How to Get rid of Squint (strabismus) in Childhood Eye

Childhood Squint 

Squint or strabismus is a condition where the eyes do not look in the same direction. Normally, when you look at an object your eyes point and focus in the same direction. But, when a child has squint, one eye may focus on an object, while the other eye turns either inwards, outwards, upwards or downwards. Squints may also cause double vision or lazy eye(amblyopia). 

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Mostly, squint is seen in young children. However, the condition may develop in adults too. 

Squint and Vision 

When a child is born, their eyes and brain don’t work well together. But as they grow, this connection and coordination between the eyes and brain gradually builds up. And, this visual pathway develops up to the age of about 8 years. 

Also, a squint develops when the eye muscles do not work in a balanced way and thus eyes do not move together correctly.

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Causes of Childhood Squint 

Some of the common causes of squint includes: 

Refractive Errors: Refractive errors like myopia ( short-sightedness), hypermetropia (long-sightedness) and astigmatism can be a cause of squint in some children. Especially if your child is long-sighted their eyes will need to focus harder to make both their distance and close-up vision clear. Having glasses to correct their hypermetropia (long-sightedness) makes their focusing more relaxed and gives clearer vision. At the same time the glasses may also straighten their eyes and remove the squint. 

Premature Childbirth: Children born before 32 weeks may be at risk of developing squint. 

Family History: Some squints run down in families; so if a parent has/had a squint or needed glasses from an early age there may be an increased chance that their child may also be affected.

Eye Problems: Certain eye problems such as congenital cataract or damage to the retina can cause a squint. 

Types 

Squint is commonly categorised as: 

• When squint can be seen and is visible all the time it is called constant, and if it comes and goes is referred as intermittent.
• When squint is noticed during early months of a child birth it is called infantile, but if it develops later is called acquired squint.
• Refractive squint is caused due to refractive error.
• Based on how the eye turns, squint may be referred as convergent (inwards), divergent (outwards), hypertropia (upwards) or hypotropia (downwards).
• It is called incomitant if the squint changes when looking in different directions and concomitant when squint remains the same when looking in every direction.

Treatment and Squint Surgery

If diagnosed during early years, a child's squint can be easily treated. Depending on the type of squint, often a combination of treatments may be needed to get the best result for your child's vision. However, some of the common ways to treat squint may include: 

Glasses: Most children with squint may be prescribed a pair of glasses that they would need to wear all the time. It can be difficult to get children to wear glasses, but it's important because through glasses they are able to focus without difficulty. 

Occlusion Therapy or Patching: This is more successful to improve the vision especially in a lazy eye. During occlusion therapy, child's good eye is covered with a patch, due to this he/she is forced to use their weaker eye to see things and perform activities. This helps to build the pathway between weak eye and the brain. 

Exercises: In some cases exercises help to strengthen the eyes ability to work together. This type of treatment is usually helpful in older children and is commonly used together with glasses and/or surgery. 

Surgery: Depending on the type of squint, children may require a surgery so as to straighten the squint. A squint surgery is usually performed under general anaesthetic which means your child will be unconscious and unable to feel any pain. Normally, the operation is a day-care procedure; which means your child may not have to stay in hospital overnight.

The operation usually weakens or strengthens the muscles of the eye so that the eyes are better aligned. However, glasses may still be needed post surgery in some cases.

Squint surgery can be performed at any age; in older children and adults, the operation won’t help the eyes to work together as a pair but may be carried out more for cosmetic purposes. It usually takes several weeks to fully recover from corrective squint surgery.

It's important to note that if a squint is not diagnosed or treated before the age of 7-8 years, then it can have a permanent effect on the vision in one eye. Therefore, it's advisable to get your child's comprehensive eye check-up done, especially before you enrol him/her to school.