Fever is a sign that there is an infection somewhere in the body. Similarly, squinting of eyes also indicates that something is wrong with the child’s eyes and it is mandatory to find the cause of the squint rather than having it corrected surgically.
Remember “SURGERY IS NOT THE TREATMENT OF A SQUINTING EYE BUT A LAST RESORT”.
Human eye is like a camera. It gathers light impulses from the objects and transmits that information to the brain which then analyzes the details of that image. Remember there are two cameras (eyes) operating side by side. If the information transmitted by one eye is hazy or blurred, the brain gets confused. It blocks the faulty information from the problematic eye and that eye starts to squint i.e. turns inwards or outwards. The eye conditions that lead to a squint are:
1) Droopy upper eyelids.
2) Clouding or haziness of the cornea or lens of the eye.
3) Gross short-sightedness or far-sightedness.
4) Retinal or optic nerve malformation.
The most common cause of a squinting eye in children is far-sightedness. The child needs glasses to see clearly. Failure to recognize and rectify this problem with correcting glasses makes the child squeeze his eye muscles which then turn the eye inwards.
Whenever this problem is noticed, the help of a pediatric ophthalmologist should be sought urgently before that eye loses its sight permanently.
Surgery for such an eye is not the answer as it can only straighten the eye for a short while but cannot restore the sight. An eye with poor vision will soon deviate again.