Your baby is constantly growing and changing. From taking their first steps to learning their first words, your baby is rapidly developing, and their visual system is no different.
Your child’s visual development is important for their eye health and plays a large role in their mental and physical development. A healthy visual system allows children to properly process and interact with their environment.
To keep your baby’s eyes healthy and to ensure the proper development of their visual system, make sure their eyes are examined regularly.
As your baby’s visual system develops, there is a high chance that they could encounter a vision problem. In fact, one in four children suffers from vision-related issues by the time they are ready to begin elementary school.
Eye examinations are a necessary step in preventing eye disease and vision problems while ensuring they have limited barriers to success.
We recommended that your child has their first eye examination at 6 months of age, and then once a year, every year until they are 18 years old.
During a pediatric eye exam, your child’s eye doctor will:
Getting your baby’s eyes examined at an early age is important as many eye alignment concerns begin during the first few years of life. If caught early, some common eye conditions can be prevented through treatment.
When your baby is born, their visual system isn’t fully developed and will change drastically. We’ve broken down your baby’s first year so you can understand which vision milestones you should watch for.
Of course, this is just a general guideline and it is important to remember that not every child is the same. Some children may reach certain milestones earlier or later than others.
At birth, babies haven’t developed the ability to clearly tell the difference between two objects. They are also unable to move their eyes between two images.
During this stage, your baby:
It is important to note that during this stage, your baby’s eyes are likely not well coordinated and may appear to be misaligned or crossed. This is normal and usually corrects itself with growth. However, if you are concerned, book an appointment with your child’s eye doctor.
After 5 months, you’ll notice that your baby’s control of eye movements and eye-body coordination skills are continuing to improve.
During this stage, your baby:
As your baby begins to crawl, they will be further developing their eye-hand-foot-body coordination and will continue to benefit from their eyes learning to work together.
As your baby nears the one-year mark, you’ll notice that they are interacting with their environment much more. Their visual system is developed enough so that they can process what is happening around them.
During this stage, your baby:
You can do many things to make sure that your baby’s eyes stay healthy and that their vision develops properly. Here are some easy tips and tricks to keep your child on the right track:
Although many vision problems begin in early childhood, serious vision problems in infancy are quite rare. That being said, your child is always at risk for developing vision problems. Here are some common symptoms that you can watch out for:
If your child is suffering from any of the above symptoms, it is best to have them seen by their eye doctor for an examination as soon as possible.
Even if your child is not suffering from any symptoms, they still need to have their first examination done around 6 months old.
