Astigmatism in babies and children. What is it?

Astigmatism is a refractive error of the eye, that is, a graduation. This vision disorder is due, very usually and, especially in children especially, to the shape of the eye. Normally the cornea and lens of the eye are curved and have the same curvature in all directions. This is what makes it poss

Astigmatism is a refractive error of the eye, that is, a graduation. This vision disorder is due, very usually and, especially in children especially, to the shape of the eye.

Normally the cornea and lens of the eye are curved and have the same curvature in all directions. This is what makes it possible to focus the light rays correctly towards the retina. But, if the cornea or lens does not have the same curvature, these rays are not refracted correctly and a refractive error occurs. This is called astigmatism.

Why astigmatism is normal in childhood

Children when they are born have disproportionately large eyes with respect to the rest of the body. But also his eye has another particularity: they have a little more oval, that is, it has a more egg-like shape than a perfect sphere.

What happens with children is that the outermost part of the eye, the cornea, that natural lens that we have attached to the eye, has more curvature and is more flat in one area than in another.

This flatter shape makes the eye is not completely round. Astigmatism is normal, therefore, in childhood, due to the shape of the eye itself.

When the child is growing that eye is increasing in size and is getting more and more redondito therefore it is normal that astigmatism go down and even tend to disappear.