Children's eye health, written by a paediatric eye doctor in Malaysia
hello, and thank you for reading

I'm Dr Chan Li Yen

Paediatric ophthalmologist · Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I look after children's eyes for a living: squints, lazy eyes, glasses, the surprises that turn up in a flash photo. This journal exists because of a sentence I hear almost every week: "I wish someone had told me sooner."

Dr Chan Li Yen in clinic
in clinic, most days
The story

Why I started writing

The pattern I meet most often in clinic is a quiet one: a drifting eye first noticed a year or two ago, watched at home on well-meant reassurance, and brought in later than it needed to be. Treatment still works, and we start it that day. But the younger the child, the easier and shorter that treatment tends to be, and nobody had ever told those parents the one thing that mattered: a slightly drifting eye is a clock, not a quirk.

That's the gap this journal tries to close. Not scary lists of conditions, because most of what parents notice turns out to be nothing at all, but plain, honest answers to the questions people actually type at midnight. What's normal. What can wait. What genuinely shouldn't.

"A child won't tell you they can't see. They have no idea anything is missing. This is simply what the world looks like to them."

So it all gets written down here. Every article starts as an Instagram carousel, the short, illustrated version, and then becomes the long one here, with the detail that doesn't fit on a square.

Training & credentials

Two decades of eye care in Malaysian public hospitals, including Hospital Kuala Lumpur, with a fellowship year in paediatric ophthalmology at Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane.

Qualifications
MBBSInternational Medical University · 2005
Master of OphthalmologyUniversity of Malaya · 2014
Fellowship, Paediatric Ophthalmology & StrabismusQueensland Children's Hospital, Brisbane · 2021–2022
Subspecialty training, Paediatric OphthalmologyMinistry of Health Malaysia · 2022
Member, College of OphthalmologistsAcademy of Medicine of Malaysia
Special interests
Amblyopia & squint in early childhood
Myopia control in children
Paediatric cataract & refractive care
Vision screening in infants
Languages spoken
English Bahasa Malaysia Mandarin
Registrations
Malaysian Medical Council (MMC)Registration number 43128
National Specialist Register (NSR), OphthalmologyRegistration number 132980
Where I practise

Hospital
Kuala Lumpur

I currently see children at the paediatric ophthalmology service, Hospital Kuala Lumpur.

From 21 September 2026 I will be seeing children at Eagle Eye Centre Kuala Lumpur, in Petaling Jaya.

Level 2 & 2M, Pinnacle
Lorong Utara C, Pjs 52
46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Appointments: 03-7611 8000
Appointments and clinic hours are handled by the centre.
Where to start

Wondering about something?

And if something worries you today, skip the reading and book a check. I would rather see you for nothing than miss something.