How often each person should visit their optician in St. Paul MN for an eye exam depends on several factors, like the state of your eye health, your general health, your family’s health history, and the kind of work that you do. In general, babies should see the eye doctor by the time they are six months old. The American Optometric Association recommends that the child next sees the eye doctor by the age of three, and then again by age 6 or before entering the first grade. From age 6 to age 18, the child should go every two years. These intervals are assuming the child has no symptoms of vision problems. If a child is at risk for vision problems, or has actual vision problem symptoms, then they should be seen every year from age 6 to 18.
Newborn babies can’t focus their eyes on an object, and they only see in gray tones. They can see a few colors by the end of their first week. By the time an infant turns six months old, his or her eyesight should be developed enough that they can see as well as an adult can in terms of vision focus, depth perception, and color. The optician in St. Paul MN has several ways of testing an infant’s eye development levels. Since children at this age cannot verbalize to the doctor what they’re seeing, the doctor uses some very simple tests to observe the eyes at work.
The doctor may shine a light in the infant’s eyes briefly to see if the pupils change in size in response to the bright light. Since babies can’t read off the letters in an eye chart, the doctor can test them with the equivalent of an eye chart by showing them blank cards and striped cards to see how the eyes gaze at the stripes. The doctor will also test how well the eyes can focus on something like a small toy or a pen light and will observe how the baby’s eyes can track the object or light as the doctor moves it around.
