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Are Sunglasses Good for Children?

If there’s one activity that children love to do, it’s playing out in the sun. Outdoor activities are essential during the formative years of a child. Alas, being exposed to the sun for a long period has its disadvantages. Overexposure increases the risk of eye complications such as pterygium (surfer’s eye) and photokeratitis (snow blindness). Wearing sunglasses could protect their eyes against the harmful rays of the sun.

Here’s why sunglasses are good for children:

Children are more susceptible to ultraviolet eye damage

Compared to adults, children stand at a greater risk of eye damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) rays present in sunlight. The fluids, lens and cornea are clearer in children’s eyes, as a result of which, they permit more sunlight.

Are sunglasses good for children

Prolonged exposure to the UV rays increases the risk of a number of eye complications in adults as well as children. They are:

  • Pterygium: Is a benign growth of a fleshy, pinkish tissue in the conjunctiva, the outer white part of the eyes. If left untreated, Pterygium can worsen, cover the pupils, and lead to vision impairment

  • Pinguecula: A couple of small non-cancerous growths develop on the conjunctiva. The growths have a yellowish appearance and look like raised patches

  • Photokeratitis: This eye complication arises when UV rays damage the outer surface of the cornea. Some of the symptoms of Photokeratitis include redness, sensitivity to bright light, frequent tearing, and swelling of the eyes

  • Cataract: Cataracts occur when protein in the lens starts forming clumps. With time, the protein clumps grow in size and cloud the lens which, in turn, leads to vision impairment. Disha Eye Hospitals has won acclaim for performing high-quality cataract surgeries in Kolkata.

How to choose the right sunglasses for your children?

While choosing sunglasses for your little ones, it’s best not to restrict your choice to shape/ colour alone. Always search for the pair that come with UVA and UVB protection. Your eye doctor could guide you in choosing the right pair for yourself and your children.

Other important eye safety tips:-

Apart from advising your children to wear sunglasses, you could take other measures to ensure more safety from the harmful UV rays:

  • Wearing sun hats: Prolonged exposure to UV rays increases the risk of eyelid cancer. Although UV sunglasses protect the eyes, they do not sufficiently cover the skin surrounding the eyes. You could encourage your little ones to wear sun hats for an extra cover.

  • Drinking plenty of water: Another very important precaution would be to urge your children to drink plenty of water. Tears can evaporate quicker than usual in the sun, leading to a feeling of grittiness or even dry eyes. Drinking water is a good habit that would keep the eyes hydrated.

Schedule an eye checkup for you and your family

You can now consult with one of the best eye doctors in Kolkata at Disha Eye Hospitals if you’re interested in planning an eye safety routine for yourself and your children. Schedule an appointment online at http://www.dishaeye.org/organic/.

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5 Things You Should Know About Your Child’s vision

Do you find your child rubbing his or her eyes vigorously or holding a book way too closely? If yes, then it important that you get your child’s eyes tested. Vision is arguably the most important of the five senses. A good vision is important for a child to perform well in sports and academics. In the early years of school, most of the things that children learn are through objects, symbols and visual elements. Though when a baby is born the doctor checks the baby’s eyes to rule out eye problems, it is important that parents make sure that children’s eyes are checked by scheduling regular appointments with the doctor.

Eye care treatment for the child

Schedule an appointment with the best eye doctors in Kolkata to keep your child’s eyes healthy

It’s important that during your child’s early formative years that you get their eyes tested regularly. Early detection of children’s vision problems means timely medical attention. Consult the best paediatric eye specialists in Kolkata at Disha Eye Hospitals, to make sure your child’s eyes are functioning properly. Besides squint, we provide treatment for other paediatric eye problems. To book an appointment online with the best eye specialists in Kolkata, visit http://www.dishaeye.org/contact-us. You can also book an appointment through WhatsApp (9433311111).

Here are a few things that you should know about children’s eye problems:

1. Good eye health begins even before birth: A child’s vision development begins before he or she is born. Often low birth weight has been associated with an increased risk of vision problems in infants. Exposure to hazardous toxins and smoking can cause can adversely affect the child’s vision development. Certain common medications can also have an effect on the eye health of the baby. It is, therefore, important that you take medicines only after consulting your gynaecologist.

2. First eye examination: It is advisable that your child has his or her first eye exam at 6 months of age. This should be followed by another examination at the age of three. Once your child starts school, you can have their eyes checked every two years until age 18. Children who wear prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses should have annual eye exams.

3. Spotting an eye problem in children: Though children are sometimes not very good expressing about the problems that are bothering them, here a few symptoms to look out for:

  • Constant eye rubbing
  • light sensitivity
  • Not able to track an object
  • Poor alignment of eyes
  • Redness in the eyes
  • Having trouble reading the blackboard
  • Sitting too close to the television
  • Squinting

4. Common eye problems in children: There are several eye conditions and diseases that can affect a child’s vision. Early diagnosis and treatment help keep your child’s eyes healthy. Here are some of the common eye problems in children:

  • Squint: A child is said to have a squint when both the eyes don’t look in the same direction. It is common in young children. However, it can occur at any age.

  • Amblyopia: This usually occurs during early childhood. In this condition, the health of one eye is better than the other eye.

  • Refractive errors: Refractive errors are the most common cause of vision problems among school-age children. A child suffers from when refractive errors when there’s a problem with light accurately focussing onto the retina. This can lead to nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. This can be fixed with the right prescription glasses.


    5. Too much screen time: As more and more children are spending hours staring at digital devices for either studying or playing, it’s important that parents keep a tab on the screen time. Increased exposure to blue light emitted by smartphones and tablets can cause computer vision syndrome and nearsightedness among other problems.

Don’t let poor vision affect your life, book an appointment with Disha Eye Hospitals

An annual eye examination can help your doctor keep track of your and your family’s visual needs. If you fear your child has an eye problem, schedule an eye exam with Disha Eye Hospitals, which have the best retina specialists in Kolkata. To know more about us, visit http://www.dishaeye.org/.

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If Your Child Has Squint, Then Read These 5 Useful Insights

If Your Child Has Squint, Then Read These 5 Useful Insights

Squint, also called as Strabismus, can occur at any age, but is particularly common in young children. Squint can be temporary i.e. it may come and go, or persist (be permanent). These 5 insights can help you confirm the occurrence of squint in your child, choose proper treatment, and lower the risks of further complications:

1. Ensuring annual eye check-up of your child:

As a concerned parent, your first responsibility is to ensure that you take your child to the eye doctor every year for a comprehensive eye checkup. Doing this will help you identify the early symptoms of squint as well as other eye complications common in young children.

You can bring your child to our eye specialists at Disha Eye Hospital, one of the leading eye hospitals in West Bengal, for a complete eye exam. Our team of eye doctors uses the latest technologies and equipment for ensuring precise diagnosis.

2. Tips to identify whether your child has squint:

Identifying squint in your child is relatively easy. The first step is to take a closer look at your child’s eye; if the eye balls are deviated from each other at all times or when trying to focus on an object, it could indicate the presence of the eye condition.

Another sign to watch out for is whether your child is tilting his/her head to one side when doing everyday tasks or not. As squint can cause double vision, your child might try to close his/her eyes to correct vision.

3. Causes of squint in children:

There are several causes of squint. In children, the eye condition can be the result of the eye attempting to correct vision problems (refractive errors) such as far sightedness (hyperopia), near sightedness (myopia), and astigmatism (uneven curvature of the front part of the eyes).

In some cases, squint in childhood can be a symptom of retinoblastoma, a rare type of childhood eye cancer. Other rare causes of squint in children include developmental delays, genetic syndromes or conditions, and certain infections.

4. Complications of squint:

One of the biggest myths about squint in childhood is that children can grow out of the eye condition. This conventional belief is discarded by eye doctors and parents. Make sure not to believe in such myths and instead start early treatment upon diagnosis of the eye condition.

Failing to address the eye condition with proper treatment can increase the risks of lazy eye. Lazy eye is when the brain stops accepting signals coming from the affected eye. Other complications of squint in younger children include double vision, vision impairment, and low self-esteem.

5. When to get medical advice?

This is one of the common questions concerning parents. It’s crucial to seek medical attention if your child is only three months or older and has a temporary squint. Also, seek immediate medical advice if you notice changes (even the most subtle ones) in the eye alignment and vision of your child. To identify vision changes, watch whether your child sits near to the screen while watching TV or brings books closer to the eyes while reading/studying.

For proper diagnosis and treatment of squint, consult with our eye care experts

From ensuring precise diagnosis to planning and choosing the right treatment option(s) such as patching of the healthy (unaffected) eye to force the use of the weak (affected) eye, our eye care specialists can help you effectively correct your child’s squint. Learn more about our paediatric squint treatment in Kolkata at http://www.dishaeye.org/content/paediatric-squint.

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Common Kid’s Eye Disorders

Common Kid's Eye Disorders

It is important to take your children for annual eye check-up to start early treatment of eye problems (if diagnosed any) and avoid further complications.

Over here we have discussed a list of common eye disorders in children. If your kid shows any of the symptoms mentioned below, consult our eye specialists.

1) Excessive tears (Epiphora):-

Watery eyes are common in babies. However, it if doesn’t pass by itself, the condition can mean serious eye complications. There are several causes of excessive tearing in babies.

The most common cause is overproduction of tears mainly due to irritation of the eyes by irritants such as dirt, pollen, and dust. Make sure that your baby doesn’t rub his/her eyes to avoid worsening of the irritation. Other causes include problems with tear ducts and eye infections such as pink eye.

One of the basic home remedies is to clean your baby’s eyelids to prevent accumulation of infection-causing discharges with filtered water and cotton.

If you stay in Kolkata, and your kid suffers from persistent watery eyes, then visit the best eye specialist in Kolkata at Disha Hospitals. At Disha Eye Hospital, our team comprises of some of the best eye specialists in Kolkata. Visit our eye hospital for a proper eye diagnosis for your kid. Learn more about us at http://www.dishaeye.org/history.

2) Dry eyes:-

Dry eye occurs when there’s insufficient lubrication in the surface of the eyes. As a result, the condition can cause irritation, burning sensation, and itchiness. Dry eyes is becoming increasingly common in kids as they spend too much time on smartphones or playing video games.

The eye condition can make it challenging for your child to play sports, read books, use a computer, and even perform well at school. If you notice symptoms such as frequent eye rubbing, and soreness and redness in the eyes, make sure to consult an eye doctor.

3) Strabismus:-

Strabismus is when the eyes are misaligned. In other words, both eyes are unable to aim at the same subject. In strabismus, one or both the eyes may turn inward, outward, up, or down. Kids can either develop the condition in childhood or be born with it.

Strabismus is linked to problems with the eye muscles. In other cases, the condition can also be caused by the brain’s control centre that directs eye movements, or the nerves that transmit information to the muscles.

Like most children, your kid may not notice changes in their vision or complain about the problem. If you notice your kid’s eyes don’t consistently look in the same direction, make sure to take medical help. Treatment options for the condition include eye patching, eye drops, eyeglasses, and eye muscle surgery.

4) Lazy Eye:-

Lazy eye, also called Amblyopia, is a condition in which one of the eyes doesn’t fully develop, causing vision impairment. As the condition affects one of the eyes, your kid may not notice changes in vision right away.

However, as a concerned parent, you can look out for several signs of the eye condition. When your child focuses on an object, notice if one eye stays focused while the other one tends to wander. If this happens, then it could be an indication of the eye condition.

5) Refractive errors:-

Refractive error (hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism) happens when the shape of the eye prevents light from focusing directly on the retina, thus leading to blurred vision. As vision develops in the early years of life, the eye condition could be serious for your child.

Refractive errors cannot be prevented but can be treated upon early diagnosis. Some of the signs of the eye condition to watch out for in your kids include holding objects too close to the eyes and inability to read distant letters.