Raising children means dealing with all kinds of incidents and challenges, from treating skinned knees to scheduling preventative wellness exams. While you’re juggling these different responsibilities, don’t forget to address the health and function of your child’s eyes. Childhood is a critical time for vision development and all the other aspects of development impacted by those vision skills. That’s why you’ll be glad to know that Wardell Vision Center can serve as your pediatric optometrists in Billings.

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Why Our Family Eye Doctor Recommends Pediatric Eye Care

There are many reasons that our family eye doctors recommend regular pediatric eye care. You obviously want a pediatric eye doctor for those times that your child is plagued by an issue, such as conjunctivitis (pink eye) or an acute eye injury. But it’s equally critical to make certain that your child’s eyes are free of diseases or functional disorders that might impede normal vision development.

Issues such as strabismus, amblyopia, teaming and tracking errors, or refractive errors (nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism) can all make normal eye function and clear vision impossible. Since the eyes and brain must learn how to work together for long-term visual acuity, these impediments can cause serious problems, including coordination problems and academic challenges. Regular checkups to evaluate your child’s eyes, plus any necessary eye treatments to correct early-stage problems, can make all the difference in your child’s quality of life for many years to come. We can even prescribe ortho-k contacts that slow the progression of myopia.

A Pediatric Eye Exam Schedule

A typical pediatric eye exam schedule includes three major exams performed by the time your child enters school, with additional exams scheduled either every year or every other year, depending on your child’s individual needs. The first pediatric eye exam occurs at the age of 6 months. We can check the structures of the eyes for diseases while also examining how well the eyes and brain appear to be working together. The second exam, performed around the age of 3, duplicates these checks while adding an interactive element, talking with your child about how clearly he or she sees. The third exam places additional emphasis on testing for refractive errors so that we can prescribe corrective lenses, if needed be. The school-edged exams include the same basic evaluations that we administer to adult patients.

Make an Appointment with Our Billings Pediatric Eye Doctors

Whether your child needs treatment for an eye problem or a routine eye exam, our Billings pediatric eye doctors can help. Call Wardell Vision Center at (406) 281-8480 today to schedule that appointment!