The Importance of Children’s Eye Exams

As a loving parent, you want to keep your child healthy. That includes providing balanced meals, keeping them active, and taking them to the doctor for appointments. However, it also means having their eyes checked. That’s especially important during their developmental years.
 

In addition to preventing problems while they’re young, eye exams benefit kids at school. After all, if they’re nearsighted or farsighted, they could struggle to keep up with their studies. If left untreated, various issues could negatively impact your child physically, cognitively, academically, or even socially.

When to Schedule an Eye Exam

Barring any risk for specific eye diseases or conditions, you should follow this schedule to have them seen by an eye care professional.

• 0 to 6 Months – During this time, they should have their first eye examination.
• 3 Years – By the age of three, your child should have a second exam. Keep in mind that your healthcare professional might recommend a different timeframe based on their first exam.
• 5 to 6 Years – At this time, you’ll need to have your child’s eyes checked a third time. Typically, this corresponds with them starting first grade.
• 6 to 18 Years – Starting at the age of six, your child will need to see a vision expert every two years.

Regardless of age, if your child experiences certain things, you shouldn’t wait to have their eyes checked. Here are just a few examples:

• Frequently rubbing or blinking their eyes.
• Red, watery, or itchy eyes.
• Squinting is usually most noticeable while reading, watching TV, or in the classroom.
• Holding objects close to their face.
• Eye pain or headaches.
• Even things like poor concentration, clumsiness, and avoiding certain activities could indicate they need to see a doctor that specializes in pediatric eye care.

Maintaining Healthy Eyes

An eye exam ensures that your child doesn’t have any vision problems that could interfere with their daily life. Again, issues could cause them to perform poorly in school and even contribute to physical accidents.

As part of the examination, the doctor will conduct several tests. In particular, they’ll look for things like visual acuity over distance, movement skills, eye focus, and more.

Most often, the exams consist of screenings. Again, they allow an optometrist to look for things that might need correcting. However, a vision expert will likely recommend a comprehensive exam if your child fails the screening or displays a symptom that indicates a problem.

The best thing you can do for your child is to stay up to date with eye appointments. As a result, they’ll have whatever they need to see and, therefore, succeed. If your child requires glasses, they can choose from a broad range of frames. It’s all about making eye care a normal part of their life as soon as any problem is detected.

We Care About Your Child’s Vision

At Hunter Family Vision, we specialize in both adult and pediatric eye care. For kids, we make eye exams fun and educational. To schedule an appointment for your child to visit our Leawood, Kansas, location, call 913-681-8555. You can also make an appointment for our Prairie Village, Kansas, location by calling 913-381-2323.