Children Under 8 Years Old Vulnerable To Vision Problems

JAKARTA - Children aged zero to eight years are susceptible to vision problems such as crossed eyes or night eyes because the age of under eight years is a critical time for the development of a child's eyes.

“The critical phase is zero to eight years, where the first three years are the most critical phase. "When these children have vision problems in that phase, and if it is not treated properly, they will experience lazy eye," said Chairman of the Indonesian Association of Pediatric Ophthalmologists and Strabismus (INAPOSS) DR. Dr. Feti Karfiati Memed, SpM(K), MKes in a media session held in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Saturday 14 October.

Amblyopia or lazy eye is a condition where a child's vision is unclear or lacks focus due to interference with the development of visual function during the child's growth period.

Feti said that the age of zero to three years is a critical phase of growth, especially for a child's vision, because if a child's lazy eye is not immediately treated properly, it will cause increasingly severe symptoms until the child experiences vision problems.

Unfortunately, not all parents pay attention to the condition of their child's eyes which are already affected by disorders, such as being plus size, drinking, or astigmatism experienced by the child, so this can trigger lazy eyes and crossed eyes in children in the future. The problem is that this condition has no visible symptoms and usually children will not tell about the condition of their eyes.

"The cause of crossed eyes is due to cloudiness in the media, so the refractive media is cloudy and if it is not treated immediately, even if you have surgery, the results will definitely not be optimal," she said.

In fact, if the child immediately receives appropriate treatment, the doctor can provide therapy, namely by closing one eye that is deemed not working optimally, or recommending wearing glasses so that the squint can slowly be cured.

“So lazy eye therapy must be done during childhood. When it grows, if it's too late, it won't work. A lazy eye can cause a squint and a squint can cause a lazy eye. This is something that needs attention," she said.

Meanwhile, Strabismus Consultant Ophthalmologist JEC Eyes Hospitals and Clinic, Gusti G. Suardana, SpM(K) stated that the sooner eye screening in children is carried out when they are small, the sooner medical treatment can be carried out.

For this reason, Gusti appealed to parents to continue to have their children checked even if they do not show any complaints so that medical experts can see more clearly if there are any deviant symptoms.

“People whose eyes are straight, that doesn't mean their eyes are normal, they could have lazy eyes. Therefore, especially in children, screening is important," he said.