1st eye dr. visit

My girls are 3.5 and have their first eye dr (just routine, we aren't expecting there to be anything wrong, they just said this is the age for them to have a first visit) exam. What should I expect when we go in there? They are already arguing over who is going to go first (they do this with every "first" like at the dentist too). What will they be asked to do? I mean, they know some of their letters and numbers, but not enough for tem to read a chart like we do...lol! Wish us luck!

 

Hi Becky - we've been to the eye dr 3 times now. the worst part is getting their eyes dilated. we go to a pediatric opthomologist, so the office is equipped with toys, books, etc. if i remember correctly, they first look at a bunch of pictures, with both eyes and then one at a time, and have to correctly identify the picture (like us doing that with letters). oh, i think first she gets them to follow things with their eyes. then, she uses some refraction tool to test their eyesight - measure the amount of far sightedness or myopia - but it's done by holding things in front of their faces, so it's not a big deal for them (vs putting your face up to the machine like we do). then they put drops in their eyes for the dilation - they HATE this and scream and cry. then you chill for a while till their eyes dilated. this last time (past summer), mine started freaking out a bit when their sight became blurry. then you go back in and do the refraction again. you might have to do the identifying objects again too, i don't quite remember.

hope this helps - i would definitely prepare them for the dilation - that they will see funny for a little while but it will go away. good luck!

 

They may not hate the dilation. It didn't phase DS at all.

Everything PP said is what we had to do too. The thing that neither DS nor Geneva (Gretchyn hasn't been) liked was when the doctor looked in their eyes with the light after their eyes were dilated. Pretty much because they had to hold pretty still.

Our ophthalmologist suggested to bring in a toy or two from home that might make them feel more comfortable and some snacks like fruit snacks. When we would get done with a test I would "reward" them for their good behavior with a snack and it made things go so much easier.

Good luck. I'm sure the girls will do great.

 

At our appointment, they had pictures that they needed to identify. My kids have huge eyes/pupils so they didn't need to dliate them (so the doctor said). They also had their eyes checked at school this week and they used letters for them to read. It was pretty painless for us. Good Luck!