When it comes to baby’s health you, as parents, tend to be concerned about things like whether they’re gaining enough weight and hitting their major milestones. And you should be. Making sure your baby is growing and developing properly is very important. That includes thinking about your baby’s eye health. Getting an infant exam with an optometrist within the first year of your child’s life is important to their overall health and wellbeing.
An infant eye exam helps catch any possible problems with your baby’s vision early and gives you the chance to take any measures necessary in order to keep baby’s vision as healthy as possible. A baby eye exam will include several different aspects. It will start with lots of questions for mom and dad involving the family history to help in identifying any genetic risk factors. This could include several generations of overall eye health. Then the optometrist will use a pen light to examine everything that is easily visible with the baby’s eye, like the eyelids and eyeballs. They’re checking to make sure everything looks anatomically correct and that there are not visible problems. Following this, the optometrist will check your baby’s eye movement. This is a measure of how reactive each eye is individually and if they can track an object together. Lastly, it’s important for the optometrist to check your baby’s reactivity to light and if possible, the retina. This is done by taking the baby into a dark room, instead of using dilation, and checking anything viewable within the pupil. This way the eye doctor can see if there are any easy to spot problems that need to be addressed.
By taking the time to do these simple tests with an optometrist in your baby’s first year you can make sure to stave off any potential problems. After the first appointment, your child won’t need to be seen again until they are about three years old or if there are any noticeable problems. Contact Signature Optometry in Fresno for your infant’s initial appointment.