One of the greatest moments after the birth of your baby is the first time your newborn daughter or son opens their eyes and makes eye contact with you.
The visual system of a newborn infant takes some time to develop. In the first week of life, your newborn’s vision is quite blurry, and they see only in shades of gray. It takes several months for your child’s vision to fully develop.
Knowing the expected milestones of your baby’s vision development during their first year of life can insure your child is seeing properly and enjoying their world.
During your pregnancy, your child’s vision development begins before birth.
Q: How you care for your own body during your pregnancy is extremely important for the development of your baby’s body and mind, including their eyes and the vision centers in their brain?
A: Be sure to follow the instructions your obstetrician (OB/GYN doctor) regarding proper nutrition and the proper amount of rest during your pregnancy. Avoid smoking and consuming alcohol or drugs during pregnancy, as these toxins can cause multiple problems for your baby, including serious vision problems.
At birth, your baby sees only in shades of gray. Nerve cells in their eyes and brain that control vision aren’t fully developed. Also, their eyes don’t have the ability to change focus and see close object clearly. So don’t be concerned if your baby doesn’t seem to be focusing on objects right away, including your face. It just takes time. (Despite these limitations, studies show that within a few days after birth, infants prefer looking at an image of their mother’s face over anyone else’s.)
In the first month
Color vision develops in the first few weeks of life, so your baby is starting to see the world in full color. But visual acuity and eye teaming takes a bit longer -- so if your infant's eyes occasionally look unfocused or misaligned, don't worry.
The eyes of infants are not as sensitive to visible light as adult eyes are, but they need protection from the sun's harmful UV rays. Keep your baby's eyes shaded outdoors with a brimmed cap or some other means.
2 -3 Months of age:
Your baby’s vision is improving each day and their two eyes are beginning to move better as a team. They should be following moving objects at this stage, and starting to reach for things they see. Also, infants at this stage are learning how to shift their gaze from one object to another without having to move their head.
4-6 Months of Age:
By 6 months of age, significant advances take place in the vision centers of the brain, allowing your infant to see more distinctly, move their eyes faster and more accurately, and have a better ability to follow moving objects with their eyes.
Visual acuity develops rapidly, improving from about 20/400 at birth to about 20/25 at six months of age. Your child’s color vision should be nearly fully developed at age six months as well, enabling them to see all the colors of the rainbow with ease.
Children also develop better eye-hand coordination at 4 to 6 months of age. They’re able to quickly locate and pick up objects, and accurately direct a bottle (and many other things) to their mouth.
7-12 Months of Age:
Your child is now mobile, crawling about and covering more distances than you might have expected. They are also better at judging distances and more skilled at locating, grasping and throwing objects, too.
During the 7 to 12 month, your child is developing a better awareness of their overall body and learning how to coordinate their vision with their body movements. At this time, watch them closely to keep them from harm as they explore their environment. Keep cabinets that contain cleaning supplies locked, and put a barrier in front of stairwells.
Q: When is it time for an eye exam?
A: If you suspect something is seriously wrong with your baby’s eyes in their first few months of life (a bulging eye, a red eye, excess tearing, or a constant misalignment of the eyes) take your child to a pediatric ophthalmologist or other eye doctor immediately.
For routine eye care, we recommend you schedule your baby’s first eye exam when they are six months old. Though your baby can’t yet read letters on a wall chart, non-verbal testing can be performed to determine visual acuity, detect excessive or unequal amounts of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, and evaluate eye teaming and alignment. During this exam, your doctor will also check the health of your baby’s eyes, looking for anything that might interfere with normal and continuing vision development.
We provide eye care for even the youngest children. For more information about eye exams for kids or to schedule your child’s first eye exam, please call our office at 562-904-1989.
Contact Lenses? Are they a Good Choice for your Kids?
A common question many parents have about contact lenses and kids is: "When is my child old enough to wear contact lenses?"
Physically, your child’s eyes can tolerate contact lenses at a very young age. Some babies are fitted with contact lenses due to eye conditions present at birth. And in a recent study that involved fitting nearsighted children of ages 8-11 with one-day disposable contact lenses, 90% had no trouble applying or removing the contacts without assistance from their parents.
It’s a matter of maturity
2 Important questions are:
1) Is your child is mature enough to insert and remove their contact lenses?
2) Will they take care of their contact lenses?
REMINDER: How they handle other responsibilities at home will give you a clue. If your child has poor grooming habits and needs frequent reminders to perform everyday chores, they may not be ready for the responsibility of wearing and caring for contact lenses.
However, if they are conscientious and handle these things well, they may be excellent candidates for contact lens wear, regardless of their age.
REMEMBER: Don’t push contacts on your kids
Motivation is often the most important factor in determining whether your son or daughter will be a successful contact lens wearer. If you wear contact lenses yourself and love them, that still doesn’t mean they are the right choice for your child. Some children like wearing glasses and have no desire wear contact lenses.
We can usually tell at your child’s contact lens consultation if they really want to wear contact lenses. If it appears that they would rather stay in glasses, we will certainly respect their decision – and you should, too. Timing, is everything, often, children may feel they don’t want contacts, but a year or two later, they do. There’s always time to make that decision.
Q: When your child is ready to try contacts?
A: When you and your child agree it’s time for contacts, call our office to schedule a contact lens consultation. We welcome the opportunity to help kids of all ages enjoy wearing contact lenses.
Q: Are contact lenses good to for my child if they participate in sports?
A: If your child is active in sports, contact lenses offer several advantages over glasses for these activities. Contacts won’t fog up, get streaked with perspiration or get knocked off like glasses can and they provide better peripheral vision than glasses. This is important for nearly every sport. There are even contact lenses with special tints to help your child see the ball easier.
For sports, soft contact lenses are usually the better choice. They are larger and fit closer to the eye, so there’s virtually no chance they will dislodge or get knocked off during competition.
Q: Can contact lenses build your child’s self-esteem with contact lenses?
A: Studies show that contact lenses can do wonders for some children’s self-esteem. Many kids don't like the way they look in glasses, and they can become overly self-conscious about their appearance. Wearing contact lenses can often elevate how they feel about themselves and improve their self-esteem. Sometimes, even their school performance and participation in social activities improves after they switch to contact lenses.
Q: Are glasses are still required?
A: If your child chooses to wear contact lenses, they still need an up-to-date pair of eyeglasses. Contact lenses worn on a daily basis should be removed at least an hour before bedtime to allow the eyes to “breathe.” Also, there will be times when your child may want to wear their glasses instead of contact lenses. And contact lenses should be removed immediately any time they cause discomfort or eye redness.
We provide eye care for even the youngest children. For more information about eye exams, glasses and/or contacts for kids and to schedule your child’s first eye exam, please call our office at 562-904-1989.
Children's Vision Q&A’sQ: How often should children have their eyes examined?
A: Infants should have their first comprehensive eye exam at 6 months of age. After that, kids should have routine eye exams at age 3 and again at age 5 or 6 (just before they enter kindergarten or the first grade).
For school-aged children, an eye exam every two years if no vision correction is needed. Children who wear and need eyeglasses or contact lenses should be examined annually.
Q: My 5-year-old daughter just had a vision screening at school and she passed. Does she still need an eye exam?
A: Yes. School vision screenings are designed to detect gross vision problems. Kids can pass a screening at school but still have vision problems that can affect their learning and school performance. A comprehensive eye exam performed by Dr. Brian Brown can detect vision problems and evaluate health of your child’s eye that a school screening may miss.
Q: What is vision therapy?
A: Vision therapy (aka. vision training) is an individualized program of eye exercises and other methods to correct vision problems other than nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. Problems treated with vision therapy include amblyopia (‘lazy eye”), eye movement and alignment problems, focusing problems, and certain visual-perceptual disorders. Vision therapy is usually performed in an optometrist’s office, but most treatment plans also include daily vision exercises to be performed at home.
Q: Can vision therapy cure learning disabilities?
A: No, vision therapy cannot correct learning disabilities. However, children with learning disabilities often have vision problems as well. Vision therapy can correct underlying vision problems that may be contributing to a child’s learning problems.
Q: Our active 1-year-old boy needs glasses to correct his farsightedness and he pulls them off the second they go on. We've tried an elastic band, holding his arms, tape... He just struggles and cries. How do we get him to wear his glasses?
A: In most cases, it just takes a while for a toddler to get used to the sensation of wearing glasses, being persistence is the key. Also, you may want to put his glasses on as soon as he wakes up – this will usually help him adapt to the glasses easier.
But it’s also a good idea to re-check the prescription and make sure his glasses were made correctly and are fitting properly. Today, there are many styles of frames for young children, including some that come with an integrated elastic band to help keep them comfortably on the child’s head. Bring your son and the eyewear to our office. Even if you didn’t purchase the glasses from us, we will be happy to give you our opinion about why your son is having a tough time wearing them and what you can do about it.
Q: Our 3-year-old daughter was just diagnosed with strabismus and amblyopia. What are the percentages of a cure at this age?
A: With proper treatment, the odds are very good. Many researchers believe the visual system can still develop better visual acuity up to about age 8 to 10. If your daughter’s eye turns in constantly, surgery will likely be necessary to straighten her eyes in order for her therapy for amblyopia (or “lazy eye”) to be successful. Strabismus surgery may be needed even if her eyes alternate in their misalignment.
Q: My 10 year old daughter is farsighted and has been wearing glasses since age two. We think she may have problems with depth perception. How can she be tested and if there is a problem, can it be treated?
A: We can perform a very simple stereopsis test to determine if your daughter has normal depth perception. In this test, she wears “3-D glasses” and looks at a number of objects in a special book or on a chart across the room. If she has reduced depth perception, a program of vision therapy may help improve her depth perception.
Q: We have an 11-year-old son who first became nearsighted when he was 7. Every year, his eyes get worse. Is there anything that can be done to prevent this?
A: Rigid gas permeable (GP) contact lenses may help. Research shows that, in many cases, fitting myopic youngsters with GP lenses may slow the progression of their nearsightedness.
Q: My 7-year-old son's teacher thinks he has “convergence insufficiency.” What is this, and what can I do about it?
A: Convergence insufficiency (CI) is a common learning-related vision problem where a person’s eyes don’t stay comfortably aligned when they are reading or doing close work. For reading and other close-up tasks, our eyes need to be pointed slightly inward (converged). A person with convergence insufficiency has a tough time doing this, which leads to eyestrain, headaches, fatigue, blurred vision and reading problems. Usually, a program of vision therapy can effectively treat CI and reduce or eliminate these problems. Sometimes, special reading glasses can also help.
Q: My son is 5 years old and has 20/40 vision in both eyes. Should I be concerned, or could this improve with time?
A: Usually, 5-year-olds can see 20/25 or better. Keep in mind that visual acuity testing is a subjective matter – during the test, your child is being asked to read smaller and smaller letters on a wall chart. Sometimes, kids give up at a certain line on the chart when they can actually read smaller letters. Other times, they may say they can’t read smaller letters because they want glasses. (Yes, this happens!) Also, if your son had his vision tested at a school screening (where there can be plenty of distractions), it’s a good idea to schedule a comprehensive eye exam to rule out nearsightedness, farsightedness and/or astigmatism or even eye health problems that may be keeping him from having better visual acuity.
Q: My daughter has been diagnosed with refractive amblyopia due to severe farsightedness in one eye. She just got her glasses and the lens for her bad eye is much thicker than the other lens. She complains that the glasses make her dizzy and she refuses to wear them. Can anything be done about this?
A: In situations like this, where one eye needs a much stronger correction than the other, contact lenses are a better option. With glasses, the unequal lens powers cause an unequal magnification effect, so the two eyes form images in the brain that are different in size. This can cause nausea, dizziness because the brain may not be able to blend the two separate images into a single, three-dimensional one. The glasses will be unattractive because one lens will be much thicker than the other.
Even if your child is quite young, she can probably handle contact lens wear. Contact lenses don’t cause the differences in image magnification that glasses do. Continuous wear lenses (worn day and night for up to 30 days, and discard) or one-day disposable lenses may be good options. *If you child is ready for contacts.
Keep in mind that amblyopia is a condition where one eye doesn’t see as well as the other, even with the best possible correction lens in place. Simply wearing the contacts may not improve the vision in her weak eye. Usually a program of vision therapy will also be needed.
We provide eye care for even the youngest children. For more information about eye exams for kids or to schedule your child’s eye exam, please call our office at 562-904-1989.
