The condition in which there is a decrease in vision, which can not be corrected, is called amblyopia or a lazy eye. The issue of amblyopia in children - what it is - is natural for those who have encountered it. This disease occurs in two percent of people. Statistics tell us that two-thirds of children who were treated with timely therapeutic methods were able to get rid of a lazy eye.
What is eye amblyopia in children?
The lazy eye syndrome, also called amblyopia, is characterized by a steady decrease in vision, which is very difficult to correct with the help of glasses or lenses. To learn more about the disease of amblyopia in children, what it is and why vision deteriorates, it will be useful for all parents to be able to identify it as soon as possible. Reduction of vision and its sharpness is due to deterioration of accommodative abilities of the eyes and violation of contrast sensitivity. And, it happens without any obvious pathological changes in the visual organs.
This ailment has several varieties:
- Refractive amblyopia. The most common kind. It develops due to a decrease in central vision, but with the timely inclusion of special optics in therapy, the development of the disease can be avoided.
- Disbinocular. It happens because of strabismus and the more obvious the deviation of the eyeball, the faster the vision falls.
- Hysterical. As the name suggests, it occurs in children who are addicted to neuralgic and mental illness . In such children, visual impairment can be provoked by any nervous shock.
- Mixed. In this form, several types of amblyopia can be mixed.
Lazy eye in children - reasons
If you consider all the possible causes of amblyopia, you should first identify the risk group for the development of the lazy eye syndrome:
- prematurity and retinopathy of prematurity ;
- Cerebral palsy;
- mental retardation;
- heredity (if in a family history there were cases of cataract, strabismus, amblyopia, isometropia, anisometropia).
Amblyopia in children - what it is and why it arises, will help to understand the main reasons:
- difference in the size of the eyeball;
- lack of access to the eye retina (can be with thorns, cataracts, significant changes in the lens);
- high farsightedness of one of the eyes;
- strabismus;
- corneal opacity;
- Excessively high level of astigmatism of one eye.
Degrees of amblyopia in children
Lazy eye in children, depending on the level of vision loss, is divided by degrees:
- weak - visual acuity 0.8 - 0.4;
- average - visual acuity 0.3 - 0.2;
- high - visual acuity 0,1 - 0,05;
- very high - visual acuity less than 0.04.
Amblyopia in children - treatment
The question is whether it is possible to cure amblyopia in a child, parents of babies are asked and this is quite understandable, since many myths go around this disease and it is very difficult to distinguish truth from fiction. Amblyopia in children and what it is, we considered, but it is important to understand that it is treated better the earlier this illness is diagnosed. The problem is that the child does not know how he should see from birth, therefore it is not easy to identify the ailment in the early stages, because complaints about poor vision do not come.
Exercises for a lazy eye
Thanks to modern technologies, today it is possible to use effective methods, provided that the proposed exercises will be performed regularly. It is better if the exercises with amblyopia in children on the computer will always be at hand, because watching videos online makes the occupation dependent on the availability of the Internet, which is not always convenient. Treatment of amblyopia in children at home should be done in this way under the supervision of adults.
Points for children with amblyopia
If you are diagnosed with a "lazy eye," the treatment should be as effective as possible, so it might be worthwhile to seek advice from one specialist to obtain exhaustive recommendations. Among parents there is an opinion that the lazy eye disease does not require wearing glasses, so many doubt the feasibility of such a method. It's about stapling one eyepiece of the eye, which sees worse. This is done in order to make the "lazy" eye work.
Contact lenses for children with amblyopia
Asking how to treat a lazy eye, one should know that contact lenses are much more effective for correcting vision than glasses. The main thing is that the lenses are selected correctly. In addition to improving vision, lenses provide an opportunity not to restrain themselves in movements, sports, swimming pool and so on. However, before stopping the choice on contact lenses, you need to get acquainted with a list of contraindications to their use:
- presence of inflammatory processes in the eyes;
- allergies;
- glaucoma ;
- diseases of the lacrimal apparatus;
- subluxation of the lens.
Hardware treatment of amblyopia in children
Modern medicine successfully uses devices for the treatment of amblyopia in children. There are many clinics and various rehabilitation centers that offer new methods. It is very difficult to understand yourself in such diversity without being an expert, so it's best to seek the help of a qualified doctor. And it is better if this doctor is not interested in the person to be sure of the objectivity of his approach.
We suggest considering several devices and devices that are popular and have a good reputation among those who underwent a course of treatment with their help.
- Synoptophor. The apparatus trains the mobility of the eyes. Essence - one eye is shown, for example, a square, and another kitten - the task of the child to mark the kitten in a square. This helps to combine the eye axes and training the muscles of the eye.
- "Device Brook". Trains the mechanism of accommodation by means of symbols that are moving along a certain, given algorithm, then approaching, or moving away.
- Ambliopanorama. The device is used from an early age to treat a lazy eye by the method of panoramic figured blinding fields.
- "The Cascade apparatus." The essence is the training of accommodation with the help of the eye optics with the help of color stimuli, changing according to a certain algorithm.
- "Apparatus Mirage." Created for the formation of binocular vision and its essence is that the patient merged into one image two, shown one after another.
Amblyopia - surgery in children
Lazy eye in children, whose treatment is prescribed by a specialist, does not always give the desired result, and vision inexorably falls. This can eventually lead to disability due to a significant loss of vision. A radical method of treatment is surgical intervention with a laser. The lazy eye syndrome in children in the case of anisometropia can be eliminated by laser correction. Rather, eliminate the main cause of its occurrence. After that, conservative treatment is prescribed under the supervision of an ophthalmologist.