Eye disorders: corrections adapted to babies
Hyperopia
The child sees badly up close. Severe hyperopia is often accompanied by strabismus in children. The corrective lens is said to converge or convex, that is to say thicker in the center than at the edge.
Myopia
The child sees badly from a distance, but well up close. Myopia is often hereditary, it can be scalable and increase over time. It is corrected by a divergent or concave glass, thicker at the edge than in the center.
Astigmatism
The child sees badly both near and far, his vision is distorted. He does not perceive the contrasts between horizontal, vertical or oblique lines clearly and uniformly. Some directions are seen to be more blurry than others. Astigmatism always combines with another visual defect (myopia or hyperopia). It is corrected using a “toric” lens whose curvatures compensate for those of the cornea (which is oval rather than round). The thickness of the glass varies depending on the astigmatism, that is, the direction in which the eye distorts images.
Strabismus
The child is cross-eyed because the visual axes of his eyes are not parallel. To avoid seeing double, he uses his dominant eye to neutralize the image. The unwanted eye loses sight of details. Untreated, strabismus can then lead to amblyopia with serious repercussions on the development of the child. Strabismus can be due either to a visual defect (myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism) different from the two eyes, or to an abnormality of one of the muscles ensuring the movement of the eyes. According to the case, this anomaly is corrected by masks placed sometimes on the dominant eye, sometimes on the strabic eye, either by orthoptic exercises to improve binocular vision, or by surgery.
L’amblyopie
The child sees badly in one eye which becomes amblyopic because it is unused. Compensated by the other eye, he no longer works and no longer learns to see. He can even become blind if amblyopia is not detected for 2-3 years. Around 5-6 years old, you can only recover 50% of your sight at best. Before the harm is irreparable, correction is possible with glasses.
Choosing the right glasses for your child It is important to focus on quality and ban cheap equipment and gadget mounts. For the correction to be effective, the frame must cover the entire visual field to prevent the child from looking over or under. It is recommended that they wear plastic frames because it is a soft, flexible, dimensionally stable and secure material that will not hurt them. For babies, who do not have a nasal root, a frame with a Flexible “silicone nose” which will stabilize it. After 4 years, frames without noses will suffice, in metal or plastic, with temples equipped with flexible and resistant hinges. To correct vision properly, glasses should be custom made. Thanks to recent technological innovations, they are increasingly thin, light and transparent. The best performing lenses are made of polycarbonate (an ultra-resistant material) and available from all opticians and manufacturers. To clean them, it is preferable to use microfiber cloth, paper handkerchiefs are to be banned because they are too abrasive. But if the mashed carrots have splashed onto the glasses, they can be run under water without any problem. |