Astigmatism is a visual impairment associated with a shift in focus. With this disease, a person sees the image distorted, sometimes blurred and crooked. Quite often, astigmatism can be found in children. Whether the disease is treated or not is what we will talk about in this article. Timely detection and diagnosis of the disease is a condition for the correct and successful treatment of the child. Is astigmatism treated in children? It is treated. But you need to start treatment on time.
Astigmatism Overview
Astigmatism in a child can occur at any stage of growing up. The causes of astigmatism in children, its symptoms and treatment - all this information must be carefully studied so as not to miss the moment of the onset of the disease. If the disease has already manifested, you need to properly treat it so as not to harm the child. An inattentive attitude can lead both to a severe deterioration in the ability to see, and to squint. Considering the astigmatism of the eyes in children and its treatment, it is worth highlighting that there are different forms of astigmatism. Depending on the moment of manifestation, the degree of damage to the cornea and associated visual impairments (myopia and hyperopia), specialists distinguish:
- regular and irregular astigmatism;
- simple, complex and mixed form;
- myopic and hyperopic astigmatism.
Causes of astigmatism
They talk a lot about how astigmatism appears in children. Causes of occurrence, manifestations of the disease are discussed by ophthalmologists of different countries. The first question that needs to be answered is whether the disease is congenital or acquired.
With a congenital disease, the disease is transmitted along with the gene set. After all, the nature of the eyeball along with the color of the eyes and hair depends on the parents. Often, most adults who are interested in information such as astigmatism in children, treatment, causes, symptoms of the disease, themselves have such a disease and know what difficulties await the child, if not treated. The causes of the acquired disease can be different:
- eye injury;
- corneal disease of the eye ;
- surgery, after which there were scars on the cornea;
- disruption of the lens;
- malfunctioning of the jaw system;
- violations associated with the period when the child was in the womb.
Dangerous consequences of the disease
Those who are interested in issues such as whether astigmatism can be cured and how to treat such a disease in children are surely concerned about the consequences of the disease. And they are, and very bad. After birth, a child who has a congenital form of astigmatism, sees everything around is very foggy. Then begins the failure of the entire system, including those parts of the brain that are responsible for the functioning of the visual organs. The next stage in the development of the disease is a sharp deterioration in vision and the inability to improve the quality of the picture with glasses or lenses. This stage is characterized by a disease such as amblyopia.
Signs of the disease
When discussing astigmatism in children, whether or not a disease is being treated, one cannot but reveal such a spectrum as signs of the disease. After all, it is precisely by these symptoms that we can timely see the presence of the disease. The sooner we see a problem, the greater the chance of dealing with it without serious loss. So, signs of astigmatism are:
- frequent headaches that are migraine-like;
- examining objects, the child squints his eyes, peers for a long time, sometimes bowing his head;
- redness of the eyes, tearfulness;
- moving in space, the child runs into furniture, frequent falls and trips are observed, the baby can put a thing past the surface;
- child complaints about a distorted picture of the environment, crooked lines or bifurcation;
- complaints of the baby that dizzy or sore spots above the eyebrows;
- eyes hurt and very soon get tired;
- the child cannot read for long, complains of eye fatigue and inability to see the text.
Having seen the problem, it is not necessary to reflect on what astigmatism is in children, whether such a visual impairment is treated or not , whether the treatment will be successful. If at least one of the listed symptoms has been noticed, you should immediately contact a specialist. After examination and examination, the doctor will be able to make the correct diagnosis. If the child is very small, then the diagnosis is carried out using eye drops, and if older, then autorefractometry is performed.
Astigmatism in children: what to do, treatment
We emphasize the fact that astigmatism is not considered an inflammatory process, which means that it is impossible to treat it with the use of medications. How to deal with such a problem? There are two ways:
- the use of glasses or their analogues;
- laser correction.
As for laser correction, this procedure, although it leads to a good result, is contraindicated in children. Laser vision correction can only be performed if the patient is eighteen years old. The use of glasses is possible from an age when a child can consciously wear them and not perceive glasses as a toy. There are three types of correction in this way.
Glasses for astigmatism
- The use of complex points . Such glasses are selected exclusively by the doctor. At first, the baby may have unpleasant sensations in the form of dizziness and tearing. But this goes away after a while. If symptoms persist, you need to see a doctor and change glasses.
- The use of contact lenses. Lenses, of course, are more convenient and do not cause such discomfort as complex glasses. But wearing lenses requires a lot of responsibility, accuracy, and thorough care. In this regard, not all children can wear lenses.
- The use of solid contact lenses. This method is also known to specialists as orthokeratology. The meaning of the method is that lenses are worn at night. While the baby is sleeping, the lens corrects the shape of the cornea and in the morning vision improves markedly. But this method has a short-term effect. Over time, the cornea again returns to its original state, and vision deteriorates. Therefore, use hard lenses every night. But the method is effective only with astigmatism not higher than 1.5 diopters (a measure of optical lenses is diopter).
Disease treatment prognosis
Of course, starting to treat astigmatism in a child, parents are interested in how successfully astigmatism is treated in children. Reasons, treatment, forecasts - all this information should be provided to the parents by the attending physician. If the disease is congenital in nature, then with age, a decrease in the severity of the disease is possible. The degree of the disease stabilizes around the sixth year of a child’s life. Timely and correct diagnosis, and subsequently appropriate treatment, will help to successfully cope with the problem and help the patient gain the ability to see well.
Disease prevention
Is astigmatism in children treated or not? This is one of the most common questions that people are interested in. We have already answered it above. But in order not to encounter such a problem, we recommend that you do prevention. After all, you can prevent and prevent the onset of the disease. Of course, this is not a congenital form, but in any case, preventive measures will be useful for the vision of both healthy and sick children. So, what needs to be done to prevent acquired astigmatism:
- give the eyes a rest after prolonged exertion;
- proper lighting where the child spends a lot of time or does homework;
- apply the practice of regular training for the eyes ;
- if there is a child's predisposition to the disease, you need to add massages and therapy.
Astigmatism in children: treatment and exercises
If we have already disclosed the topic of treatment above, now I would like to dwell in more detail on the methodology of exercises. The following simple exercises are recommended to help connect those muscles of the eye that do not work in simple mode. It is best to do them alternately at least three times daily. Each exercise is recommended to be repeated six times.
- Eye movement up – down, left – right.
- Rotation of the eyes in a circle in one direction, and then in the other.
- Quick blink.
- Tracking a finger that moves onto the bridge of the nose.
- Go to the window, put your hand on the glass, look at the hand, then look at something distant outside the window. Repeat several times.
In conclusion, I want to note that the health of the child is in our hands. How our child sees, and whether he sees at all, depends on our actions and perseverance. We opened the topic of what astigmatism of the eyes in children is, causes, symptoms, treatment of the disease. Now it's up to you. It depends on you how your child sees the world.