Pediatric Eye Diseases
Children’s Eye Diseases
CHILDREN’S EYE DISEASES
Eye diseases seen in children can occur from birth or in later years. Children's eye diseases that are seen from birth are usually inherited. Children’s eye diseases can cause functional problems in the eye, depending on the structurally affected area. Therefore, it is recommended to have a routine eye examination every year.
What are the most common eye diseases in children?
Burring and bleeding in the eye
Burr and bleeding may occur in babies in the first 15 days after birth. The starting day after birth, the color of the burr, and the characteristic of the discharge are important. The treatment should be started by an ophthalmologist. Redness and burrs that will occur after 1-2 months may not require special treatments. If it lasts more than 1-2 days, it may be necessary to use drops.
The redness of the eye can sometimes be a condition involving the cornea. If the baby is closing the eye or there’s eye-watering, it is necessary to see an ophthalmologist.
Eye-watering
Unilateral or bilateral eye-watering that begin immediately or within 2 weeks after birth can usually be related to obstruction or stenosis of the tear ducts. If the obstruction is complete, irrigation may often accompany by burring. Typically, redness of the eye does not occur in the burring. If there is burring in the eye, an appropriate massage should be applied to open the channel along with cleaning and appropriate drops for its treatment. In general, this situation disappears with massage within the first 6 months. If eye-watering continues until the age of 1 and burrs are seen frequently, channel opening treatment with probing is applied.
Strabismus
Strabismus is the loss of parallelism of both eyes with each other. There are 6 extraocular muscles in each eye. Lack or excess of strength in one or more of them causes strabismus. While one eye is looking straight, the other may look inward, outward, up, or down. In some cases, eye turning is present in both eyes. Depending on the cause of the strabismus, the strabismus may occur continuously or temporarily. There is no single cause of strabismus. Strabismus may occur for different reasons.
Early diagnosis is very important in the treatment of strabismus. When it is too late for the first eye examination, besides aesthetic problems in children's eyes, lifelong vision problems also may occur. Even if children do not have eye complaints immediately after birth and during childhood, they should be regularly examined by a specialist ophthalmologist.
AMBLYOPIA
Amblyopia means laziness of vision. It can be seen in one or both eyes. Visual acuity is not complete, amblyopia develops in both eyes in bilateral high refractive errors. In patients with a large difference in refractive error between the two eyes, laziness occurs on the side of the bigger refractive error. In addition, unilateral strabismus, low eyelid covering the visual axis, congenital cataracts are among the causes of amblyopia. It should be diagnosed and treated early. The best response to treatment can be obtained up to 5-6 years of age.
What are other eye diseases in children?
- Refractive errors
- Eyelid diseases
- Cataract
- Corneal diseases
- Glaucoma
- Trauma
- Retinal and optic nerve diseases
- Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)
Prepared by the Dünyagöz Hospital Editorial Board.
*The content of this page is for informational purposes only. See your doctor for diagnosis and treatment.
Last Update Date: 30.01.2023
