HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6142, 28 September 1945, Page 3

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

STRABISMUS (By the Department of Health) A child with a squinting eye should never be the subject of a “ wait and see if it’ll get better ” policy. An appointment with an eye specialist should be made as early as possible. A squifit or strabismus is due to lack of action of one of the muscles of the eyeball, so that an eye either converges or diverges. This throws the vision out of gear, and the child see two objects—one cleanly, with the good eye; another not so clearly with the squinting eye. Such double vision is very awkward, and the squinting eye tries to blot its image out. It keeps on suppressing that image until finally—the vision is not being used; the ability to see correctly with the squinting eye is lost. Often when a squinting eye of long standing is tested for vision it is almost blind. The first attack on a squint, therefore, is to get both eyes working and both seeing dearly. Glasses are provided that hinder the good eye and make the unused squinting eye do . some seeing again. By this means an almost blind eye can be brought up to normal vision again. Recovery is posible up to the age of ten or eleven years, but it’s very much wiser to start treatment as young as possible. Occlusion—shutting off the good eye—has to be supplemented with muscle training of the sqinting eye. In fact, the child has to be trained to have single vision again when it uses both eyes. Such treatment, called orthoptic, should be done before any operation is. planed on a squinting eye, for sometimes operative help is called on to correct a bad squint. Remember, do not delay with a sqint; it is an immediate job for’ an eye specialist.