Gestational Diabetes? How does it affect the unborn baby’s vision?

All About Eyes, For Parents

It is not surprising that gestational diabetes can temporarily affect a mother’s vision, as mentioned in the previous post.

However, recent studies have found a link between mother’s diabetes (Type I, Type II and gestational) and the baby’s vision over the course of his/her upbringing (up to the age of 25).

The studies have found that the risk of developing a refractive error in children whose mothers had diabetes during pregnancy is almost double in comparison to children whose mothers did not have diabetes during pregnancy. Ofcourse, It also made sense that the more severe/ uncontrolled the diabetes was, the higher the refractive error the children had.

A refractive error is a person’s inability to perfectly focus the image on the retina.

A person can be shortsighted or unable to see the distance clearly,

Longsighted or unable to focus objects at near,

Or the person can have astigmatism with or without being short or longsighted. Astigmatism causes general blur in all distances, people may complain of halos around light and circles being not so circular or definite.

While refractive errors can be easily managed by your optometrist by a pair of prescribed glasses or other newer techniques, if left untreated it can have consequences of the person’s vision, as well as, academic performance. Similarly, high refractive errors can lead to other complications such as lazy eye, eye turns, and accommodation (focusing reading materials) difficulties.

It is by no means our intention to add more stress to mothers. This is just something to keep an eye on as your child grows. It is very important to get regular eye checks and intervene as early as possible if needed.

Also read: Red flags your child might have vision problems