Children Eyes Squint - Best Doctors

Pediatric ophthalmology deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases and vision disorders from birth, including premature infants, through adolescence. The field includes, among other things, strabismus, lazy eye, refractive errors (problems focusing vision) such as myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism, tear duct obstruction, drooping eyelid, retinopathy of prematurity, as well as childhood cataract and glaucoma - conditions that require early diagnosis, prompt intervention and specialized surgical techniques.

Pediatric ophthalmologists are ophthalmologists who have focused on treating children, usually after additional training. Many of them also treat strabismus in adults.

Why does a child need a pediatric ophthalmologist specifically?

The visual system continues to develop during early childhood, and the brain learns to see based on the information it receives from both eyes. When one eye transmits a blurred or distorted image — due to strabismus, a large difference in prescription between the eyes or an obstruction along the visual axis — the brain may ignore it. This is how lazy eye (amblyopia) develops.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, early detection during the years when the brain is still developing increases the chances of successful treatment. Without treatment, lazy eye can cause irreversible blindness in one eye.

At Israeli Tipat Halav well-baby clinics, a series of examinations is performed throughout infancy and toddlerhood, including repeated "red reflex" tests, eye alignment checks, developmental assessments and visual acuity tests.

At age three to four, in the first year of preschool, photoscreening is carried out to detect risk factors for lazy eye. The test is performed with a camera-like device, from a distance and without contact. In first grade, an additional vision test is conducted near the start of the school year.

A screening test is not a substitute for an examination by an ophthalmologist. The Ministry of Health recommends seeing an ophthalmologist who treats children, without waiting for the screening date, when the child complains of difficulty seeing, rubs their eyes or blinks a lot, or when there is a suspicion that they do not see well.

Treatment is determined according to the cause and the child's age, and may include glasses, covering the stronger eye with a patch, eye drops and, in some cases, surgery. Some treatments require persistence over months, and parental cooperation is a key part of their success.