How your child could develop a harmful squint without you ever knowing it
- One in 20 children gets a squint
- This is when their eyes don't point in the same direction
- Once diagnosed, a squint can be treated with glasses
- But growing numbers of children aren't getting their eyes tested
Getting ready for bed a few days after her seventh birthday in March, Elizabeth Grylls clutched her brow. 'Mummy, I've got a terrible headache and feel so tired,' she told her.
'She had that headache every night for four nights - a real nagging headache that developed after school and lasted all evening until bedtime,' says her mother Claire Nicholson, 38, a PR and marketing consultant from Ipswich.
'At first, I blamed working hard at school.'
Caught in the nick of time: Claire with her seven-year-old daughter Elizabeth, who developed a severe squint
But Claire's mother suggested taking Elizabeth to get her eyes tested.
'The optician told me bluntly she had a severe squint and was practically blind in her right eye.'
And as Elizabeth hadn't had her eyes tested since she was three, the problem could have been there for years.
The squint wasn't visible to the untrained eye and Elizabeth was doing well at school, which is why Claire hadn't spotted it.
'He told us that since children's eyes stop developing by seven or eight nothing could be done. We were devastated.'
Around one in 20 children develops a squint, where the eyes don't point in the same direction.
Around 30 per cent of cases are hereditary, but a squint can also occur if a child has an undiagnosed sight problem.
Squints are more common in long-sighted children, like Elizabeth, because they have to exert greater effort focusing on close objects.
By seven or eight, the brain switches off and no longer processes information from the poor eye, making it harder to improve vision.
Prevalent problem: Around one in 20 children develops a squint
Once diagnosed, a squint can be treated with glasses, reducing the focusing effort needed, or by surgery on muscles controlling the eye. To restore 3D vision, which relies on the brain using both eyes at the same time, sometimes an eye patch needs to be worn over the good eye to encourage the lazy eye to work harder.
There is no typical age at which squints occur and while most are noticeable, if they are small or come and go, they can go unnoticed to the untrained eye, says Vasileios Kostakis, a consultant ophthalmologist at Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust.
Elizabeth's father had a severe squint surgically corrected when he was three but after her eyes were tested at her private school at the age of three and her sight seemed fine, Claire never took her to an optician.
'Elizabeth's school reports were always glowing, though her writing was scruffy and her reading could be slow,' she says.
She could hit a ball playing tennis or hockey and her art was great, so there was no reason to think there was a problem.
'When the optician said regular eye tests would have picked up the problem, I was horrified. I'd taken Elizabeth and my nine-year-old, Isabella, to the dentist regularly, but I didn't realise they needed regular eye tests.'
All four and five-year-olds should have their eyes tested as part of the NHS Healthy Child Programme, introduced in 2008, where children can be tested at school. High street eye tests are free for children till they are 18 (if they are in full-time education).
The charity the Eyecare Trust says every child should be tested annually until the age of eight, and every two years afterwards.
However, new figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show eye examination rates among under-15s have fallen to a ten-year low.
Despite free tests, up to a million British children have undetected vision problems, says the Eyecare Trust.
'One in four parents now say their child has never had a sight test. But in 2011, only 14 per cent hadn't had their child's eyes tested,' says Rosie Gavzey from the charity.
'Three-quarters of parents think they have to pay for a test or glasses, yet children's eyecare is free on the NHS.'
Poor handwriting and headaches are among the warning signs parents should look for, says the charity. 'Children won't necessarily say “I can't see that” or know what is normal,' says Francesca Marchetti from the College of Optometrists.
'Despite free tests, up to a million British children have undetected vision problems'
And a 2011 Which? survey found one in five primary care trusts was not screening children for vision problems.
'Sight tests are rarely carried out in schools and problems with vision can hinder development,' says Francesca Marchetti.
'Being short-sighted might prevent the child from reading the whiteboard and being long-sighted means they may struggle with handwriting and reading, leading to a misunderstanding about their level of intelligence.'
Devastated by what the optician had told her, Claire searched the internet and found sometimes children's eyes can be corrected up to the age of ten.
She took Elizabeth to another optician, Specsavers, which referred her to Ipswich Hospital, where she saw Mr Kostakis on the NHS three weeks later.
He examined the back of Elizabeth's eyes and explained that in addition to the squint in her right eye, it was also much more long-sighted than her left.
So as well as the squint, Elizabeth had problems reading small print. Because the information from her right eye was so poor, her brain was increasingly relying on the left alone, causing headaches and making her bad eye lazier.
With her good eye covered, Elizabeth could see only the first two lines of the eye chart. 'It was terrifying, because if anything happened to her good eye she could never drive,' says Claire.
Mr Kostakis prescribed glasses to ease the strain on her left eye by correcting the long-sightedness, with a stronger prescription for the right eye to make it to work harder. Her headaches stopped after she wore them for TV and schoolwork.
Improvement: Since wearing her corrective glasses, the sight in Elizabeth's bad eye has improved dramatically
Six weeks later, she could read the fourth line on an eye chart with her right eye.
'I couldn't believe that in just six weeks the sight in her bad eye improved so dramatically,' says Claire. 'Especially considering the first optician's gloomy outlook.'
'It's difficult to be certain in situations like this,' says Mr Kostakis. 'The vast majority of children aged seven or over don't respond to treatment which is why it's vital to refer a child promptly to hospital eye doctors.
'Once we lose that window of opportunity, we may never be able to correct a child's sight.'
Mr Kostakis warned that it was crucial for Elizabeth to wear her corrective glasses all day and also gave her prescription sunglasses for the summer holidays.
By August, Elizabeth could read to bottom line on the eye chart.
'That was amazing, especially after being told there was no hope,' says Claire. 'Finally we're on track to getting her eye performing better than ever, although it's likely to be a long road,' says Claire.
'Now I've recovered from the guilt of not knowing you're meant to get your children's eyes checked regularly,
'I'm delighted we caught it before her eyes fully developed when it could have been too late,' says Claire. 'Now I want to warn other parents to take their children for regular eye tests.'
WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
The following problems could be a sign your child has difficulties with their sight and needs an eye test:
- Having trouble using colours - for example, using the wrong colour for the sky or grass in art lessons - could be a sign that your child is 'colour-defective'.
- Hand-eye co-ordination is poor, which makes sports lessons a problem, and may indicate a lazy eye (an eye with reduced vision) or being long-sighted.
- Struggling with work done at close range - such as handwriting, reading and concentrating on small print and tasks needing close focus - could suggest your child is long-sighted.
Most watched News videos
- Man punches kangaroo in the face to save dog being strangled
- Christmas advert so touching it's being shared around the world
- CCTV shows woman hit by a CAR as thieves dodge paying for petrol
- Drivers lose control and plow into each other on snowy street
- Watch the original 1972 trailer for 'Last Tango in Paris'
- Dog gets caught digging huge hole in garden but styles it out
- Violence in Liverpool's city centre as crowd confront police
- Oakland warehouse manager Derick Ion Almena 'tripping out'
- See the eerie last moments BEFORE the Oakland warehouse fire
- Which body types do women like best? MailOnline investigates
- Group of Russian men line up and break into vicious fight
- Adorable baby 'sings' along with Dutch champion beatboxer B-Art
The comments below have not been moderated.
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.
We are no longer accepting comments on this article.