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Farsightedness Children with farsightedness, also known as hyperopia, have difficulty seeing things clearly up close , while objects at a distance generally appear in focus. For infants and young children, being mildly farsighted is normal. In most cases, farsightedness gradually decreases over the first ten years of life. As a child grows, their eyes "grow" too, making the changes necessary to keep the eye's focusing system in balance. Farsightedness is due to the eyes inability to focus light on the back part of the eye called the retina. Either the eyeball is too short or the cornea, the clear front cover of the eye, has too little curvature. This prevents the eyes from being able to focus images properly resulting in blurred vision. The lens in the eye can change shape and adjust its focus as objects move closer or further away. When looking at objects up close, like a book or TV screen, the eyes "accommodate" or change focus to make the image clear. But with farsightedness, the lens needs to adjust more than normal to bring things into focus creating a strain on the eyes and resulting in blurred vision. The eyes' ability to focus is linked to the system that controls the direction the eyes point. In cases of extreme farsightedness, the eyes are forced to use so much additional effort to keep images clear that it causes an eye to turn inward, resulting in a condition called accommodative esotropia or strabismus. The exact reason people develop farsightedness is unknown, but heredity seems to play a role. A child whose parent(s) or sibling(s) have farsightedness can also expect to have the condition. Farsightedness is generally treated with either glasses or contact lenses. |
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