Pediatric eye care

Did you know children should have their first eye exams at the age of six months? By that point, an infant's eyes should be well developed and coordinated. An optometrist can check if your child's eyes have met appropriate eye and vision milestones.

Because young children may never have experienced clear vision, or not that they remember, they are unlikely to complain of vision problems. They may have adapted so well that they do not show any obvious symptoms. A comprehensive eye exam may, however, detect problems – and in general, the sooner treatment begins, the better the outcomes.

Our pediatric service is for children aged six months and up. We offer:

• Optometrists with expertise in looking after children's eye health.
• Testing techniques adapted for infants and children who can’t yet read or even speak, such as eye charts with pictures instead of letters and tracking eye movements.
• Equipment that’s developmentally and size-appropriate for young children.

Children can face a range of eye and vision problems that an optometrist can detect. Some of these are rare but serious – if an optometrist detects a potentially serious concern, your child will be referred to an ophthalmologist (eye surgeon) or another medical doctor.

Optometrists treat a range of more common eye conditions, including:

• Refractive error – Your child isn’t seeing clearly, which can affect their ability to learn and perhaps their behaviour. Whether your child is nearsighted or farsighted or has astigmatism, corrective lenses can help them see better.
• Myopia – A form of refractive error increasingly common in children, myopia, or nearsightedness, can be controlled with specially formulated glasses, contact lenses or eye drops that can slow down the progression of myopia in children. Learn more about myopia and myopia control.
• Amblyopia – Commonly called “lazy eye” even though the eye isn't actually lazy, amblyopia can occur when one eye sees significantly less well than the other, causing the brain to become overly reliant on information coming from the stronger eye. Amblyopia is best treated in childhood – the younger, the better. If an eye exam detects a problem in this area, your child will be referred to our Binocular Vision Service.

We recommend children be brought in for their first eye exam at around six months of age and then annually thereafter until young adulthood. Childhood and adolescence are times when children's vision can change rapidly, and the sooner problems are caught, the better they can be treated.