When Should Your Child See The Eye Doctor?

As your child grows from infanthood into adulthood, you want to ensure that your child is healthy and developing normally. This requires regular check-ups not only from your family doctor but also from other medical specialists such as the eye doctor. This way, early signs of diseases or problems can be addressed early and corrected with the proper treatment. When it comes to the eye doctor, this specialist can determine if there are any vision issues that can be corrected with eye wear before your child becomes an adult and even detect other diseases which may not have been discovered by a physician. Below you will find information to help you with caring for your child's vision at each stage of life.

Ensuring that your child's vision is working properly is critical to his or her overall health and well-being. Trouble seeing can impair an infant's ability to learn hand-eye coordination and also affect their depth perception. If by chance poor vision develops later on, your child may find they must endure other types of problems as well. They may have issues in school, as they will have difficulty seeing the front of the classroom. And, compromised vision may also affect a child's athletic performance which can be frustrating for them!

To avoid these situations, all you must do is to ensure that your child sees the eye doctor at appropriate times throughout their life. How frequently should you schedule an appointment? The recommendation is that newborns have their eyes checked while still in the hospital however, this is usually carried out by the hospital's pediatrician. You should confirm that this test has been done before taking your baby home from the hospital. The next time your baby's eyes should be checked is at six months of age at the same time that your child has a scheduled checkup with your family physician. Your child will be checked for their ocular movement issues as well as nearsightedness and farsightedness.

If the doctor tells you that everything is fine, you can wait until your child turns three for their next appointment. At this age, they should have a visual acuity test as part of their assessment. What does this measure? It is simply a tool to evaluate your child's vision, to ascertain if glasses are needed. If they aren't necessary, then you can wait a further two years for the next scheduled checkup. This second exam will give the doctor two results to compare, and they can often predict if any vision issues will likely develop in the future.

You should have your child's eyes checked on an annual basis after the age of five, particularly if they wear glasses. This ensures that their prescription is adjusted properly, and that they don't wear glasses which don't perform correctly. Ultimately, wearing incorrect prescription glasses is as bad as not wearing any glasses at all! For children with no vision problems and who don't require eye wear, you can go as long as two years between eye doctor visits. And, it's a good idea to get a second opinion if the eye doctor recommends prescription eye wear for your child. Also, a visit to an ophthalmologist is a good idea since their specialty isn't in writing prescriptions for eye wear so they have no underlying motive to sell you glasses.

While the above information requires you to seek the counsel of eye doctor several times through the course of your child's life, this shouldn't pose a problem because in Canada, children under the age of 18 have eye exams covered by the respective provinces. So, since this benefit is available, take advantage of it to ensure that your child's vision is always at it's best. This will ensure that your child has a happy and healthy life while putting your own mind at ease!

Related Articles

• Does Omega 3 Work For Anxiety? The Answer Is Amazingly Yes!
• Medical Insurance in Connecticut
• Important Facts About The Effects of Using Amphetamine
• Running Tips - Getting Water During Your Long Training Runs
• All You Need To Know About Botox

HTML Ready Article. Click on the "Copy" button to copy into your clipboard.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd'><html><head><title>InfoBlog.com | When Should Your Child See The Eye Doctor?</title></head><body><h3>When Should Your Child See The Eye Doctor?</h3><br><br> By: Beth Collins<br><br><p><p>As your child grows from infanthood into adulthood, you want to ensure that your child is healthy and developing normally. This requires regular check-ups not only from your family doctor but also from other medical specialists such as the eye doctor. This way, early signs of diseases or problems can be addressed early and corrected with the proper treatment. When it comes to the eye doctor, this specialist can determine if there are any vision issues that can be corrected with eye wear before your child becomes an adult and even detect other diseases which may not have been discovered by a physician. Below you will find information to help you with caring for your child's vision at each stage of life.</P><p>Ensuring that your child's vision is working properly is critical to his or her overall health and well-being. Trouble seeing can impair an infant's ability to learn hand-eye coordination and also affect their depth perception. If by chance poor vision develops later on, your child may find they must endure other types of problems as well. They may have issues in school, as they will have difficulty seeing the front of the classroom. And, compromised vision may also affect a child's athletic performance which can be frustrating for them!</P><p>To avoid these situations, all you must do is to ensure that your child sees the eye doctor at appropriate times throughout their life. How frequently should you schedule an appointment? The recommendation is that newborns have their eyes checked while still in the hospital however, this is usually carried out by the hospital's pediatrician. You should confirm that this test has been done before taking your baby home from the hospital. The next time your baby's eyes should be checked is at six months of age at the same time that your child has a scheduled checkup with your family physician. Your child will be checked for their ocular movement issues as well as nearsightedness and farsightedness. </P><p>If the doctor tells you that everything is fine, you can wait until your child turns three for their next appointment. At this age, they should have a visual acuity test as part of their assessment. What does this measure? It is simply a tool to evaluate your child's vision, to ascertain if glasses are needed. If they aren't necessary, then you can wait a further two years for the next scheduled checkup. This second exam will give the doctor two results to compare, and they can often predict if any vision issues will likely develop in the future. </P><p>You should have your child's eyes checked on an annual basis after the age of five, particularly if they wear glasses. This ensures that their prescription is adjusted properly, and that they don't wear glasses which don't perform correctly. Ultimately, wearing incorrect prescription glasses is as bad as not wearing any glasses at all! For children with no vision problems and who don't require eye wear, you can go as long as two years between eye doctor visits. And, it's a good idea to get a second opinion if the eye doctor recommends prescription eye wear for your child. Also, a visit to an ophthalmologist is a good idea since their specialty isn't in writing prescriptions for eye wear so they have no underlying motive to sell you glasses. </P><p>While the above information requires you to seek the counsel of eye doctor several times through the course of your child's life, this shouldn't pose a problem because in Canada, children under the age of 18 have eye exams covered by the respective provinces. So, since this benefit is available, take advantage of it to ensure that your child's vision is always at it's best. This will ensure that your child has a happy and healthy life while putting your own mind at ease!<br></P></p> <br><br> <b>Author Resource:-></b>  To get your child started with regular eye exams, visit <a href="http://www.optometristtorontoontario.com">Optometrist Toronto</a> to learn about an eye doctor located in Toronto. This professional performs assessments with state of the art equipment that can provide you with peace of mind knowing that your child's vision is fine or help you with deciding on the best of the available treatment options if necessary for vision correction.<br><br><b>Article From</b> <a href='http://www.infoblog.com/'>InfoBlog.com</a><br></body></html>