Apple Valley Eye Center, serving Yakima and the nearby region, offers care for pediatric patients. One of the routine services we provide is pediatric eye exams. You may wonder what these consist of and when you should begin receiving them for your child.
Recommendations
Generally, we recommend, as does the American Optometric Association (AOA), that you bring your child for their first eye doctor's appointment when they turn six months old. If no problems are detected, you may wait until they're three years old for their next visit. If there aren't any problems then, you can wait until they reach school age, around five or six, to schedule their next exam.
After that, the frequency will depend on whether they have any eye health or vision problems that should be monitored. A child without any vision problems will only need to visit the eye doctor every two years. However, if any issues are present, you may need to bring your child in for visits to the eye doctor more frequently. We'd also like to note that you may want to bring your child in if you notice any signs of a problem, such as squinting or having difficulty tracking letters when they read. Blurry vision is also a reason to book an appointment with us.
What to Expect During Pediatric Eye Exams
The first part of your visit will consist of you filling out a medical history report about your child. This gives us insight into any known problems and issues that run in the family. If your child is an infant, we'll provide them with testing to assess their eye tracking and an assessment to make sure the pupils are working properly, among others.
At their next exam, we'll ask them to look at shapes and identify them from a distance, as part of the exam. Once they reach school age, we'll have them read off lines of letters and identify which line they see the clearest. Depending on the line your child sees the clearest, we can determine if a vision deficit exists and to what degree.
Part of the testing will also include an astigmatism test, which consists of us showing your child sets of images. Your child will need to identify the one that's clearest out of each set. At the end of the exam, we'll know for certain if your child needs any type of vision correction or if another type of intervention is necessary.
Contact Apple Valley Eye Center in Yakima, WA
At Apple Valley Eye Center, serving Yakima and the surrounding communities, our optometrist provides routine pediatric eye care and vision services. We can help if your child has complaints like blurry vision. Our goal is to help your child step off on the right foot in terms of their eye health and vision. Book an appointment by calling 509-966-8801.
