Yes, every year, scheduled for the day before/after well-child visits.
Well, our kids were wearing glasses since grade school, so annual eye exams since about age 8. Fortunately eyes have stabilized.
I started wearing glasses in 1st grade (presumably I got an eye exam because my parents could tell there was something off with my sight but I don’t remember it) and have generally gone for eye exams whenever I felt that my glasses were getting a little weak. It’s been a little while since though, I think my eyes rapidly deteriorated until I was about 20 or 21 but have been pretty much the same since. With a teenager they should be able to tell if there’s something wrong with their sight, and speak up if they need to get an exam. I don’t see the point in getting the exam every year even if the insurance covers it if you don’t need it.
As was mentioned above, there is more to an eye exam than a vision check. A glasses or contact prescription is only part of an eye exam. Eyes are complex organs.
We have a regular eye doc because I come from a nearsighted family. He was a wonderful resource for us when my D started getting eyelash/ eyelid issues as a toddler.
I don’t know what we’ll do when he retires.
My son has been going regularly since an eye exam at his preschool picked up a problem with lazy eye, which was missed at his well visit with our pediatrician. My daughter’s first visit to an eye doctor (optometrist) at age 16 was met with, “What are you doing here if you’re not having any complaints or problems?”
Yes, our kids started at a young age, and my 5 year old granddaughter had her first eye exam last year. Our universal heathcare covers a yearly visit for anyone under 20 or over 65, and every two years for anyone between those ages.
Like I said upstream…our DS was diagnosed with glaucoma at age 20. Fortunately, he had been going for annual check ups for years, so the doc was able to track the pressures and rise in his eyes. When they went way up one year, he was all over it.
This was not expected…no family history.
Waiting a year or longer simply because he didn’t go to the eye doc…could have been very crucial in terms of his vision.
Thumper, same here, except is was a symptom they considered a marker for later glaucoma. We had the baseline tests done. They now believe the concern is less, but they follow her annually. Priceless.
I don’t know your experience, but we were told the bigger issues with glaucoma don’t really come til decades later (or at least in D’s case.) I’m not even sure a glaucoma screening is routine, unless they suspect. But, gawd, this way, if something dips, they can be on top of it, with whatever the newest knowledge is, asap.
Our eye doc does a glaucoma pressure read at every annual eye exam after a certain age…I want to say 15.
And we are so thankful he does!
first daughter got checked at 3 and determined she had a vision spatial problem. She started walking at 9 months and this was the cause. By walking early, she didn’t develop all the proper spatial vision that crawling enables. She did vision therapy for a year and it helped. The glasses came later.
S started walking at 9 months too. He didn’t seem to have any vision spatial problems, tho he preferred walking early over crawling. He eventually taught himself to crawl but never favored it. He started needing glasses at age 8 or so. He never had any vision therapy.
My kids go every year- both wear glasses and/or contacts. Younger D got glasses in 2nd or 3rd grade and has been wearing them ever since. The computer seems to make her eyes worse. She also has something ( or a variation of normal) that is a possible marker for glaucoma decades down the road, but she is being monitored. Right now they seem to think it’s a variation of normal as dad and uncle have the same thing and thankfully, neither one has glaucoma.
Yep, my boys have been going to an opthamologist since their teens for the younger two, and in early elementary school for the oldest, who had a lazy eye. All 3 now wear contacts or glasses. We found out that one of my twins needed glassed when we went to a local pizza place and he was looking at an overhead board, reading off the potential ingredients. "Pepperoni, sausage, garlic, clives…Clives??? I asked. Olives…
Yes for the child who is nearsighted (discovered on school vision screen at age 11). His prescription changes so it’s good to go yearly. And no for the child who does not need glasses. He is 21 and if he starts having trouble seeing it will be up to him to do something about it.
It’s very common for vision problems to manifest in the late teens and early twenties. Many people who had perfect vision as children develop nearsightedness in college (“I can’t read the board unless I sit in the front row”). It’s a good idea to check vision, if not annually, at least every couple of years.
Nearsightedness (myopia) affects 30-50% of the adult population. So for many, it’s not a question of if, but a question of when.