You don’t usually think about your child needing a visit to the ophthalmologist before age four, when they start attending school. At that point, however, they are dicovering their poor eyesight late, and it may be a real pain to convince them to wear their glasses.
- It is advisable to make the first trip to the ophthalmologist before you get to this stage—before your child turns one. Your baby begins to differentiate colors in their ninth month, and any problem with their eyes can be diagnosed early on.
- No matter what, if your child has just turned five months old and does not follow your hand gestures, smile when they see your face or stretch out their hand to take a toy you hand them, consult an ophthalmologist
- Of course, the diagnosis is not everything; convincing them to then wear their glasses is not easy. Often, young children reject this “thing” over their eyes.
- If your toddler is one of those kids who love to act grown-up, then wearing glasses will be less difficult. You simply have to say to them, “Look! You and Daddy look alike now. Both of you are wearing glasses!”
- Explain to them that wearing glasses is of great benefit to their vision and overall health so that they don’t understand it as an inexplicable “punishment” for something they’ve done. In the beginning, you may also try to wear glasses together and have fun with it.
- When a vision specialist invites them to choose their glasses from all the fun designs and colors, it will give them added motivation to wear them. This does not mean, however, that this will continue through the first few weeks.
- Remember, if your child resists wearing glasses, that patience is essential. It can help a great deal to point out all the people wearing glasses everywhere you go.
