Will the strabismus in a child pass or will this illness last a lifetime? It depends on the causes of its appearance, on the age of the child and on other factors.
What is strabismus?
In medicine, the term "squint" is used when talking about the pathology of the organs of vision, in which one or both eyes look in different directions. Moreover, the line of sight does not have a point of intersection. One eye is looking at the object, and the other is directed past. In such cases, the muscles of the visual organ work inconsistently.
Pathology can be both congenital (present from birth or appears in the first six months of life), and acquired (appears up to 3 years).
Vision in children up to a year: normal
As soon as a happy mother returns from the maternity hospital with her newborn, she is surrounded by caring grandparents and other relatives. Everyone examines every part of the baby’s body, watches his every movement, every breath. And they often pay attention to the fact that the eyes of a newborn are squinted. Does it pass, parents worry? In most cases, yes! Therefore, do not immediately panic and run to the doctors.
The fact is that for a newborn this is quite normal. The baby is still a tiny, not fully formed organism. Many organs and systems are just beginning to adapt to new environmental conditions. Including vision. Eyes is a sophisticated analyzer. He begins to work in full force only at the end of the first year of life.
Immediately after birth, the baby’s eyes can only distinguish the presence or absence of a light source. That’s exactly what they check vision in the hospital, direct the beam to the eyeball, if the baby shuts her eyes, then the reaction is correct. In the
first months of life, the child does not distinguish between objects poorly, sees them as in a fog. It turns out to focus only on large objects. At 3-4 months, the baby tries to catch a glance at smaller objects and their movement. During this period, the vision of each eye develops separately. The muscles there are still quite weak, and it is difficult for the baby to focus his eyes on the subject. Therefore, it is absolutely normal when the eyes of a child are mowed. When does strabismus occur in newborns? This usually occurs by 4-6 months. Up to six months there should be no signs of physiological strabismus.
Convergent strabismus
Strabismus is a pathology in which the visual axes are displaced. With convergent strabismus, these axes are located closer to the bridge of the nose. This can affect both one eye and both at once. They seem to be going "in a bunch." The eyeball is displaced from the center to the bridge of the nose. This problem occurs most often, in 90% of cases, and most often in newborns. Most likely, you should not worry if the baby mows only from time to time, and not constantly.
Exotropia
Much less often, only in 10% of all cases, the visual axes shift relative to the center not to the nose, but in the opposite direction, to the temples. Often divergent strabismus is also accompanied by farsightedness.
Strabismus treatment
When does strabismus occur in newborns? Usually by 6 months, babies get rid of it. But if the child is already six months old, and the look does not normalize, in such cases it is important not to waste time and begin treatment. You can help your baby with a whole range of special measures:
- Create the right conditions for normal visual function. That is, to ensure the mode of visual work, monitor good lighting of the playing area, bright toys should not be close to the crib.
- Correct other diseases associated with strabismus. With hyperopia and myopia, lenses or glasses are used. Thus, the load on the weak muscles of the eye is reduced, and the disease passes.
- Temporarily close your healthy eye. To do this, use a special dressing or just pour in one glass of glasses. Thus, the muscles of the healthy eye are temporarily turned off, forcing the muscles of its "lazy brother" to be included in the work and train.
- Hardware treatment. These are computer techniques, magnetic stimulation, laser stimulation, electrical stimulation and others.
- Surgical Surgery This is a cardinal method, but it is necessary if all of the above conservative methods have not brought improvement.
When will strabismus in a newborn take place? This question worries parents. Does strabismus pass in newborns quickly? The baby's physiological age feature will pass by 6 months. And if treatment is required, then it will take about 2-3 years. The sooner they find the disease and begin treatment, the sooner it will go away.
Strabismus Prevention
Like any ailment, strabismus is better to prevent than to treat. There are simple techniques that will help prevent the onset of the disease:
- do not overload the visual muscles and nerves, toys should not be too close to the eyes;
- do not start eye diseases that appear, treat them immediately;
- pay attention to the scheduled examination of an oculist.
Strabismus in children. Causes
How to cure and when strabismus disappears, we found out in this article, but why do some children suffer from this ailment, while others do not? Why does this disease appear? The reasons why it may appear in a child are different:
- viral and chronic diseases suffered by the mother during pregnancy can affect the baby's health;
- difficult birth;
- various infectious diseases and inflammatory processes in the newborn;
- external damage and trauma to the organs of vision;
- hereditary predisposition;
- a clear violation of eye hygiene;
- improper visual function when the toys are always too close to the baby’s face in the crib and stroller.
This pathology refers to that small number of diseases that can be diagnosed almost always by the parents themselves, without the participation of a doctor. You just need to carefully monitor the development of visual functions. And when the strabismus of the newborn passes, the caring parent will immediately notice. You just need to carefully monitor the baby.
When does strabismus in newborns go away? Komarovsky is responsible
Oleg Evgenievich agrees with other doctors in this matter. Komarovsky says that this physiological peculiarity is quite characteristic of newborns. Moreover, it is the norm. When does strabismus occur in newborns? It passes on its own without any treatment by 4-6 months of life. By this time, the muscles of the eyes of the child should be strong enough. If this does not happen, without wasting time, you need to contact a specialist, he said. Particularly careful attention should be paid to this parents if there have been cases of such ailments in the family. The main thing is not to miss the time. Indeed, for babies, untimely access to a doctor can lead to the fact that binocular vision (the ability to clearly see a picture with both eyes at the same time) will not form.
They cannot see objects in volume. And to fix this at a more mature age will not succeed. But when strabismus occurs in newborns, parents can completely forget about the disease. Most likely, she will not appear.