How does Retinopathy of Prematurity affect the way a child sees?
The symptoms that a child might complain of depend on: • The age of the child • Which bit of the retina has detached • Whether it is affecting only one eye or both • Whether the child has any other conditions that might affect vision In Retinopathy of Prematurity the retinas of both eyes may detach when the child is very young. They are likely to initially feel their vision to be ‘normal’ as they have never known anything else but their own visual world. They will assume that everyone else has vision the same as their own. They will not realise that other people see things differently. Later most young children will only complain of poor vision when the centre bit of the retina has detached. This will cause the centre bit of vision to become very blurred and ‘grey’. Most children will notice this, especially if it happens in their better eye. Younger children do not usually notice smaller areas of detached retina that are away from the central bit of vision. Sometimes premature babies
