Good question. When should a child have their first eye exam? Doesn’t the pediatrician do an examination at their regular check ups?
The answer to that last question is sadly, no.
Pediatricians aren’t equipped to assess the full eye health in their clinics. Many of them have good screening tools, which have helped them to be able to refer them to us for a full examination, but sadly that often isn’t enough. Pediatricians have to know so much information about so many things, that eyes and teeth get less attention. That’s why dentists exist for your child’s teeth and we exist for your child’s eyes.
So when should your child get their first examination with us? Take a look at my little guideline below:
- 1st exam: 6-18 months of age
- 2nd exam: 3-4 years of age
- 3rd exam: Before starting pre-school or kindergarten
Then yearly after!
“Wait, 6-18 months? What can you even do for children that young?” Great question that I often hear from moms and dads.
At 6 months of age, most of the gross motor functions of the eye are developed that children can track targets and they should be seeing at a certain level.
I can’t have them read a chart to me, but we do have methods that we can generally assess how well your child is seeing and generally what their glasses prescription might be. The goal at this stage is to rule out any abnormal prescriptions early on so children can be treated and develop normally.
We also typically want to dilate children early on if possible in order to look for any abnormalities on the inside part of their eye. This is often easiest on children when they’re at that 6-18 months of age range.
I personally love seeing children for regular examinations. They can be so fun to hear what they say and think about their eyes and the tests we run. Kids do say some of the funniest things during their exams!
Give our office a call today to get your child scheduled for an exam (or you can schedule using our online scheduler now!) if they haven’t had an exam before! And while you’re at it, might want to make sure you get yourself scheduled for an annual check up!