contact lenses, contact lens
By Martin Burns
One-month-old babies with serious eye conditions are being prescribed
contact lenses.
They have been prescribed at paediatric eye surgery centres in the US to help children`s eyesight develop properly.
Infants are given
contact lenses if they have cataract surgery, need extremely high-strength prescription glasses, or have very different prescriptions for the two eyes.
Dr Natalia Uribe – who directs the
Contact Lens Program in The Vision Center at Children`s Hospital Los Angeles – has stressed that children with difficulties with their vision as youngsters need to get it corrected as early as possible so as to avoid further problems when they are adults.
For example, she suggests that
contact lenses can be better than glasses with one thick lens for children with a medical condition affecting one eye.
"A properly fitted
contact lens can produce near-normal vision – the images are the same size, clear and focused, and input equally from both eyes – spurring proper brain development," she added.
The Kenya Union of the Blind (KUB) is working in conjunction with Computer Aid International, one of three charities chosen by the Independent for its Christmas Appeal, to supply visually-impaired Kenyan schoolchildren with technological aid in the classroom.
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