Your child often blinks

Does your child seem to blink a lot? This can result in discomfort or significant visual effort, which can be linked to different eye problems: eye allergy, dry eye, conjunctivitis, myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism.

Eye allergy

Symptoms associated with eye allergy in children include: eye redness, lacrimation, swelling of the eyelids and itching sensation.

There are several ways to treat an eye allergy. The first is not to come into contact with the allergen responsible, for example by avoiding airing your home during periods of high pollen. There are also eye drops and treatments based on antihistamines. 

It is also possible to carry out an allergy assessment in order to discover the agent responsible for the allergy and possibly carry out desensitisation. A negative assessment does not necessarily mean that it is not an allergy. Similarly, some forms of allergy are localised only to the eye and have no other manifestations.

Dry eye

Several symptoms are related to dry eye. The child often blinks; he feels like he has a foreign body or grit in his eyes. He complains ofitching, blurred vision or increased sensitivity to light.

Simple actions can reduce symptoms of dry eye. For example, using an air humidifier to alleviate excessively dry air in a room. Or protect the child’s eyes with sunglasses when exposed to the sun, while ensuring sufficient hydration. 

Conjunctivitis

There are mainly three types of conjunctivitis.

• Viral conjunctivitis: very common in children, it often affects both eyes at the same time and is accompanied by clear and colourless secretions. 
• Bacterial Conjunctivitis is much less common and usually affects only one eye. 
• Then allergic conjunctivitis, which affects both eyes and is frequently linked to the pollen season. 

Treatments are different depending on the type of conjunctivitis, viral conjunctivitis is treated with cold water compresses and lubricating and/or antiseptic eye drops. For bacterial conjunctivitis, the child’s paediatrician may prescribe antibiotic and/or anti-inflammatory eye drops. Finally, for allergic conjunctivitis, it is possible to administer antiallergic eye drops or antihistamine drugs to be taken by mouth. 

Myopia

A child who blinks often can also be the result of myopia. This problem is more common in adolescents, but it is increasingly developing in young children. It is characterised by an overly long eye, which involves the formation of a blurred image in front of the retina. Does your child squint when he looks into the distance? It is possible that his far vision is affected, and thus that he has developed myopia.

There are different treatments for myopia: 

• Corrective lenses: your ophthalmologist may prescribe glasses with corrective lenses. 
• Wearing contact lenses, depending on the child’s age, can also be a solution. 
• Eye drops, to slow the progression of myopia.
• Ophthalmic surgery, made possible in adulthood, can reduce the curvature of the cornea and, therefore, offer a long-term solution.

Hyperopia

Hyperopia is the opposite of myopia. This eye disorder is particularly common in children because the eye is smaller. Hyperopia affects near-vision and occurs when the eye is too short or its cornea and lens are too flat. 

There are several ways to correct hyperopia depending on the degree of correction. In particular, it is possibleto correct hyperopia by wearing glasses, allowing the child to see closely again, and to have clearer vision.

Astigmatism 

Astigmatism is very often associated with myopia or hyperopia. It is a refractive visual defect characterised by an irregularity of the cornea. The cornea is deformed: instead of being regular like the surface of a football, it takes the form of a rugby ball. 

Astigmatism can be detected by examining visual acuity and then refraction. During this examination, the ophthalmologist will apply cycloplegiant drops in the child’s eye in order to temporarily paralyse the focusing power of the eye and therefore its accommodation.

Early screening and management of refractive disorders in children is essential to avoid amblyopia. It is therefore important to have your child’s eyes checked as soon as possible and regularly by an ophthalmologist.