Leicester, Sept. 10 (Reuters): Babies as young as nine months old could benefit from wearing spectacles to correct their vision, scientists said today.

Researchers from University College London, who have developed a device that takes pictures of babies’ eyes to identify children with a visual defect, said correcting it could reduce the risk of other problems later.

“There is a group of babies of around nine months of age who are long-sighted and they are most at risk of lazy eye or a squint or of an eye turning in,” Professor Jan Atkinson told a science conference.

“We’ve also found from a randomised controlled trial that if we treat these children with spectacle correction and they wear the spectacles in infancy they can have a much improved visual outcome,” she added.