An Unexpected Reason Why Your Child’s Eyes Hurt
Posted on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
When parents come to us because their child’s eyes hurt, we sometimes surprise them when we say, “You child does have a vision problem.”
Why the surprise? Because the medical help they’ve received to this point has not identified vision as the problem. In these cases, the child usually has 20/20 eyesight, and the parents have been told by their vision care practitioners that the child’s vision is fine.
The fact is, many vision problems extend beyond visual acuity (clear distance vision) which is what the term “20/20 eyesight” refers to. There are a number of binocular and focusing vision problems that are not detected by the Snellen eye chart which can cause discomfort in the eyes.
Why does a child’s eyes hurt?
A child’s eyes may hurt because the eyes, as part of the visual system, are not working in the correct way.
It’s like writing with a pen. If you pick up the pen and hold it very tightly, you can’t write for a long time. Your hand becomes sore. But if you pick it up and hold it loosely, you can write for a long time. Your hands, and your body, are working as they should.
This is exactly what happens to your eyes when they have a vision problem that causes eye strain. Your eyes each have six muscles around the outside of the eye that are used for moving them around to point in different directions. They also have muscles inside the eye to change and hold focus for different distances from you.
If your visual system is not working efficiently because you are not using these muscles in the easiest way, they can become fatigued and sore. It is almost never true that the muscles are not strong enough. It is usually more like the pen analogy above: You are forcing them to work harder than they should.
In most cases this happens because of an underlying vision problem with binocular vision (eye teaming) or with the focusing system. It is sometimes possible for the person to relieve the eye strain and eye pain by changing their habits. Most of the time it is necessary to treat the underlying vision problem.
The telltale signs that a vision problem may cause your eyes to hurt
People’s eyes hurt on a random basis for a wide range of reasons. Maybe a bug flies in to your eye, or you get an eyelash caught in your eyelid.
If you consistently have problems as a result of specific tasks, then you may have a vision issue. These tasks include:
Doing near work, such as reading or working on the computer.
During school, when looking at the teacher at the front of the class or looking back and forth to copy notes from the board.
While viewing a 3D movie, or when playing video games.
If you notice a child’s eyes hurt during any of these types of activities on a regular basis, you should strongly consider a Functional Vision Exam. It may indicate that those sore eyes are part of a larger vision problem.
(Photo by maubrowncow)
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The Vision Therapy Center has helped over 2,000 people overcome vision problems since 1995, and has Wisconsin vision therapy offices in Brookfield and Madison.