During the last six years of my professional role in the medical college where I work, I was particularly concerned about making parents aware of taking early corrective steps to correct squint in children. Two ophthalmologists collaborated well in this campaign! Every child who visits the department is screened for squint. To my surprise strabismus can be seen in thirty percent of children who have some neuro-developmental challenges. I think the prevalence is is only around 10 percent in normal population of children!
Parents if were to offer visual exercises with each eye closed one after the other, at least three times day, each time for about fifteen minutes, would help a child to have binocular vision and protect the child from developing lazy eye, where the child tends to use only one eye. It is when this happens a child usually tilts the head while focussing.
The commonest cause of squint is refractive error which can be diagnosed and corrected easily even in the first three months after a baby is born!
I wish there is a deliberate attempt to detect strabismus and treat rather than wait and watch in the hope it woeful fade away. That is a disastrous attitude! The least we need to do is to have the squint screened at the earliest to know the cause and treat it!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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