Child Eye Exams Are Critical and 15 Signs It’s Urgent

Our kids had their annual eye exams last week, and after talking with the optometrist assistant I learned some disturbing news that prompted me to come home and do a little research. Once my fears were confirmed I knew I needed to write, Child Eye Exams Are Critical and 15 Signs It’s Urgent.

This post is actually one I’ve been tossing around in my brain for awhile. It’s something I’m very passionate about because of experiences we’ve had in this area with our children and (adult) selves.

I’ve always been a little reluctant to share the story involving our eldest because I always felt bad for what we went through with him, and I worried about putting myself out there. After a brief conversation with the optometrists assistant I realized that I’m not the only one who didn’t know the information I’m sharing today and that I learned (the hard way) with our first child many years ago though.

Why This Information is Critical Right Now

For a couple months I’ve been wondering how schools are going to handle vision screenings this year, and recently I learned that routine screenings by the schools are another area affected by the pandemic in many districts. I’ve discovered that our district has not yet done the screenings for the pre and K grades-and they haven’t been encouraging the parents to go get one for their children yet either. I did a little research and according to this article, it is as I suspected, COVID upheaval is largely responsible for this “oversight” and it’s not just our area or the early elementary grades that are affected.

In addition to this many parents are unaware of the difference between vision screenings and eye exams (I’ll explain the differences in a minute), and how important both are for children before or shortly after starting the school year.

The biggest reason they are so important is of course pretty self explanatory; undetected vision problems can cause learning delays and issues from mild to severe.

Allow me to share our story.

Why Child Eye Exams Are Critical and 15 Signs It’s Urgent

Years ago when my oldest was 6 we were trying to teach him to read and were getting nowhere. Up to this point he had had vision screenings, but never a full exam.

Eventually I started noticing that when he would eat, one eye was a little slow to trail sometimes but it wasn’t terribly noticeable and I even wondered if it was normal until one particular day.

It was a weekday and we were halfway done with school. We paused for lunch and as I was watching him eat his PB&J sandwich I noticed it for sure this time. He would bring the sandwich close to his face to take a bite (watching it as he brought it to his face) and then look at me again, but one of his eyes would become “stuck” in a crossed position for a second.

I realized at this point it was so pronounced, definitely wasn’t my imagination, and I immediately called the eye doctor. I was so frightened!

The eye dr. assistant was very knowledgeable, and didn’t do much to calm my fears.

“That’s not a good sign, we have an opening in about 45 minutes, if you can get him here it would be a good idea to take the opening.” He then went on to explain it was either that our son was about to develop a lazy eye and needed glasses soon before it became permanent-or that our son could possibly have nerve damage from something like a brain tumor.

As you can imagine I nearly overreacted. (I totally freaked out). 30 minutes later I was in the eye doctors waiting room with my son as was my husband whom I called at work and properly scared the crap out of as well (no sense in just one of us scared poopless, right?).

Thankfully our son’s issue was simply that he needed glasses. It took a week or so before they came in, and here’s where it gets really sappy and where this all connects with education.

After we got his glasses we went to do some shopping. In times past when we were driving in the city I would always point out signs and ask our son what letters he could see. He never said anything. He would always just remain quiet and I would wonder and worry why he didn’t say anything-and then go home and beef up letter recognition/sound practice, always figuring he must have forgotten again. But this time, with his glasses, as we were driving through the city our son exclaimed, “Mom! I can see the letters now!”

I realized he did know his letters all along, he just couldn’t see the signs well enough. As you can imagine I felt like the worst parent in the world for not having gotten him an eye exam sooner and I broke down bawling. I still want to cry just thinking of it!

Skip ahead a few months-or maybe a year (I don’t remember anymore). After this incident with our son I started noticing eye exhaustion in myself and I don’t know why, but for weeks it didn’t even dawn on me that I needed glasses until one night. I was driving home in the dark and could barely make anything out, it was actually quite frightening. As the days progressed I started noticing how blurry words were when I would read.

A trip to the eye doctor confirmed that I had astigmatisms which, according to the D.O. I was probably born with, plus I was far sighted (over half my kids are as well).

Here’s the thing. I don’t remember ever being taken to have my eyes checked as a child and yet there were so many clues through my childhood, youth and adulthood to back up the D.O.’s claim that I was born with astigmatisms, and it’s very likely I needed glasses all along.

By the time I personally realized I needed glasses I was in my 30’s. My eyes had been working so hard to compensate for the astigmatisms that when I first began to wear glasses nothing looked level, everything was curved like an arch and I felt like I was walking on a bubble for a week!

Tips, Adults Need Eye Exams Too

Skip ahead a few years-I began to become concerned about my husband as he was mentioning mild vision changes. I practically had to drag the man to the eye dr. and he complained the WHOLE way about how he was missing work. I almost gave up insisting he go. Thank God he went though. We learned that the small changes my husband was experiencing were because of early glaucoma. It was so devastating and scary to learn this because all we knew about glaucoma at the time was that you get it and you go blind. Obviously we nothing about it and didn’t know that although it is true that there is no cure and it cannot be reversed, that it could be managed.

Listen to Your Kid

We ended up getting my husband some light reading glasses and on eye drops for glaucoma to halt it, and shortly after that our 5 year old started complaining saying he needed glasses. I was 100% positive he didn’t-that he only wanted glasses to be like daddy. But he was 5 and by this time I had the habit of taking my babies to the eye dr. for a full exam starting between 4 and 5, and so I took him in for a full exam just to check and be safe.

Lo and behold the kid was right! I was wrong! He was far sighted and DID need glasses and has to wear them for school (as opposed to our eldest is supposed to wear them pretty much all the time).

So you see it’s because of our experiences that I’m very passionate about sharing with people how important it is to get eye exams annually.

Vision Screening VS Eye Exam

I learned at the optometrists this week that many parents actually don’t take their kids in for FULL yearly eye exams- that a lot of children only get vision screenings by doctors or school nurses at the beginning of the school year. The optometrists’ assistant went on to explain that kids still need to see an actual eye doctor annually because they do full exams that go far beyond a screening and are way better at detecting vision issues.

If you have had both a screening and full exam you know the difference, that an eye exam is far more involved! I have learned in my research for this article, however, that not all vision screenings involve the same equipment/procedure’s. Because of this and the fact many people have only ever had vision screenings I’m going to explain both here.

A vision screening is a quick little peek with some exercises to see if you are seeing correctly and if your eyes have noticeable issues. The testing is limited and can be performed by people that are not eye specialists so sometimes things can be missed. According to THIS WEBSITE up to 95% of child vision abnormities can be missed in a screening. Vision screening should never replace a full eye exam.

An eye exam on the other hand is far more comprehensive and can find macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma, corneal dystrophy, retinal detachments and even give clues of tumors, high blood pressure, strokes, diabetes and more.

15 Signs Your Child May Need Glasses

This year with the increased use of computer use for school and screen time for many children it is even more critical then ever that kids have full eye exams-which is why it scares me to hear that the pandemic has halted screenings and that people are not aware of the importance of exams!

Here are 15 signs you want to “keep an eye” out for;

1. feeling fatigued or even falling asleep while reading
2. headaches
3. excessive blinking
4. complaining that they cannot see well
5. rubbing eyes often
6. squinting
7. trouble seeing at night
8. trouble switching from dark to light or light to dark
9. needing more light while reading when there appears to be plenty
10. trouble seeing things far away or up close
11. accident prone-misjudging distances
12. complaints that things look “blurry”
13. short attention span/false ADHD diagnosis
14. vision changes
15. family history of eye issues

As mentioned above, forgoing eye exams can cause learning delays and even disabilities-and of course miss dangerous issues. It’s a good idea to start getting exams for your children at age 4–or sooner if you notice any signs above. For example I have a friend who’s had a couple little ones that needed glasses sooner because they were bumping into things.

Another thing I’ve learned through the years is not all eye exam clinics are equal and some are far better suited equipment and staff wise to accommodate small children. Ask around to find clinics that are highly recommended for little kids in your area.

Did you enjoy Child Eye Exams Are Critical and 15 Signs It’s Urgent? If so you’ll also love my review of the What Your Child Needs To Know book series as well as my post featuring YouTube Story Time Channels for Kids!

Will you help me? Will you share this post and spread this very important message for others? Help me raise awareness on the importance of eye exams for children as well as adults!!