How do they find an eyeglass prescription for babies?

[Katy]

Just curious.  That YouTube video where the baby smiled the first time he saw his parents  and a friend's infant that I suspect is farsighted has me wondering.  The baby will only lock eyes with you if you're 4 feet away or further.  She stares at things that are about 4 feet away or further and extremely high contrast, but doesn't seem to be interested in too much else visually. No other babies I've known have acted remotely this way except perhaps for the nephew that's autistic, but that was very different. That one hated to be held, hated all noise, hated eye contact no matter the distance from the time he was born.  The baby I suspect is farsighted is instead cheerfully happy and seems to delight at everything new, he just can't seem to focus his eyes on anything if it's too close. Baby is about 6 months old if that makes a difference.

[Tanaqui]

I asked my optometrist once. I believe they can actually use machines to measure the eyeballs. It's not as accurate as the "better? worse? or about the same?" method, which is why we don't generally use that method on anybody who can speak, but it's better than nothing.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Tanaqui

[Tanaqui]

Ah, as is often the case, Dr. Google explained it better. Took me a while to find this, though!

[Upptacka]

They dilate the eyes with cycloplegic drops and measure the prescription using retinoscopy. The same technique is used for patients (of all ages) unable to communicate.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Upptacka

[Catalytic]

:rant:

 

Please. PLEASE encourage your friend to get baby's eyes checked.  If she has insurance, it might be covered.  My children ARE covered, but for 2 years the optometrist we were using told me they didn't test kids until school age.  A few months before my son turned 5, the family went in for annuals.  I had tried to make the 4 yr old an appt but they refused.  When we actually got to the office, I asked quite piss-ily, DOES MY INSURANCE COVER AN EYE EXAM FOR MY SON?  They said yes, so I said, then do it, and if you can't, I'll be moving the whole family elsewhere (child was already reading, knew all his shapes, colors, etc, wasn't like he couldn't read the normal eye charts!).  So, they did an eye exam.  Optometrist tells me he needs glasses, I'm like WTF?!?! (I didn't think he needed them I just thought since my insurance covers it he should be checked!)  Doc says oh yeah, he's very farsighted, probably has needed them since birth.....yeah my kid wears Coke bottles now.  And yes, I was furious and made sure the ladies at the front and the rest of the customers knew it.  Doc told me the reason he didn't sit close to the TV and whatnot (the usual signs you think indicate vision trouble) was because he was used to it because it's all his brain knew.  Hubby flipped out, so I took him to Walmart for a second opinion.  They put him on the computer machine you look through and focus on a dot?  And it spit out a script very close to what the optometrist had said.  I later found out there was a children's optometry clinic attached to the big hospital in town, so she could check around for a kid specific clinic, they are used to working with littles.

[MistyMountain]

Some providers do free exams for babies as part of a special program called infant see. http://www.infantsee.org

 

I had my two of my babies checked as babies and they just used tools that look like toys with red dots. They used it to check tracking and for focusing when they were looking in the eyes. They looked into their eyes with another tool. They did not even use eye drops. They have machines now that can be used as a screening tool where it takes a picture of the eye and the computer analyzes it. The eye doctor who did the exam said babies are supposed to be slightly farsighted. It does sound like this baby may have vision issues that need correcting.

Edited April 23, 2016 by MistyMountain

[ktgrok]

Some providers do free exams for babies as part of a special program called infant see. http://www.infantsee.org

 

I had my two of my babies checked as babies and they just used tools that look like toys with red dots. They used it to check tracking and for focusing when they were looking in the eyes. They looked into their eyes with another tool. They did not even use eye drops. They have machines now that can be used as a screening tool where it takes a picture of the eye and the computer analyzes it. The eye doctor who did the exam said babies are supposed to be slightly farsighted. It does sound like this baby may have vision issues that need correcting.

 

Yes, this! It's totally free. A friend's husband participates. Do have them checked. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

I wore glasses at 1.  No clue how they did it because I can't remember that far back.  But now they have machines.  First thing they do is determine your prescription with the machine and that whole "clear/blurry" blah blah they do is about tweaking that.  With babies no clue how or if they tweak to that extent. 

 

I had both of mine tested as babies because of my vision problems and my husband's.  One wore glasses very young and was patched.  By 8 his vision was improved enough that he could stop wearing glasses. 

 

I have to laugh because one place I went to used these picture cards with one of mine when he was younger.  This would be in place of using letters or numbers.  Problem was the cards were very dated and the pictures didn't make sense to my kid because stuff looks different (think old rotary style phone). 

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Free exam is all well and good, but if a baby needs glasses it can get painfully expensive.  My parents were broker than broke and had to buy new glasses for me several times a year.  At that age vision can change rapidly and you grow rapidly.  So I do feel for the people that worry about how to pay for it. 

 

Although now they have some pretty affordable options.  When I was a baby it was one choice available and that was it.  It was expensive.  And nothing like Zenni or other low cost eye glass makers. 

[Miss Tick]

When my ds was 10 months he got glasses. They used drops to dilate his eyes (uncomfortable) then used prisms to determine the prescription. He started crawling almost immediately. I think he could finally focus at arms-length. The doctor would hold a plastic figurine in his mouth and make noise to attract visual attention, then he would move a pen around to check periphery with his left hand, and hold up prisms with his right hand. Quite a one-man production!

 

The frame company covers frame replacement for any reason for 2 years. Our insurance covers prescription changes for the first 6 months (I think this was in case there is a mistake?) and then once a year. This is important to know up front because I did get burned by that once.

[Daria]

My son's eyes were checked at our Children's Hospital every 6 months from birth. Here is how they did it.

 

We were in a long, slightly dark room. At the end were boxes that were dark. Baby sat on my lap. Dr. would press a button with his foot and a box would light up with a wind up toy inside like a monkey playing cymbals.

 

Baby would look at the monkey, and the doctor would quickly hold the prisms in front of his eyes to see the focus on the back. Baby would get bored, Dr. would stop and interact with baby for a while, then press a new button and a new animal would light up.

 

He would dilate the eyes afterwards and send us off to have lunch in the cafeteria. I would bring him back, asleep in the stroller and they'd do the rest of the exam (looking for cataracts, touching his eyeball with the glaucoma thing) by peeling back his eyelid. He would sleep through the whole thing, but they always commented that this was weird and most babies do not let you peel back their eyelids and touch their eyeballs without waking up.

 

I should note that he never needed glasses, and we were there because of potential cataracts due to high steroid use. Also, I think the reason they did the glaucoma testing was that it allowed him to demonstrate to his med students on a kid who clearly didn't mind. They always asked, saying "I can't believe he's still asleep after we just peered in his eyes with a bright light. Would you mind if we checked for glaucoma?"

[Pippen]

You definitely would want an ophthalmologist for this. We don't have a pediatric ophthalmologist in town but our pediatrician referred us to an ophthalmologist that was good with young children.

 

My kiddo was the poster boy for the replacement frames package!

[gardenmom5]

infantsee.org has a list of developmental pediatric  eye providers (developmental optometric) who will do a free first screening.

 

I actually see one for myself becasue of my own eye issues.  (anything I have that maybe more age related might get me sent to someone else.) she was actually a partner with a developmental ophthalmologist I saw years ago.  I'm tired of going to 'regular' providers (ophthalmologist or optometric) and leaving sick to my stomach becasue they can't handle my developmental problems.

 

they will be able to tell if the baby is farsighted, or nearsighted by how they react.  they will show them objects to track, hold up magnifying pieces of glass in front of the baby's eye

they will dilate the eyes.

they will use an ophthalmoscope to look inside the baby's eyes.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by gardenmom5

[Catalytic]

I wore glasses at 1.  No clue how they did it because I can't remember that far back.  But now they have machines.  First thing they do is determine your prescription with the machine and that whole "clear/blurry" blah blah they do is about tweaking that.  With babies no clue how or if they tweak to that extent. 

 

I had both of mine tested as babies because of my vision problems and my husband's.  One wore glasses very young and was patched.  By 8 his vision was improved enough that he could stop wearing glasses. 

 

I have to laugh because one place I went to used these picture cards with one of mine when he was younger.  This would be in place of using letters or numbers.  Problem was the cards were very dated and the pictures didn't make sense to my kid because stuff looks different (think old rotary style phone). 

 

The place we were at did the same with my son.  I finally made them switch to letters.

[redsquirrel]

My son was a preemie and had to have his eyes checked frequently his first year. I had to travel to large city and have him see a pediatric ophthalmologist. Yes, they put the eye drops in, and there was an examination of a VERY upset and screaming baby. When he was a little older there were things like toys that moved and they were tracking his eyes.  The baby eye examination room was big, dim, and looked like a crazy toy store. It was full of tools to test infant eyes that looked like toys. But for most of this, my son wasn't even old enough to sit up on his own.

 

But, they were able to assure me his eyes and his vision were developing normally and well.

[SparklyUnicorn]

The place we were at did the same with my son.  I finally made them switch to letters.

 

That's what I told them to do.  I said he knows his letters.  He does not know what these pictures are though. 

 

Finally they got it.

[SparklyUnicorn]

You definitely would want an ophthalmologist for this. We don't have a pediatric ophthalmologist in town but our pediatrician referred us to an ophthalmologist that was good with young children.

 

My kiddo was the poster boy for the replacement frames package!

 

Oh I don't know.  The guy my parents took me to was not an ophthalmologist.  I knew that because I had gone to him for years and then there was a period of time he wasn't around so I had someone else.  Then my parents starting taking me to him again.  Turned out he had gone back to school to become an ophthalmologist. 

[prairiewindmomma]

We had our baby checked at 3 months of age as well by a ped opthamologist.  Miraflex glasses are what I recommend, fwiw, if you have to put a baby or toddler in lenses.  It is especially important to have babies checked because the eyes, the optic nerve, and the brain work together to create vision.  If a baby isn't getting good input in to the brain, it can really affect them and their development.

We have had two kids who have struggled with getting input in from both eyes into the brain, for different organic reasons.  Your brain will shut off vision to one eye to create a single image, and it can become impossible to get that connection to work again.  Having parented now a blind child and a kid who still goes monocular, I can tell you that there is a lot of daily life impact that occurs.

 

So....glasses.....not just for reading. (And, your non-reader kid can lose vision quality suddenly and mask it if they have good orienting skills or other motor problems. ) 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Oh and it's easier to get a baby to cooperate with glasses than a preschooler.  Sounds crazy, but yeah.  One of mine had to wear them as a preschooler, but damn no matter what I tried he would not keep them on his face.  Now part of the difficulty was that the vision issue was very minor so it was not a matter of him being happy to finally see.  He could see fine.  So I took him back and the woman was like why can't you make him.  Make him?  In what way?  Beat him?  Crazy glue them to his face?!  So I went elsewhere and they agreed that it was ok to hold off a bit.  So I did and then I had no trouble when we tried again later on.

 

 

[kbutton]

Yes, check out http://www.infantsee.org/ !!! Some are also developmental optometrists (COVD optometrists-- www.covd.org ). If you find one that does both, that's awesome.

 

We did not know about these options when my son was little. He's 8 and now has incomplete visual development and basically two lazy eyes (he gains ground all the time, but it was really frustrating to know that early glasses would have allowed his brain to develop appropriate processing abilities even if he'd always need glasses). He's had glasses since he was four, so by typical standards, we weren't exactly late to get him checked. He has a strong astigmatism, but the real kicker is just that eye-brain communication. People think getting glasses fixes everything, but it does not. (For instance, my son cannot be corrected better than 20/25 right now, which is behind the normal timeline for his age.)

 

Until he was nearly four, he did not really present like he had vision issues, but he was kind of airheaded, lost in thought--we didn't think much of that because he would contemplate things and come up with amazing questions Well, hindsight...between an auditory processing disorder and visual problems, small wonder he was always inside his head! His brain was not appropriately processing language or sight.

[scoutingmom]

My one daughter got glasses around 17 months. The process was similar to what has been said.

 

My husband wasn't convinced.

 

When we got the glasses, the optician mentioned some of the changes we might see to me. Suddenly mirrors were fascinating, for instance. One thing she mentioned was transitions on the floor.... and that was something that fit. My daughter would always pause going from carpet to floor or the other way... apparently because she could see there was a difference but not be sure of what was there.

 

So first day with the glasses, she had worn them well, but had taken them off and dh said to give her a break from them because of the change.... well, ok. So we are at a park and she is running aroung in the field with her siblings, and the sun had come out from behind a cloud, so now a tree was making a real visible line with the shadow. Daughter wanted to come to us, but wouldn't cross the line. I mentioned the conversation with the optician, and my dh says, ok put the glasses on. I put them on and no problems... she could see it was a shadow, and crossed over it several times while playing. Dh was convinced.

 

And yes... Miraflex. She wore those frames for almost 4 years without a single solitary problem. If they wouldn't look funny on older kids, I'd have all my kids wear them! I hate broken glasses.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

[Catalytic]

My one daughter got glasses around 17 months. The process was similar to what has been said.

 

My husband wasn't convinced.

 

When we got the glasses, the optician mentioned some of the changes we might see to me. Suddenly mirrors were fascinating, for instance. One thing she mentioned was transitions on the floor.... and that was something that fit. My daughter would always pause going from carpet to floor or the other way... apparently because she could see there was a difference but not be sure of what was there.

 

So first day with the glasses, she had worn them well, but had taken them off and dh said to give her a break from them because of the change.... well, ok. So we are at a park and she is running aroung in the field with her siblings, and the sun had come out from behind a cloud, so now a tree was making a real visible line with the shadow. Daughter wanted to come to us, but wouldn't cross the line. I mentioned the conversation with the optician, and my dh says, ok put the glasses on. I put them on and no problems... she could see it was a shadow, and crossed over it several times while playing. Dh was convinced.

 

And yes... Miraflex. She wore those frames for almost 4 years without a single solitary problem. If they wouldn't look funny on older kids, I'd have all my kids wear them! I hate broken glasses.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

 

My parents found out I needed glasses in 3rd grade...my dad lived on a houseboat, and I completely misjudged the step and fell into the bay  :coolgleamA:   I don't really remember the first time I put them on, but I know whenever I would get new glasses after that, the ground seemed soooooo far away.  (I was and am short, the ground is never far from me lol)  My mom would laugh at the way I'd walk because it was so weird.  My 18 son has commented on the same thing when he gets new glasses.

 

With as bad as my 6's vision is, he never showed any outward signs that he could suddenly see better.  That's why I followed up with DH's request for a second opinion, but the machine gave pretty much the same result as the doc, so we knew he needed them.  We go this week for his 2nd checkup (he got glasses in January 2015, I'm behind on getting us in for exams this year, sigh)