Read more about the article Your Child’s First Eye Exam

Your Child’s First Eye Exam

Here are great tips from Dr Dina Kulik, Pediatrician from Toronto on preparing your child for his/her first eye exam. Children should be seen at least once around age 2-3 before starting school, and the first exam can be as early as 6 months. Parents mistakenly believe that kids would complain if they couldn’t see, but they don’t because they accept it as normal.

  • Talk about the upcoming visit with excitement. If children are excited they are less likely to become fearful.
  • Schedule an appointment at a time when your child is alert and interactive, not during a naptime or mealtime.
  • Book yourself plenty of time. Rushing will stress you out and by extension your child will have less fun.
  • Use books or props to help prepare your child for the experience; we have a book about ‘Critter’ getting his eyes checked.
  • Use a low power flashlight on yourself or partner to show your kids how the eyes grow and shrink to the light. Then let them try it on you. Use this time to talk to your child about the use of bright lights before the appointment.
  • Rewards, rewards, rewards. When you start talking about the appointment tell your child about the reward he or she will get for behaving well.

See More at How Vision Problems Can Affect Your Child’s Abilities. (Yummy Mummy Club.ca)

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October is Children’s Vision Month in Canada, so book your eye exam today! Children are covered for one full exam per year by OHIP.

Also visit Doctors of Optometry Canada to enter for a chance to win one of five weekly prizes including an HP laptop, and a chance at the grand prize valued at over $5000!
Click here to enter the Children’s Vision Month Sweepstakes

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Read more about the article Air Puff Test – What Is It For?

Air Puff Test – What Is It For?

What is the purpose of that awful air puff? If you hate doing that test, you’re definitely not alone!

The air puff test is called non-contact tonometry (NCT) and it measures the pressure inside your eyes. The machine shoots a small puff of air into your eye, and it calculates the pressure inside your eye based on how the air bounces back.

If you can’t handle that test, there are alternatives such as Goldmann tonometry (the blue light test). This involves a yellow drop which glows under blue light. The doctor will view your eyes very closely with a prism, and then the pressure can be calculated based on how the light is bent.  This method is also painless, and even more accurate than the NCT.

Your eyes are filled with fluid, and if there is something causing a fluid buildup, the increased pressure can cause damage to the structures of your eye, resulting in vision loss. High pressures can be the first sign of glaucoma, or the result of other things such as injury, infection, or a tumour around the eye. There is usually no pain or symptoms with high eye pressure. It is like having high blood pressure – you won’t feel it unless it is at an unsafe level. That is why it’s important for an optometrist to do this test and measure your pressure every year. It’s a little uncomfortable but it’s over faster than a pressure cuff squeezing your arm! 🙂

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Read more about the article Problems Seeing the Board At School

Problems Seeing the Board At School

Here‘s more Vision Therapy in the news!

1 in 4 students has a vision problem! 80% of what a child learns comes through vision, so a problem could prevent a child from earning the grades he/she should.

Here are some red flags:

  • headaches
  • complaints of not seeing the board
  • avoiding close work
  • child doesn’t like to read
  • doesn’t want to do homework
  • it takes hours to complete homework that should take 30 minutes

Watch the video to hear how vision therapy helped Spencer

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When Your Child Takes Hours To Finish Homework

Does your child take an unusually long time to finish homework? Do you have to get into a “homework war” every night to get things done? Your child is not being lazy. Homework might be very difficult and uncomfortable if he/she is suffering from a vision problem.

If you are baffled because your child is passing 20/20 vision tests, but still complains about reading the chalkboard or worksheets, has headaches or blurred vision, or is just plain struggling in school, it’s important to rule out any visual challenges. The first step is to book a Visual Skills Assessment.

Click here to read about Nicholas, a second grade student who was very bright and had a good memory, but spent 2-3 hours on homework every night. The problem was convergence insufficiency, and he improved his reading and hand-eye coordination in sports with Vision Therapy.

 

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Slow Reading Due to Convergence Insufficiency

“Whether it is the mystery of the bright child who struggles with reading or the child who takes forever to do homework, the story is often the same,” shares Ida Chung, OD, FCOVD, President of COVD, “these children continue to struggle until the underlying vision problem is identified and treated.”

Click here to read the story about 9-year-old Zach, who had frequent headaches, rubbed his eyes in the classroom, and was often the last person to finish his work. The school nurse reported his vision was 20/20 and the pediatrician said his eyes were healthy and that he didn’t need glasses. He actually had a convergence insufficiency, which would not have been helped with glasses anyways. Some children need a functional eye exam which looks beyond health and the need for glasses. Read more

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