browse by worry
Warning signs
The small number of signs that should move an eye appointment to this week, explained calmly.
start here
The white glow in a photo, and three other signs to know
You scrolled back through the photos and one stopped you cold: a pale, glowing pupil where the other eye is ordinary red. Most glows have an innocent explanation. The rare one that doesn't is why this deserves a same-week look.
Key takeaways
- A white or pale glow in the pupil of a flash photo is called leukocoria, and most of the time it is an artefact, not disease.
- One-off glows are usually the angle of the flash or the optic nerve catching the light. A glow that keeps appearing, in different photos and different light, matters more.
- The reason to be seen quickly is not that the glow is usually serious. It is that the small number of causes that are serious are treated far better when caught early.
Warning signs
The white glow in a photo, and three other signs to know
One photo, one pale pupil, and a question that cannot wait until the next routine check.
Warning signs
Why does my child keep rubbing their eyes?
Tired, itchy, or blurry: what a child's rubbing is telling you.
Warning signs
Eye cancer in children: the signs and the numbers
Rare, and most children treated early survive it. The screening tool is your own camera roll.
Warning signs
Life after retinoblastoma: my patients are teenagers now
The half of the eye cancer story nobody tells: exams, music practice, horses, and one book.
Warning signs
My child's eyelid is swollen, is this an emergency?
Most swollen eyelids are the mild kind. Here is the short list that changes that.
Warning signs
A yellow patch on my child's eyelid: what it is telling you
Painless, flat and the colour of butter. Why a yellow eyelid patch in a child needs a blood test, not a laser.
Warning signs
What your child's teacher notices before you do
Home is a small room. The classroom is where distance vision actually gets tested.
Warning signs
Big beautiful eyes can be a warning sign
The compliment every big-eyed baby gets, and the three signs that turn it into an appointment this week.
Warning signs
Cataract in children: not only a grandparent's problem
A cloudy lens in a baby is a different problem from a cloudy lens at seventy. The difference is time.
Warning signs
Keratoconus in teenagers, and the eye rubbing link
When a teenager's prescription refuses to settle, and why the rubbing is the part you can act on.
Warning signs
One pupil bigger than the other: when it matters
Pupils that have always been uneven, and pupils that have just become uneven. Only one of them is urgent.
Warning signs
The child who hates bright light: how to tell what it means
Screwing up her eyes in the sun, or something more. The two questions that sort it out.
Warning signs
Wobbly eyes in a baby: what nystagmus is, and what it is not
Eyes that will not stay still. What the check is looking for, and why the head turn is a good sign.
Warning signs
Two different-coloured eyes: when it is genetics and when it needs a same-day look
The genetic pattern that needs nothing, and the small list of signs alongside it that do.
Warning signs
My child was poked in the eye: what to do in the first minutes
What to look at in the first minutes, what makes it same-day, and what not to do.
Warning signs
"I'm seeing double": what it means when an older child says so
The cover-one-eye test, the ordinary reasons, and the short list that means today, not this week.
Warning signs
Yellow whites of the eyes in a baby: what it usually means
Newborn jaundice usually settles on its own. A short list of signs, including pale stools, means it needs a doctor's look today.
Warning signs
Flashing lights and zigzag lines: when it is migraine, not the eyes
The shape a migraine aura actually takes, how long it should last, and what points away from it.
Warning signs
My child's eyelid started drooping suddenly: when it is urgent
New this week? That one word decides how fast you need to be seen.
Warning signs
Dengue in the family: the eye signs to watch for during recovery
Common and mostly mild, but blur or a dark spot needs an eye doctor.
Warning signs
My child says their eye hurts: what it can mean, and when to go today
Pain plus a change in how the eye looks or sees means go today.
Warning signs
A white spot in my child's eye: where it is decides what it is
Look at where it sits. A white pupil needs an eye doctor promptly.
Warning signs
Fevers with a rash and your child's eyes: HFMD, chickenpox, shingles and measles
Hand, foot and mouth, chickenpox, shingles and measles, and which eye signs need a same-day review.
Warning signs
My child sees spots floating in their eyes: floaters, flashes and when to go today
What floating spots are, and the signs that should not wait.
Warning signs
Tomcat beetle (semut charlie) near a child's eye: what to do
What the beetle is, what to do first, and the signs that should not wait.
Warning signs
A bluish lump beside my newborn's nose: dacryocystocele and when to call
What the swelling is, what doctors do, and the signs that mean today.
Warning signs
Night blindness runs in our family: inherited retinal disease and when to test a child
The early signs, what the tests can and cannot tell, and what help exists.
Warning signs
A knock to my child's head: when the eyes need checking after a bump or concussion
Emergency signs first, then vision after a concussion and when an eye check helps.
Warning signs
A headache with blurred or dim vision in a child: when the eye doctor looks at the optic nerve
The headache pattern behind an optic nerve check, what papilloedema means, and the red flags.
the short version, every week
Follow along on Instagram
Every article here starts life as a carousel, quick, illustrated, easy to send to a worried friend.
@drchanliyen