'kopi gano'!

In my line of work, I am most excited and happy dealing with paediatric patients. Aside from their cuteness, it's their blatant honest response that's really endearing. They never fail to amuse me.

How do we actually assess kid's vision? Well, for those who already recognize letters and numbers, it wouldn't be so hard. I've actually met a 3 year old kid who already knows ABC and so amaze me! But for those who didn't, there's keycard and picture chart to aid in assessing their visual acuity. It's really easy and fun for cooperative kids. Of course there are some who's very shy and wouldn't speak a word. And some even throw tantrum and cried endlessly. With kids I have to be really patient. Slowly coax them and make them response to the test. If not I'll throw a tantrum myself. Haha. We can assess paediatric's vision from as young as 6 months old. Oh, those gurgling, rosy cheek, dimple smile babies always made up my day.

Yesterday I met a child with down syndrome who was referred because of conjunctivitis (eye infection). He went to a special school so he was really good in recognizing pictures. What's so cute is that he would response to each picture complete with action. When it was the picture of an aeroplane, he would answer 'feichi!(aeroplane in chinese) weeeuuuu....', while his hand mimicking the flying aeroplane. When it was a horse, he would answer by 'galloping' himself and his hands holding an imaginary rein. When it was the picture of a cake, he surprised me by singing 'happy birthday to you! fuhh....', clapping and blowing the 'candles'. Everytime the cake appears (as the picture chart gets smaller), he would never fail singing like that full with enthusiasm. So cute!

Actually it was how he was thought at the special school. These special children will remember quickly when a picture is associated with a certain action. It must have been in the school's syllabus because when I worked in another state before, the way they answer is the same. Once a 6 year old boy jumped suddenly from the examination chair to mimic a duck, quacking and flapping his armpit while squatting on the floor. Everytime I came to the duck picture, I would have to restrain him from jumping down again. Hehe.

Info: Normal working distance for reading or any near work should be ~40cm. However it's really unhealthy to expose very young children to VDU as above.

Did you know that babies were born hyperopic. Meaning that their eyeball is very short (compared with normal adult) that the image of the objects they see falls behind their retina (the most important layer of the eye which converts image to impuls and transmit it to the brain). So babies definitely cannot see clearly for the first few months of their life. They recognize only their mother's voice. So for less than 6 months old, the only way to assess their vision is by moving pentorch or bright colour toys and see if they follow it correctly. By that, roughly we know that they have vision.

It's not about fashion only. Yes, UV is very harmful to your retina and macular.

One patient of mine is a young girl around 4 years old. When I showed her the picture of a drinking cup, she confidently yelled 'kopi gano!'. I was stunned, so was her mother. But then immediately we couldn't help laughing loudly. Damn cute. Haha.

::Cute pictures from weheartit::

:: Babies tear duct are fully developed only at age 2 months old, so that's why newborn cries but without any tears.

:: Kids usually never complain when they cannot see clearly because they thought it was what other people see too. They especially didn't notice when the problem is in one eye only because of the other good eye. So it's best to have eye screening done as a baby or toddler and again prior to entering school usually at 7 years old. No child is too young for a complete eye exam.