Treat squint before it’s too late

 Squint is a misalignment of the two eyes so that both the eyes are not looking in the same direction. This misalignment may be constant, being present throughout the day, or it may appear sometimes and the rest of the time the eyes may be straight.

Facts

o Ideally eyes are parallel and they move in parallel direction.
o With squint both the eyes will not be looking in the same direction.
o While one eye looks forward another eye looks inward, upward or outward.
Symptoms
Normally newborn babies are cross-eyed. But if the symptoms persist after three months of age, then it is a cause to worry.
Be concerned if your child looks at you with one eye closed or with head turned to one side. These may be the symptoms that s/he is having double vision.

Causes

Eye muscles control eye movements. If one muscle is stronger, the eye turns towards the stronger muscle.
• Squint may run in families.
• Muscle or nerve problems due to debilitating diseases like measles or chicken pox.
• Children may be long sighted and the effect of focusing leads to the squint. Glasses can correct this problem.
• Very occasionally a child will develop a squint because an eye is abnormal and has defective sight. The earlier this is detected the sooner treatment can be started.
Effects:
If the child squints with one eye, the vision in that eye will become lazy as the brain ignores information from the deviating eye. Improvement in lazy eye can take place till eight years of age.
The child will lose binocular vision (ability to use the two eyes together)
Squint is detrimental to the appearance of the child.

Need for treatment

Treatment of squint should be as early as possible. Children never outgrow squint. It should be corrected as early as possible.
Treatment Options:
• Spectacles
• Eye exercises
• Surgery
The eye specialist is the best judge and will advise you the correct treatment. The earlier the treatment, the better the results. Surgery done to remove squint does not affect child’s vision.
Squint needs treatment. It will not go away on its own.
The sooner the treatment begins the better it is. In fact, improvement in lazy eye can happen till eight years of age.
Brain ignores messages sent from the weaker eye, once this has occurred it is not possible to rectify squint, which may result in permanent loss of vision in that eye.

Dr Raj Anand, M.D.
Consultant Ophthalmologist (Ophthalmic Plastics & Reconstructive Surgery)
Eye-Q Super Speciality Eye Hospitals

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