How to Tell if Your Child Needs Glasses

Amelie Theron - 1 Aug 21

While adults are able to maintain and judge their own ocular health, children need an adult to discover and proactively pursue proper eye care. If you don’t catch your child’s need for glasses early, there is a chance that their eyesight could be permanently affected. According to the eye doctors at Find Clarity Vision, “The American Optometric Association (AOA) recommends your newborn have their first comprehensive eye exam at six months. They also advise that children have an eye exam at the age of three, as well as before they start kindergarten. Once in school, the AOA recommends an eye exam every two years, or more if they need prescription eyeglasses or contacts.” In addition to regular eye exams, there are a number of indications that your child may need glasses. Here are a few of them that you should keep an eye out for.

Squinting

If your child regularly squints, this may be an indication that their eyesight isn’t up to par. Children squint in order to reduce the size of what they are looking at, compensating for the blurriness of what they see. If your child regularly squints, it could be a sign of either farsightedness or nearsightedness.

Struggling or Avoiding Reading

Reading is both an important milestone in your child’s mental development and a struggle for many children due to a variety of factors, including learning difficulties. But if struggling or avoiding reading is combined with other signs, this may be a symptom of an underlying vision problem, especially farsightedness. Losing their place while reading, skipping lines, pointing to keep their place, or squinting and complaining of headaches after reading are all indications. In order to keep your child on track when learning to read, early diagnosis and treatment is absolutely essential.

Eye Rubbing

There are a number of reasons why your child may rub their eyes excessively. Regularly straining to focus or squinting can cause their eyes to feel dry or painful, which can lead to rubbing their eyes to increase the amount of moisture produced. In addition, there are other eye problems that can cause eye rubbing, all of which can be diagnosed and treated by an eye doctor. These problems include chronic dry eyes or allergies, both which can later cause vision problems later down the line if ignored.

Tilting Their Head

If your child regularly tilts their head from side to side, especially when combined with squinting, they may have a vision problem called strabismus. Strabismus is, essentially, when the muscles of the eye are out of balance. This results in double vision when viewing objects from certain distances and angles, and in an attempt to correct this children will often tilt their heads.

Watery Eyes

If your child has frequent or excessive watery eyes, this may be a sign that they need to see an eye doctor. Concentrating on focusing can result in dry eyes, leading to excessively watery eyes. In addition, lagophthalmos may be another explanation. Lagophthalmos is when the eyes don’t close all the way during sleep, leading, again, to dry eyes that then water excessively to make up for the dryness.

Remember that exhibiting just one of these symptoms doesn’t generally mean that there’s a problem. Many children will have one or more of these symptoms intermittently due to growth spurts, changing hormone levels, and other normal aspects of growing up. If there are a large number of symptoms or a long-term pattern of these signs, however, you should consider booking an appointment with an eye doctor who has experience treating children. This is especially important if you observe the symptoms negatively affecting your child’s daily life. 

An eye doctor will be able to perform a number of tests and determine what specific issues may be present with your child’s eyes. They will then be able to discuss any potential treatments with you. The most common treatment for nearsightedness and farsightedness in children is, of course, glasses, but there are some circumstances in which more serious procedures will have to be considered.

Amelie Theron

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