Can 3yr olds have eyes tested?

jog

Not every part of the country has routine testing of preschool children at nursery.

If your are worried either ask your Health Visitor for a referral to the hospital or make an appointment at the optition for an eye test.

He will get seen sooner if you see your local optition and as others have said they are very good at doing the tests on young children and will tell you if he needs further testing at a specialist clinic.

All my children have had regular eye tests from the age of about 3.

The tests are free for children on the NHS.

Personally I think we should view eye tests like we do the dentist and have regular check ups every year, as the eyes can say a lot about our general health.

Jog

elf06

jog wrote: »

Not every part of the country has routine testing of preschool children at nursery.

Ooops appologies the nursery said it was standard for all nursery children coming up for school age - I just assumed it was across the board
It would be a good idea though.........

bylromarha

yes- DS had a suspect squint around 1, so had lots of hospital eye tests. It was pictures and pointing.

Violetta_2

My daughter had an eye test (Boots Optician who I found V good & thorough) as said previously it's pictures & shapes, she was happy with my daughter's sight & explained if I was still worried (which is why I had taken her) she could refer her to the hospital for more involved test's. She explained that as the test's involve eyedrops which sometimes the wee ones don't like she didn't recommend it as she didn't see any problem's but would refer her if I wanted.
There are eye test's for little babies as you do see tiny one's in cute glasses (I had enough trouble keeping sock's on dd when she was a baby can you imagine trying to keep speck's on them). I would get your ds checked out, if you don't have an optician ask a friend for a recommendation, then you can tick that off the list & move onto the next thing to worry about, there's always something with wee ones isn't there!

Sublime_2

Yes, mines just had his done. He failed, because he lost interest and started playing around halfway though, so we've got to do again.

Js_Other_Half

DS had first tests at 13 months, arranged by HV. He has worn glasses since he was a little over 2.

dangers

In our area, it's a routine test organised by the HVs when a child is around 3 years old - an Optician regularly comes into our Health Centre to check the children.

Js_Other_Half

dangers wrote: »

In our area, it's a routine test organised by the HVs when a child is around 3 years old - an Optician regularly comes into our Health Centre to check the children.

There is no assessment here whatsoever once they've had their 7 month (ish ) check. I requested the eye check up at that visit, and the appt came through 4 months later.

no-oneknowsme

Benson wrote: »

I think I need to get my ds eyes tested as he seems to be blinking overly/obviously and what looks like squinting. But obviously at 3 he can't read the opticians eye charts so do they have special tests for children or do I need to take him anywhere special instead of high street opticians?

If you have any suspicions at all that your child may have a squint please take him to have his eyes tested as a matter of urgency !

My DD2 had what i thought to be a squint when she was around one and a half or maybe two years old and every time i mentioned it to my health visitor she assured me that as i was being paranoid.

Because there was no -one else in either of our families who had a squint or any other eye problems i listened to the advice of the health visitor when she said i was imagining it.

After a few months however i still wasnt 100% convinced and so even after my health visitor telling me again that i was worrying over nothing , i decided that i was going to book an eye test for DD.

I took her to specsavers when she was around 2.5 years old and they carried out a great eye test on DD and found that she did indeed have a squint plus she needed glasses . The opticion told me that her eye sight had suffered because i hadnt brought her in as soon as i noticed the squint !

My DD is now 14 and still wears glasses.

Please take your little one to the opticians as soon as you can.

dora37

YS was tested at 9 months old and has worn glasses since ( cant' remember how they did it though, as he's now almost 17!)