Why Kids Should Undergo a Yearly Eye Exam

The American Optometric Association recommends infants undergo an eye exam before they turn 6 months old. And upon turning 3 and before starting school, it’s recommended they visit their local eye clinic again for a repeat eye exam. But as for visits to the optometrist, parents should take their kids to their eye doctor at least once a year to ensure early symptoms of emerging vision conditions are detected and treated.

What are the eye conditions and diseases that can be detected during yearly visits to an eye specialist? Here’s an overview:

Refractive Errors

Refractive errors—myopia (nearsightedness), (hyperopia) farsightedness, and astigmatism—affect approximately 20% of children. They can’t be prevented, partly because these vision conditions have strong genetic links. If you are near- or farsighted or have astigmatism, it’s likely that your child has refractive errors. In particular, there’s a 1 in 3 chance a child will develop myopia if both parents are nearsighted, a 1 in 5 chance if only one parent is nearsighted, and a 1 in 40 chance if neither parent has refractive errors.

Debunking Vision Myths

Is excessive screen time a risk factor too? Reading in dim light or sitting too near to the screen can cause eye strain, but it won’t cause nearsightedness or farsightedness, which as mentioned earlier have strong genetic links.

Symptoms of Myopia and Hyperopia in Children

Myopia usually develops in children at around age 6 while hyperopia is present at birth. If you’re near- or farsighted or have astigmatism, you should check if your child exhibits:

• Myopia symptoms: frequent squinting, moving too close to the TV or computer screen, preference for activities that don’t involve long distances, and the tendency to not notice thing happening at a distance
• Hyperopia symptoms: tendency to tilt their head backward, frequent squinting, and headaches after doing activities that involve near vision

If your child exhibits any of the aforementioned symptoms, you should take them to an optometrist at your local eye clinic. Refractive errors can be corrected using eyeglasses or contact lenses. But it’s important that myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism are detected early on to minimize their impact on childhood early development. Remember: Vision skills, such as focusing your eyes and using the information gathered from sight, don’t come naturally to children—these skills have to be learned through visual stimulation. As such, refractive errors can hamper your child’s learning and development if they aren’t detected and treated early on.

Important note: If your child needs eyeglasses, they should undergo a contact eye exam every six months or so to ensure their prescription hasn’t changed.

Color Blindness

Color blindness is caused by missing or defective cones (the color-detecting nerve cells at the back of the eye). Like myopia and hyperopia, color blindness has strong genetic links and usually isn’t diagnosed until kids start learning the names of colors.

Symptoms of Color Blindness in School-Aged Children

Your child might suffer from cold blindness if they:

• Inability to distinguish between similar shades of colors
• Difficulty with school activities involving the use of colors
• Sensitivity to light in the classroom

Keep in mind there are different degrees of color blindness.  There are three different types of cones that each in charge of a particular color: red, green, and blue. A patient develops color blindness when one of one or more of the cone cells are missing, not working properly, or perceive a different color. They’ll suffer only a mild form of color blindness if just one of the cone cells isn’t functioning properly. But if all three are missing, a severe form of color blindness—in which all a person can see is shades of gray—might develop. Fortunately, this degree of color blindness is uncommon.

Important note: Color blindness is usually present at birth, but a patient might also develop it later in life. If you notice any changes in the way you perceive color, you should see an eye specialist as soon as possible. Significant changes in your vision are usually a sign of a serious underlying vision problem.

How Color Blindness Is Treated 

What are your child’s treatment options if they have color blindness? Unfortunately, medical researchers still haven’t discovered a cure for color blindness yet. However, there are several coping strategies that can help your child adapt to their condition and enjoy a happy life. For instance, they can memorize colors by matching them with certain objects and memorize the order of traffic lights.

Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)

Amblyopia is a common vision condition that affects 2 to 3 out of every 100 kids. While genetics plays a role, this condition is more common in children who were born prematurely or suffer from developmental delays.

When do the symptoms of Amblyopia start to emerge? They usually emerge before a child turns 8. During your child’s first seven to ten years, their visual systems develop neural connections that allow light to pass back and forth between the brain and the optic nerves. However, if the brain favors one eye and develops pathways to only that eye, the other weaker eye might start to lose focus and start sending blurry images. Over time, the brain might start to ignore these blurry images, causing a lazy eye to develop. However, since the condition is a neurological vision defect, it doesn’t usually produce noticeable symptoms, making it tricky to diagnose.

Symptoms of Amblyopia

To confirm if your kid has Amblyopia, the optometrist at your local eye clinic will conduct a visual acuity test (a type of eye exam that measures how well you can a letter or symbol from a distance). But if you suspect your child suffers from Amblyopia, you should keep an eye out for these symptoms:

• Frequent squinting
• The tendency to frequently rub or close their eyes or tilt their head to see better
• Difficulty reading, doing math or focusing their attention
• Reduced fine motor skills or clumsiness

How Amblyopia Is Treated 

If it isn’t detected and treated early, amblyopia can result in permanent vision loss. The brain’s suppression of the images from the weaker eye might progress to the point where no amount of vision therapy or eye surgery can reverse vision loss. The good news is that lazy eye can be treated if it’s detected early, and patients have a wide range of treatment options to choose from.

Here’s an overview of the different treatment options:

• Eye patch – In most cases, children with Amblyopia will need to wear an eye patch over the unaffected eye for 2-6 hours every day. A lot of parents are concerned that the eye patch will interfere with their kids’ day-to-day activities, but kids quickly adapt to their eyepatch. And if your kid wears eyeglasses, there’s a special eye patch that’s specially designed for them.
• Atropine drops – If your child finds wearing an eye patch too inconvenient, there’s the option of using atropine drops, which perform a similar function to eye patches. Atropine drops will temporarily blur the vision in the stronger eye to force the brain to rely on the weaker eye.

• Glasses – Your child’s eye specialist will recommend prescription glasses if the root cause of their amblyopia is severe refractive errors and/or anisometropia (a condition wherein one eye sees more clearly than the other). These glasses send clearer pictures to the brain, which would over time train it to recognize the images coming from the weaker eye.

Important note: If you have any additional concerns about your child’s vision health, don’t hesitate to take them to an optometrist. That’s because children reach visual maturity by the age of 8. After which, vision conditions become harder to treat. That’s why routine eye exams and early detection are vital to helping keep children’s learning and development on track and ensuring their future vision health.

Looking for optometrists near you?

Downtown Eyes Crosstown offers a wide range of professional eye care services, including contact eye exams.