Baby Well Checks are your child's first eye exam. We want to ensure that optometric eye and vision care becomes an integral part of infant wellness care to improve a child’s quality of life. Identify and treat risk factors that may have adverse effects on eye and vision health.
- Reduce the impact of amblyopia (presently 1 in 30) and other conditions that may lead to impairments and/or loss of sight, or affect a child’s spatial and cognitive development, through early identification.
- Educate parents about the importance of eye care for their children.
- Visual Acuity
- Refractive Status
- Eye Movement
- Eye Alignment/Binocular Potential
- Eye Health
Optometrists provide a one-time, comprehensive eye and vision assessment to babies in their first year of life, usually between the ages of 6 and 9 months, offering early detection of potential eye and vision problems at no cost regardless of income or ability to pay.
The Goals
Though babies can’t talk, optometrists use their clinical education, training, and experience, along with instruments such as lighted toys to provide non-invasive eye and vision assessments for infants.
There are a few ways to make this first visit most enjoyable:
- Workaround your baby’s fussy times. You know your baby best; schedule your appointment at a time when the baby is generally relaxed and happy.
- Try and get any required paperwork sent to you before the appointment so that it can be filled out at home and brought in on the day of the exam.
- Bring along a familiar toy to calm your baby if he or she starts getting fussy.
Stages of Vision Development
Most parents believe that vision is something that just develops naturally, and therefore does not need to be checked until school-age when it has already fully developed. The truth is that vision is learned – and the most critical stages of vision development occur in the first year of life.
AGE
VISION
At Birth
- Focus on objects less than a foot away, such as mom's face when nursing
By 3 Months
- Follows moving objects and reaches for things
- It is normal for a child's eyes to not always track together for first 6-8 weeks.
By 6 Months
- Both eyes should focus equally; brainwaves can demonstrate ability to see 20/20 detail
- Eye/body coordination skills develop
By 9 Months
- Eye contact begins to replace physical contact
- Eye/body coordination skills develop further
By 12 Months
- Uses both eyes to judge distance