Your 3-year old always seems to be rubbing their eyes, and squinting their eyes when they look across the room. They pull books and toys close to their face, and sometimes they cover one eye or tilt their head when examining things. While only about 10% of children under the age of 5 have vision problems, your child could need glasses.
At Bay Street Pediatrics, we understand children need healthy vision to learn about the world. Undiagnosed vision problems can cause poor social development, reducing their ability to interpret social cues and facial expressions. Poor vision negatively impacts the development of small and large motors skills, making it difficult to catch a ball and walk, run or climb confidently. As your child grows, poor vision affects academic performance due to difficulty performing precise skills like coloring and cutting, reading, or seeing educator demonstrations and directions. All this can lead to behavioral issues and low self-esteem.
Eyesight development is truly remarkable. When your child is born, they see in black and white and everything more than 10” away is a fuzzy blur. However, by the time they are five months old, they see in a full-color, full-dimensional way. When they reach the age of 5, their vision is fully developed.
While it’s rare for pre-school aged children to suffer from eye or vision problem, these problems can be difficult to identify because children don’t realize their vision is poor – it’s been this way nearly all their life! They also lack the communication skills to explain what they are seeing. That’s why you’ll see your child compensating for visual difficulties by sitting close to books or screens, squinting, or tilting their heads. In more extreme cases, your child may struggle with hand-eye coordination, photosensitivity, or even experienced crossed or a rolling eye.
Correcting vision issues early can spare the eye long-term stress and avoid learning, social and behavioral issues. Because children can be unreliable narrators, researchers have developed technologies that allow us to measure and assess how eyes work. These devices are called autorefractors. The child looks through the binocular-like device, a computer flashes a series of lights, makes measurements, and creates an assessment of the child’s eyesight.
At Bay Street Pediatrics, our healthcare providers use the Plusoptix Pediatric Autorefractor. It has been proven to be the best and most accurate way to measure the most common vision anomalies in children. Clinical trials have shown the Plusoptix as more reliable than other AI-supported autorefractors, producing more accurate results particularly for amblyopia or lazy eye. Lazy eye occurs because of a communication error in the brain and gets progressively worse if left untreated. The Plusoptix system also checks for strabismus or crossed eyes, and convergence insufficiency, when the eyes can’t focus on close objects.
The most common vision issues the Plusoptix system can identify are the common eye problems of myopia or nearsightedness, hyperopia or farsightedness, and astigmatism. All three of those conditions cause blurry vision that can be corrected by prescription lenses. Vision screenings are typically performed at Bay Street wellness visits, as early identification can help prevent serious developmental issues. The Plusoptix autorefractor allows us to identify the most common vision problems in children and refer you for a more comprehensive eye exam with a pediatric eye specialist for any treatment or intervention necessary.
There are eye and vision symptoms that require an immediate appointment. Call us if your child experiences:
- Misaligned eyes past the age of 4 months – crossed, turning out, or not working in tandem
- White or grey color in their pupil
- Overly sensitive to light
- Fluttering eyes, either up and down or side to side
- Redness that lasts more than 3 days
- Pus, crustiness, itchiness, or pain in the eyes
- Abnormal wateriness
- Drooping eyelids
If you have questions about your child’s eyesight, send a message through your patient portal. We’ll be happy to help!