An introduction to paediatric eye care

Children’s eyes are different from adults’ eyes – an obvious statement but one that must be taken into consideration when seeing children of all ages. Paediatric eye care will be a bimonthly series of articles looking at some of these differences.

The National Service Framework (NSF) for children 2004 set the guidelines for specialist children’s clinics in the NHS in the England (similar legislation was enacted in the rest of the UK).1 Before that, children could be seen in the same clinics as adults and specialist paediatric care was not always available.

Specialist paediatric ophthalmology led to better investigation into the causes of congenital conditions with earlier diagnosis which could potentially result in better outcomes. The genetics of eye disease is now much more routinely investigated and can provide information to parents about the risk of having further children with a similar condition or of the child or other members of the family having an affected child in the future.