As a parent, finding out that your child could be born with a problem in their eyes can be scary, especially when it is a disease that could cause blindness like glaucoma. Even though it is still considered rare, at least one in every 10,000 babies born in the United States have glaucoma. Even though learning of this diagnosis can be difficult, the key to coping and proper treatment is understanding the facts about childhood glaucoma. Here are a few things you should know if you learn that your little one has this eye condition.
Getting to Know the Symptoms of Childhood Glaucoma
Most babies who are born with glaucoma are diagnosed early because the symptoms are pretty obvious from an early age and are easy to catch by a pediatrician. Some of the most common symptoms of the disease include:
If you have a little one who is showing any of these symptoms, you should talk to your pediatrician and get a referral to a pediatric optometrist who is familiar with childhood glaucoma. Early diagnosis is the key to preventing the disease from progressing and causing major damage to the optical nerves of the eye.
Understanding the Various Treatment Options
Glaucoma may not have a cure, but there are many treatment options that can help prevent the disease from progressing and causing blindness. Pediatric optometrists will often have differing opinions about how to treat a child who has glaucoma, but you can rely on the fact that most will suggest both oral medications and eye drops. The medications used are mostly to deter the undesirable symptoms of glaucoma, such as excessive tearing and burning sensations. In some cases, surgery is an option as long as the glaucoma is not severe. Because glaucoma is a result of extreme pressure inside of the eye, the surgeries performed can include procedures to create small openings with a laser to relieve this pressure.
Glaucoma can be a disturbing diagnosis no matter how old your child may be. However, with treatment and early diagnosis, glaucoma can be manageable and have less of an impact on your child's life. Talk to a pediatric optometrist for more information about childhood glaucoma.
For more information about this and other glaucoma related issues, contact a company like the Leader Heights Eye Center.
Share30 July 2015
Having a daughter comes with a number of challenges. One challenge that you will one day need to tackle is determining when to introduce your daughter to the gynecologist. Do you take your daughter to the same gynecologist that you see or take her somewhere else? Do you wait until she gets her first period or do you take her in to learn about the menstrual cycle from the doctor? There is a long list of questions you likely have about introducing your daughter to the world of gynecology. Having gone through this twice myself, I have learned quite a bit and have included a lot of helpful information in my site to help other parents get through this complicated time a little easier.
