When strabismus occurs in newborns, the causes and need for treatment

Will the child's strabismus or this disease last a lifetime? It depends on the reasons for its appearance, on the age of the child and on other factors.

What is strabismus?

In medicine, the term "strabismus" is used when talking about the pathology of the organs of vision, in which one or both eyes simultaneously look in different directions. In this case, the lines of sight do not have a point of intersection. One eye is looking at the subject, and the other is pointed past. In such cases, the muscles of the visual organ work in an inconsistent manner.

Pathology can be either innate (present from birth or appearing in the first six months of life), and acquired (appears up to 3 years).

Vision in children up to one year: the norm

As soon as the happy mother comes back from the maternity hospital with the newborn, she is surrounded by caring grandparents, other relatives. Everyone looks at every part of the baby's body, watches every movement, every sigh. And often pay attention to the fact that the newborn mow eyes. Does it happen, do the parents experience? In most cases - yes! Therefore, do not immediately panic and run to the doctors.

The fact is that for a newborn this is quite normal. The baby is still a tiny organism that has not completely formed. Many bodies and systems are just beginning to adapt to new environmental conditions. Including sight. Eyes - a complex analyzer. Work in full force, he begins only by the end of the first year of life. Immediately after the birth of the eye, the baby is only able to distinguish between the presence or absence of a light source. This is how the eyes are checked in the maternity home, they direct the ray to the eyeball, if the baby closes the eyes, then the reaction is correct. In the first months of life, the child does not distinguish between subjects, sees them as in a fog. The view turns to focus only on large objects. At 3-4 months the baby tries to catch a glimpse of smaller objects and their movement. During this period, the vision of each eye develops separately. The muscles there are still weak enough, and it is difficult for the toddler to focus his eye on the subject. Therefore, it is absolutely normal when the baby's eyes are mowed. When does strabismus occur in newborns? Usually this happens to 4-6 months. Up to six months there should be no signs of physiological strabismus.

Convergent strabismus

Strabismus is a pathology in which the visual axis is displaced. With convergent strabismus, these axes are located closer to the bridge of the nose. It can concern both one eye and both at once. They seem to be going "in a bunch". The eyeball is shifted from the center to the bridge of the nose. This problem occurs most often, in 90% of cases, and most often in newborns. Most likely, it is not necessary to worry if the baby mows only from time to time, and not constantly.

Exotropia

Much less often, only 10% of all cases, the visual axis shifts relative to the center not to the nose, but in the opposite direction, to the temples. Often divergent strabismus is also accompanied by hyperopia.

Treatment of strabismus

When does strabismus occur in newborns? Usually by the age of 6 months, the kids get rid of it. But if the child is already six months old, but the view does not normalize, in such cases it is important not to lose time and begin treatment. To help the kid it is possible the whole complex of special measures:

1. Create the right conditions for normal visual function. That is, to ensure the regime of visual work, to monitor the good lighting of the playing area, bright toys should not be close to the bed.
2. Correct the other diseases accompanying strabismus. With farsightedness and shortsightedness, lenses or glasses are used. Thus, the load on the weak muscles of the eye decreases, and the ailment passes.
3. Temporarily close the healthy eye. To do this, use a special bandage or simply plug one glass glasses. In this way, the muscles of the healthy eye are temporarily disconnected, forcing the muscles of his "lazy brother" to be included in the work and to train.
4. Hardware treatment. These are computer techniques, magnetic stimulation, laser stimulation, electrostimulation and others.
5. Operative surgical intervention. This is a cardinal method, but it is necessary if all of the above conservative methods have not brought improvement.

When will the strabismus pass from the newborn? This question worries parents. Does strabismus occur in the newborn quickly? The baby will have a physiological age feature by the 6th month. And if treatment is required, it will take about 2-3 years. The sooner they discovered the disease and started treatment, the faster it will go.

Prevention of strabismus

Like any disease, strabismus is better not to tolerate than to treat. There are simple tricks that will help prevent the appearance of the disease:

• Do not overload the visual muscles and nerves, toys should not be placed too close to the eyes;
• Do not start to appear eye diseases, immediately treat them;
• Attentively to the planned examination of the ophthalmologist.

Strabismus in children. Causes

How to cure and when strabismus passes, we found out in this article, but why do some children suffer from this ailment, and others do not? Why does this disease appear? The reasons for which it may appear in the child are different:

• Maternal diseases during pregnancy, viral and chronic diseases can affect the health of the baby;
• Heavy childbirth;
• Various infectious diseases and inflammatory processes in the newborn;
• External damage and injury to the organs of vision;
• Hereditary predisposition;
• Obvious violation of eye hygiene;
• An incorrect mode of visual function, when the toys are always too close to the baby's face in the crib and the stroller.

This pathology refers to the small number of diseases that can be diagnosed almost always by the parents themselves, without the involvement of a physician. It is only necessary to closely monitor the development of visual functions. And when the strabismus passes from the newborn, the caring parent will immediately notice. You just need to keep a close eye on the baby.

Strabismus in newborns when it passes? Komarovsky answers

Oleg Evgenevich agrees on this issue with other doctors. Komarovsky says that this physiological feature is quite typical for newborns. Moreover, it is the norm. When does strabismus occur in newborns? It passes by itself without any kind of treatment to 4-6 months of life. By this time the muscles of the child's eyes should be strong enough. If this did not happen, without losing time, you need to contact a specialist, he believes. Particular attention should be paid to this parent if the family had cases of such ailments. The main thing is not to miss the time. After all, for infants, untimely access to a doctor can lead to the fact that binocular vision (the ability to simultaneously clearly see the picture with both eyes) will not form. They can not see objects in bulk. And it will not be possible to correct this at a more mature age. But when the strabismus occurs in newborns, parents can completely forget about the disease. Most likely, it will not appear.