PC: @lorijson
After having your child, you will be going in for well baby visits into your pediatrician. These typically start a couple days to weeks after your child is born and will continue at regular intervals at 1 month, 3 months, and so forth. At these appointments, your pediatrician might give you a questionnaire which might include questions about how your baby's eyes move together to follow an object (called tracking) and other things that could help the doctor diagnose any potential problems. They will also perform their own age appropriate assessments while they are examining your child. For a child that does not have apparent vision problems, you could take your child in for their first eye exam to the optometrist around 6 months. Now, what can you expect at this exam?
Pupil Test:
Your child's pupils will be tested as the doctor will shine a bright light into his or her eyes to see how the pupils react. They are looking for both pupils to constrict, or become smaller, at the same time. Different reaction times in each pupil, or no reaction from the pupil at all could signal that there may be a problem and they will investigate further.
Eye Movement Test:
The doctor or eye technician will move a toy or a finger across your child's line of sight and watch the movement from his or her eyes to follow the object. This will help them see if the child's eyes are working together properly to see objects.
Farsightedness/Nearsightedness/Astigmatism:
If you child is old enough, they might use a letter/shape chart to test how well your child can see at different distances and they will test their eyes separately.
If your child sees the optometrist because there has been some issues or problems with sight, the test might involve some more in-depth assessments, you can find a thorough explanation here on what that might entail.
This has been a great month to review your child's eye health and things to possibly look for to seek help early should problems arise! Thanks for being a part of our community! We are always eager to hear from you and learn from your experiences!
