Category Archives for Baby & Infant Vision

Is It Really an Eye turn? So What is Pseudostrabismus?

Pseudostrabismus refers to eyes that appear to be turned, but are actually straight.  This is quite a common condition in babies and young children due to facial structures. Known as “prominent epicanthal folds”, the wide bridge of the nose and the inner folds of the eyelid skin on the nose-side of the eye contribute to the appearance by covering the “whites” of the eye.  This is often more noticeable in of East Asian ethnicities, where the lower fold of the upper eyelid gives the eyes a relatively narrower and almond-like appearance. read more

How to enhance your baby’s eye and visual development

Your baby’s eye & visual development

Vision is our most precious sense, yet an infant’s vision is much less developed at birth than their other senses, such as smell. Therefore, it is vital that parents and caregivers provide the right environment to help their baby’s visual system to develop and mature. Many parents worry about motor development of their child, yet most don’t realise that there is also very important motor development occurring in the eye muscles too. read more

Why you can’t use an iPod as a babysitter!

I was shocked, yet not overly surprised recently to discover there are now devices that you can insert your iPhone or iPod into, to ensure that your baby does not wreck it whilst playing with it! Certainly, we cannot ignore the impact that small screen devices now play in our world. We communicate on them, we organise our lives on them, we socialise on them, and we can be entertained by them! But should we be allowing our children, toddlers and yes, even infants to play with them too? read more

An Eye for Kids Eyes – When to Have Them Checked

An Eye on Kids’ Eyes

At Harmony Vision , we are often asked, “when should I get my kids eyes checked?” Here are some guidelines.

First Check – 6 months old

A child’s first eye examination should ideally be at 6-9 months.

You might wonder – how do they read the chart,and what can you possibly check at that age?

At this age, children are developing the use of the two eyes together. They are beginning to learn to integrate the use of the two sides of their body together, and this includes their eyes. At this time, it is important to check that an infants’ eyes are developing equally and beginning to team well together. This is a critical age for when eye turns may begin to appear.

Note, if you have any family history of eye turns or lazy eye, or you have any other concerns, then you should have your baby checked immediately. We are experienced at checking babies from as young as 12 weeks old.

Harmony Vision Care has invested in the very latest technology for testing infants’ and toddlers’ eyes.

3 years old

A child’s second eye check should routinely occur at approximately 3 years old. At this time, many children are beginning to engage in more close work as they become more interested in books, colouring in and craft activities. This is an age, where the incidence of eye turns or lazy eyes also increases.

 

Pre-prep or Prep

At Harmony Vision, we always say “fore-warned is fore-armed”. 70% of school activities are visual, and nearly all academic tasks involve vision in some way. Having your child’s eyes checked before they start school is an important way of ensuring they have all of the required visual skills to cope in a classroom. Specifically, these include: focusing, eye teaming, tracking, and visual analysis.

Prep, Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3

Between the ages of 5 and 8 a child’s visual system is maturing and developing rapidly.

At a minimum, every 2 years is recommended. However, the visual demands of a classroom also change rapidly over this time, and it is important that your child’s eyes continue to keep up with this increase. In particular, the fine eye muscle control that determines how well your child can sustain their attention on a book is still developing and fine-tuning. Fatigue and stress are common in these muscles leading to potential difficulties with near work at school.

After this age, 2 yearly checks are typically recommended.

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