The visual system in a child is still developing during the first seven to eight years of life. In some cases, glasses will be necessary to help normal visual development.
Optimal vision is essential to the learning process. Many people don’t realize how many problems poor vision can cause for school-aged children.
REASONS GLASSES ARE RECOMMENDED:
- Improving vision: Strengthening vision in a weak or amblyopic (lazy) eye.
- Improving the position of their eyes (crossed eyes or misaligned eyes).
- Providing protection if they have poor vision in one eye.
As a parent, you want to make sure that your child’s vision is healthy. That’s why you take your child to the eye doctor for an annual vision exam. You might be surprised to hear that your child needs glasses. Is your CHILD too young to wear glasses? In actuality, kids of all ages might find that they need to wear glasses for the first time!
Children should have their first visit to the eye doctor starting at a year of age. This helps children get used to going to the eye doctor and provides an optometrist with an opportunity to catch potentially serious vision problems.
What are some of the most common reasons why kids might need glasses at certain ages?
Some Toddlers May Require Glasses:
If your child is still a toddler and you hear that he or she might need glasses, then this could come as a shock. There are two main reasons why toddlers might require glasses. These include:
- Amblyopia: Amblyopia is a potentially serious vision issue that impacts toddlers. With this condition, also called a “lazy eye,” the brain is only listening to one eye’s visual input. The other eye is virtually being ignored. If the other eye is not used, it might “turn off” permanently, leading to blindness in one eye. Glasses for amblyopia and eye patches (depending on the type of Amblyopia detected) are designed to force the brain to listen to the other eye, making sure it remains “on.”
- Crossed or Misaligned Eyes: Another common reason why toddlers might require glasses is due to crossed or misaligned eyes.
Other common conditions that could cause kids to require glasses include:
- Myopia: Also called nearsightedness, kids with this condition can see objects that are close but objects that are distant appear blurry.
- Hyperopia: Otherwise known as farsightedness, causes objects that are distant to appear clear while objects that are close appear blurry.
- Astigmatism: Some kids might require glasses to correct a unique condition called astigmatism, which causes objects to appear distorted because light does not land on the retina evenly.
Signs
Some of the most common signs that kids might need glasses include dropping school grades, recurring headaches, and rubbing the eyes or blinking excessively, putting books close to the face to read, skipping lines while reading, squinting.
Generally, there is no minimum age for children to start wearing glasses. For a child between one and two years old, glasses are generally recommended.