Does your child see clearly?

The only way of knowing if your child has a vision problem is through screening. Your child should have each eye's vision checked on an eye chart starting at age 3 and then repeated yearly.

Amblyopia is defined as poor vision in an eye due to a lack of use of an eye in early childhood. The two most common causes of amblyopia are strabismus (misalignment of the eyes) and anisometropia (a difference in eyeglass prescription between the twoeyes).

While strabismus is easy to detect, as the eyes are misaligned, it is more difficult to detect anisometropia. With anisometropia, the eyes are straight but the vision is out of focus in one eye. These children tend to appear normal as one eye sees clearly and the condition is often unrecognized without proper screening.

If the child fails the screening exam, an appointment should be made immediately with a pediatric ophthalmologist. The earlier the treatment of amblyopia, the easier it is to reverse.