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As a new mother with a 2 1/2 year old son I can appreciate the questions and concerns a parent has about their babies overall health and development.

I was always asking the question (and still constantly ask) myself:

Is my child gaining enough weight and growing at an appropriate rate?

Can my child hear well? What about his vision?

In regards to your baby’s vision, your pediatrician can perform basic parts of an eye exam, but it is recommended to have an eye exam by an ophthalmologist or optometrist for your baby between the ages of 6 to 12 months.

Eye Exam

Through the eye exam, the eye doctor will assess the health of the eyes as well as test eye movements and alignment. The visual skills your baby should have include: the ability to focus the eyes, respond quickly to visual stimuli and have both eyes work together. In examining my sons eyes, I tested to see how well he tracks small object and see whether he prefers using one eye over the other. You also want to see how your baby reacts to light shined in their eyes.

Many conditions that lead to eye problems can be identified by an eye doctor in the first year of your baby’s life. It is estimated that 10% of the children in the US are at risk from undiagnosed eye and vision problems. The earlier these conditions are identified the easier it is to prevent and correct.

Which Eye Conditions Occur in Babies

Infections – Eyes that are infected are puffy and red and have a sticky discharge around the eye.

Blocked tear ducts – blocked tear ducts causes tears to be backed up and overflow.

Strabismus – Strabismus is a condition where the eyes are misaligned. At birth it is natural for eye alignment to be unsteady, but by 4 months of age the alignment of the eyes should be straight.

Visual Inattention – Visual inattention can be a sign of eye disease. If a healthy baby appears to not be able to pay attention to visual stimuli by the age of 3 months a complete eye exam is in order.

Retinopathy of Prematurity – It is common that the blood vessels that supply the retina are not developed in babies that were born prematurely. If the blood vessels develop abnormally, this could lead to damaging the inside of the eye. If your baby was born prematurely it is highly recommended to have an ophthalmic exam during the first few weeks of life.

Dr. Tarryn Uyen Ngo is a San Jose Optometrist (CA), North Valley Optometry providing optomtery services, eye exams, eye and vision care serving San Jose, Milpitas, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara (CA).

Visit our San Jose Vision Care Articles section for more articles on eye and vision care.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.