day, especially participating in outdoor activities in the sun.
3. Use cell phones, tablet computers and other video terminals as little as possible, and watch less TV.
It is recommended that children watch TV for no more than half an hour continuously, not more than one hour a day, and keep a distance of more than 3 meters from the TV.
4. Go to the optometry department or refractive clinic of the hospital in time.
If you find that your child’s vision has changed, parents should take your child to a hospital optometry or refraction clinic as soon as possible.