Summary
Also, if either parent has a history of glaucoma, early cataracts or retinoblastoma, the baby's eyes should be checked during the first few months and then should be watched closely by the eye doctor throughout childhood. "It is not required in the U.S. for babies to have vision screenings in the hospital," says Dr. [Michael Kipp, M.D.]. "If a baby's problem is missed, there can be serious consequences because his or her vision won't develop normally."
Amblyopia ("lazy eye") is a vision problem caused when one eye sees properly but the second eye does not see properly. Because sight in one eye is blurry, the brain adjusts by using only the good eye and ignoring the bad eye. Without treatment, the unused eye eventually becomes functionally blind because the brain has not learned to recognize images from this weak eye. Over time, this causes permanent vision loss. Lazy eye is not a problem that kids will outgrow. It affects about three of every 100 children.The very best time to treat lazy eye is before a child reaches age 2. That's when the child's vision is in its most critical development stage. However, between 2 and 6 years old, treatment can still be effective. Unfortunately, lazy eye is hard to recognize without a complete eye exam, so it sometimes goes undetected until the child is older and has suffered some permanent vision loss. The older a child becomes, the less effective treatment will be. Nonetheless, it's important to treat older children and young adults with amblyopia, to preserve as much vision as possible in the "lazy" eye.See the full content of this document
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Watch Your Child for Signs of Vision Problems
Catching a child's vision problem as early as possible offers the best chance that the problem can be corrected or treated. In fact, certain eye problems become very difficult to correct if they aren't caught until the child is 6 or 7 or even older. That's why it's so important to take your child to the eye doctor when he or she is still very young.
"Assuming everything seems normal, I recommend taking most children for ...See the full content of this document
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