I have my son Who is 6 years old. He can see with only one eye other eye's eye ball is whitish in color and its blind. He is not able to speak properly till now, he can say some words like amma, appa, Anna, atta, one two, some alphabets and etc but not all words. He understand everything, he operates any smart phone like an expert but he could not speak as much as he should have spoken at his age. Doctor did a scanning and said his brain is not well developed as per his age so consult nimhans hospital in Bangalore. I am married to one of my family member and even before my marriage, my mom dad, granny are all inter family marriage for 2-3 generations, may be that's the impact. Could you please suggest me what is the right step that we should take next.

Dr. Chaitanya ShuklaOphthalmologist5yrs exp

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Hello lybrate-user. I am genuinely sorry about your son's problem. Coming to your query, genetic disorders of the eyes and the body are more common in consanguineous marriages (marriage within the family members). Disorders of the eyes such as retinitis pigmentosa, heredomacular degeneration, color blindness tend to occur more commonly. Developmental disorders arise more frequently. Regarding the white eye, it could be due to a variety of causes such as congenital cataract, tumor in the eye, cornea problem of the eye, etc. I am sure you must have had it valuated by an eye specialist when your son was younger. Unfortunately, if the eye has been white and blind for more than 3-4 years, the chances of it being subject to treatment and recovering vision are less. In case the whiteness of the eye has appeared recently and the vision has dropped recently, you should get it promptly evaluated by your eye specialist. The reason being that certain caused for childhood blindness are curable and there is good scope for vision recovery. Another thing that I wanted to mention is regarding family planning. In case you are planning another child, you should be aware of the fact that there are chances of similar/ different eye disorders or systemic issues in the second child as well. In this regard, you might want to consider adoption. There are a few genetic tests available that can be performed during pregnancy that help to detect/ predict any problems that might arise in the child after birth. These tests are not 100 percent predictive. Also the fact that they are associated with a few risks. Thus, according to me, a good idea would be to consider adoption. 

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