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Let's help our children see a brighter future and push pediatricians to perform eye exams and vision screenings at an earlier age before it is too late! My whole world changed in the blink of an eye when I found out my son had an eye cancer called Retinoblastoma. A month later, he had his eye removed at age 3.
Infants should have their first eye exam at 6 months of age, then have additonal eye exams at age 3 and just before first grade at age 5 or 6. Eye exams for children are extremely important because about 25 percent of children have vision problems. Early identification of a child's vision problem can be crucial because children are often more responsive to treatment when problems are diagnosed early.*
If I were not the one to "know the glow" in my son's eye, I can't imagine what would have happened if I actually waited until the pediatrican were to do the "routine check up" at age 4.
From Birth to Age 3, Eye evaluation in the physician's office SHOULD include the following:
When I called the doctor's office to ask why none of that had been done, they said they don't start doing eye exams until age 4.