Has your baby ever needed glasses? if so why? and how do they know what strength glasses to give them??

Question

I know that. im from australia!! my question was how do they know what strength to give them when the babies cant tell you what they can see and what they cant see, like when we go to the optometris we tell them what letters are blurry and what isnt.....

Answer 1

I sent you this in a message, but I get more space here, so here comes a really long answer (I'm a bit long winded :)  )

Here's how our ophthalmologist tests our daughter's eyes (she's 22 months and has worn glasses since age 14 months).  I know that the tests vary by age.  Once they can identify shapes, some places use cards with shapes at various sizes and distances to see what your child can discern.  Also, our ophthalmologist told us that for really young kids you're not going to get perfect clarity because the tests aren't that accurate at that age, but since they're not trying to read, it's not quite as important.

Anyway, Zoe's exams have a bunch of tests:

1.  They use grey cards with a small square with alternating black and white lines.  They grey of the cards is the exact color that you would get if you combined the black and white.  They have cards with increasingly small lines until the square basically fades into the background.  They show the baby the cards and watch to see if they notice and focus on the square with the lines.

2.  They use whichever toy Zoe seems interested in and try to get her to follow it with her eyes (we have to hold her head still).  This lets them see when she is looking with both eyes, and when she is only using one eye.

3.  They use eye drops to dilate her eyes.  Then using a light they look at the back of her eye to see the curvature.  This gives a good indication of the prescription.

4.  They have Zoe focus on a toy so that she crosses her eye.  Then the ophthalmologist holds lenses of varying degrees up to her eye to see which lens will straighten her eye out.

The exams usually take at least an hour.  When she gets the eye drops and the light shining in her eyes, Zoe gets a bit annoyed (the first time it happened she got MAD).  So it's not always a pleasant exam.  But she does like the parts with the toys!

Best of luck

Answer 2

My middle son got glasses when he was three because he was "cross-eyed".  I had had a hunch, though, from when he was a baby that he needed them, but people would just say, "Oh, babies do that."  Anyway, he wore glasses for about 2 & 1/2 years and his eyes are fine now.

ADDED:  I also seem to remember them dialating his eyes for some reason, although I don't remember why now.

Answer 3

a specialist will use pictures instead of letters and watch the childs reaction to differnt strengths of glasses

Answer 4

You wont know, you need to take them to an eye specialist. You cant just walk into a glasses shop and get some without a prescription. Well in Australia you cant anyway