When should I get vision checked for LO?

ClandestineX · July 2013

Everyone except one brother on my husband's side of the family has glasses. They all have various ailments in the eyes, my husband is farsighted. Nobody on my side has glasses. I know my son can see when I am 12 feet away or so because when I start talking he turns towards me, when I do something funny he smiles. I have tried further, but he doesn't seem to pay any attention after the 12-15 foot mark. I know at this time babies have like 20/40 vision or worse and it is normal. Just would like to know when I can go get them checked out to see if he inherited my hub's eyes.

OhSewCrafty · July 2013

Kids don't usually get an eye exam until closer to kindergarten, unless there is a specific concern. Babies can't see that far at this point anyway, so I wouldn't worry just yet.

ClandestineX · July 2013

OhSewCrafty said:

Kids don't usually get an eye exam until closer to kindergarten, unless there is a specific concern. Babies can't see that far at this point anyway, so I wouldn't worry just yet.

Why thank you!

ClandestineX · July 2013

NandaB said:

I was just coming to say that I don't think they do any testing on babies. I've seen young toddlers w/glasses, but I assume they have a very significant problem. Its hard to test a young kids vision. I know when I was teaching they had a special chart for kindergarteners and other kids who didn't reliably know their alphabet. It was just Es facing different directions and the kids had to show with their hands what way the E was facing (up, down, left or right) it was actually pretty cool, but I don't know how you would test anyone much younger.

That sounds cute.

none5 · July 2013

I worry about this, too! Only because my husband has such terrible vision. He said he didn't realize trees had individual leaves until he got glasses. So sad. (I realize with the change in seasons that doesn't make much sense, but he did get glasses at a very young age and they are THICK!)

ClandestineX · July 2013

none5 said:

I worry about this, too! Only because my husband has such terrible vision. He said he didn't realize trees had individual leaves until he got glasses. So sad. (I realize with the change in seasons that doesn't make much sense, but he did get glasses at a very young age and they are THICK!)

Poor thing, lol.

ClandestineX · July 2013

kravenmoore said:

My eye doctor told me to start annual eye exams with T after 6 months and before 2 years. This is more to catch eye problems early rather than actual eye exams, though, I think. I will go ahead and start at 6 months.

Interesting, I will ask around for a doctor that may do it early then.

ClandestineX · July 2013

Grace0609 said:

This is an issue close to my heart, as my 2 year old just started wearing glasses about 2 months ago.

Here are the recommendations from the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmologists and Strabismus: https://www.aapos.org/terms/conditions/131

Your pediatrician should be doing basic screening at every check up, including external exam, taking a history of whether you ever notice crossing or wandering of an eye, etc. By age 4 every.single.child should have either a photo screening (done w/ a special machine that is a quick screening tool for primary care offices) or a vision chart screening done. If vision problems are missed in young childhood you run the risk of the child developing amblyopia, which means that the brain never develops the pathways to properly see and that means that no matter how many pairs of glasses you try to put on him/her he or she will never be able to see well out of that eye or both.

As for toddlers who wear glasses having "serious problems," that is untrue. My son showed NO signs of a vision problem. We only took him to the pediatric ophthalmologist b/c of blocked tear ducts (which he had probing surgery for) and she did a full dilated eye exam and found him to be significantly far sighted (+6 in both eyes). We followed up with her several times after that and he was not outgrowing his far sightedness like some children do, but he was completely developmentally normal and had no eye crossing or any other clue this was going on. But, I have a family history of a brother with amblyopia, so she was following him closely b/c it runs in families. Finally at age two, to prevent development of amblyopia we made the decision to put him in glasses so that his brain misses no opportunity to develop normal sight. My brother's eye issue kept him out of the military when he really wanted to join, so I am doing everything I can to provide all the opportunities I can for my son. If we hadn't found this so early, we might have later noticed eye crossing, since that is often the first sign of issues in kids, or he might have failed the vision screening at age 4. But, we would have wasted 2 years not knowing.

Anyway, like I said, an issue that has become close to my heart in the last few months. Wtih a family history, I, personally, would take my child at 6 months to see a peds ophtho. He/she have the tools to determine how well a child sees (their exam involves looking at the retina and determining where light focuses on the retina with different lenses, which is something a pediatrician can't do, and this tells you near or far sightedness).

ETA: sorry so long, and also wanted to note that neither my husband or me wear glasses, so this was all a shock to us.

Thank you for the link and information!

MsAmeera25 · July 2013

My pedi gives you the referral at 6 months. I started wearing glasses at 8 months according to my mom. My eyesight now is terrible.

Debbie0580 · July 2013

My eye doctor said around age 2. So we'll take DS to our next annual appt.

PepperBug · July 2013

I don't know what is considered a normal time to start vision testing, but I know they can at least test for serious problems at around 3 and a half months. My daughter has a hemangioma on her eyelid that she takes medicine to control, and her eye doctro did a simple vision test on her at 3 and a half months to make sure that it was not causing vision loss (he said they could try it at 3 months but it is more accurate at 3 and a half months). They basically just had her track a light with her eyes to make sure her eyes were working normally. At 6 months, they will do a different type of vision testing on her (not sure what that entails).

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