Double vision is always alarming regardless of age. However, when it affects your child, it can be downright scary. Fortunately, double vision isn’t always a sign of a serious problem, and understanding why it occurs and when to seek medical care is crucial for your child’s health and peace of mind.
At ABC Children's Eye Specialists, our team uses the most advanced techniques to understand the cause of double vision in our pediatric patients, providing treatment to resolve symptoms and prevent complications.
In this post, our team offers a brief overview of diplopia to help you understand why it occurs and why prompt medical attention is so important.
As its name implies, double vision happens when we see two images instead of one. That doesn’t necessarily mean we see exact copies of a single object. Instead, your child may complain of blurry vision, overlapping images, or a shadow or “ghost” effect.
Double vision can affect one eye (monocular diplopia) or both eyes (binocular diplopia). Binocular diplopia is far more common, occurring when your child’s eyes aren’t working “in sync” with one another, while monocular vision is more often associated with problems that affect only one eye.
Several conditions can cause double vision, and regardless of whether your child’s symptoms involve one or both eyes, it’s never normal and should always be evaluated to rule out potentially serious causes and prevent problems that can interfere with school, social activities, and even basic tasks, such as climbing stairs.
Lots of issues can cause diplopia in children, ranging from relatively benign issues to more complex or serious health problems. Some possible causes include:
In children, monocular double vision is often associated with corneal irregularities that interfere with the way light enters the eye. These irregularities “scatter” light and prevent it from focusing on the light-sensitive cornea, resulting in double vision or ghost images.
Alternatively, binocular double vision is frequently caused by strabismus, a condition that prevents the eyes from working together to create cohesive, clear images. In strabismus, each eye sends different visual information to the brain, resulting in blurry or double vision.
Significant refractive errors — extreme nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism — can cause double vision in some children, as well.
Double vision is never normal, and it should always be evaluated by an eye doctor. Our team performs comprehensive eye exams to help determine the underlying cause, sometimes following an exam with lab tests or diagnostic imaging.
Once the cause is determined, we can prescribe appropriate treatment, which may include eye drops, corrective lenses, vision therapy, or surgery using the most advanced techniques.
Emergency treatment is essential if your child experiences double vision — or any vision changes — following an accident, like a fall, car accident, or sports injury.
It’s also important to note that some kids may have difficulty describing what they’re experiencing. Subtle signs like squinting, head-tilting, or covering one eye to see all indicate it’s time to schedule an eye exam with our team.
Our team specializes in pediatric eye care, so you can feel confident your child’s eyes and vision will receive the most appropriate care and treatment for their unique needs.
To learn more about pediatric diplopia or to schedule an exam for your child, call our offices to request an appointment with the team at ABC Children’s Eye Specialists in Phoenix, Avondale, Sun City, Gilbert, and Mesa, Arizona, today.
