Eyesight in the Very Young

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Serious eye problems are rare in preschool children, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement when it comes to diagnosing and treating vision disorders in these kids.

That’s the take home message from Johns Hopkins researchers who looked at eye problems in nearly 2,300 preschoolers in the Baltimore area. While severe far-sightedness was seen in just 3 percent of the kids, severe near-sightedness in 0.6 percent, and other severe eye conditions in similarly small numbers, the study did find 5 percent had a problem significant enough to require treatment but only 1 percent were actually getting it.

What’s more, about a third of the kids who came into the research wearing glasses didn’t really need them.

“The good news is that serious eye disease in preschoolers appears to be uncommon, but the bad news is that we’re missing kids who need treatment and treating some children who don’t need it,” study author Michael X. Repka, M.D., was quoted as saying.

One finding that surprised the investigators was that infants may not outgrow their tendency toward far-sightedness as much as doctors have believed. In this study, few of the children seemed to outgrow the condition during their preschool years, leading the researchers to conclude more attention should be paid to far-sightedness in this age group. .

SOURCE: Ophthalmology, published online April 1, 2009

If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Melissa Medalie at mmedalie@ivanhoe.com