Childhood strabismus, what is it and how to solve it?

Strabismus is an ophthalmological problem that involves the loss of parallelism of both eyes. One of the eyes is dominant and is in charge of fixing images, while the other is deviated. It is usually the same eye that is misaligned.

When this problem occurs during childhood, it is necessary to go to the ophthalmologist at the slightest suspicion, as it is most likely to be a case of intermittent infantile strabismus.

Diagnosis and solutions to infantile strabismus

It is common to identify strabismus in children when they are tired or sick, since in these situations it is more difficult for them to control their eyes. During the development of this ocular problem, it is common for the patient to look for compensatory mechanisms to avoid double vision.

For example: turning the head to get the same perception with both eyes or closing the deviated eye to eliminate the image. Strabismus requires early treatment to correct the child’s visual development.

In some cases the causes of its appearance are unknown, although refractive defects are often the reason for infantile strabismus.

Various treatments are used to correct strabismus:

  1. Orthoptic exercises. These eye exercises help to correct the deviation of the eye and recover parallelism. In addition, orthoptic exercises are very useful in cases such as exotropia with convergence insufficiency, since it improves the tone of some extraocular muscles, thus improving the deviation.
  2. Optical correction. Usually the correction of strabismus, when it is caused by a refractive defect, involves the use of glasses.
  3. Ocular occlusion. In this case, the dominant eye is covered to force the other eye to work harder. Finally, remember to have regular check-ups from the age of 2 years.
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At Clínica García de Oteyza we have ophthalmologists who are experts in children’s strabismus. Don’t let it pass you by, an early diagnosis is the best solution.