Our Friendly Eye Doctor Checks Kids’ Eyes Too!
Pediatric eye exams are critical to your child’s development and education. Excellent vision is necessary for all types of learning – in the classroom, after school, and on the sports field. When children can’t see well, their performance suffers across the board. This may lead to poor self-esteem, which can affect social confidence. In sum, the far-reaching and important role of sharp vision cannot be underestimated! Our optometrist is experienced and skilled at checking kids’ eyes in our convenient and comfortable office in Fulton, near Jefferson City, MO. We want to help your child get top grades in all areas of life!
From the moment you and your child step foot into our modern eye care clinic, we’ll focus fully on you. We strive to develop an open and positive relationship with each patient, and we’ll get to know your kid’s eye health, visual needs, and unique personality. To help ease any anxiety that you and your children may have about pediatric eye exams, we’ve prepared the following info about what to expect.
How to Prepare for a Pediatric Eye Exam
If your child is old enough to understand, then you can explain how the eye doctor will display some images and objects to identify. These could be numbers, pictures, letters, or just shapes of light projected on the wall. Reassure your child that you will be in the room for the whole pediatric eye exam, and we can even examine young kids as they sit on their parent’s lap.
Older children should be informed that our optometrist may insert eye drops, which may sting very mildly for a few seconds. They should expect blurry vision for a few hours as a result of the eye drops.
At the first visit with our eye doctor, you will need to complete a form with questions about your child’s medical history, family eye history, allergies, medications and any visual complaints. Please be ready to share this information with us. If your child wears eyeglasses or contact lenses, remember to bring them to our office along with the vision prescription, if possible.
Tests & Procedures for Kids
The type of testing that our optometrist will perform depends upon your child’s age, general health condition, vision, and developmental stage. Every child is a unique individual, and we specialize our pediatric eye exams accordingly.
In general, our Fulton eye doctor will assess a range of vision-related skills in kids of all ages, such as:
- Binocularity (eye teaming)
- Accommodation (focusing ability)
- Visual acuity
- Tracking skills
- Color vision
- Hand-eye coordination
- Peripheral vision
- Ocular health – we will inspect the inner eye tissues, checking for any signs of abnormality
All Kids Need Eye Exams
Many of our patients wonder why their child needs an eye exam if she isn’t complaining about any vision problems. Basically, kids get used to what they see, and they don’t always know that they have a problem! Many vision problems go undetected, and untreated vision conditions can interfere with the ABC’s of learning – such as reading and writing. Warning signs of a vision problem include: regularly losing place while reading or copying from the board, headaches, double vision, and trouble holding a gaze or focusing between near and far.  The earlier we diagnose a problem, the more efficiently we can treat it to prevent complications.
Recommended Schedule for Pediatric Eye Exams
In our Fulton, MO, practice, we follow the guidelines recommended by the American Optometric Association (AOA), as follows:
1st exam: six months old
2nd exam: 3 years old
3rd exam: before elementary school, around 5-6 years old
Follow-up exams: every 2 years (minimum) for kids with no pediatric risk factors and no eyeglasses or contact lenses. If your child needs vision correction, vision therapy, or other treatment, our optometrist will provide instructions on how often to book regular eye exams
After the Eye Exam
We will sit down to share and discuss the results with you after we finish all of the testing. If your child needs vision treatment, then we’ll decide upon the best plan together – whether it involves eyeglasses, contact lenses, ortho-k lenses, myopia control, medical treatment or vision therapy. Our goal is to help children make the most of their vision!
Contact our friendly office in Fulton, near Jefferson City, MO, to reserve your appointment.
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