Childs First Eye exam

RebelButtMunch

Hi,
I'm unsure of what to do for my childs first eye exam. I'm pretty sure she needs glasses but do I bring her first to the doctor or to the optometrist?

I suppose what I'm asking is optometrist qualified to examine eyes or just quality of sight?

Thanks!

jwabh

What age is the child?

RebelButtMunch

9

jwabh

You could go to either an optometrist or an ophthalmologist in a hospital setting. Quickest and cheapest would be an optometrist and if there's any issues they would refer to an ophthalmologist.

endplate

What you do is visit your doctor and they will put your child onto the public system for an Ophthalmologist to examine your child's eyes. This is free on the public system until the child turns 16. The waiting list can be quite a while in some cases so what some parents do is get the child tested privately in a regular Optician (as your child is 9 she will be able to communicate well with the Optician) or with an Ophthalmologist which can be in or around the €100 mark.

After usually about a year, your child is called to go on the public system and she is due their next eyetest as well.

You don't have to go privately for the first eyetest if you happy to wait it's something parents decide to do themselves.

Foggles

Go to your GP and have your child put on the waiting list for the public system where your your child will be seen by an ophthalmic medical practitioner and not usually an ophthalmologist.

An optometrist is certainly capable and qualified of doing a full eye exam on your child. Optometrists are trained to examine children as young as 6months however not all are comfortable with this age group.
9yrs is an old child from an optical perspective.

Don't wait to long to have your childs eyes examined though as the less a child can see the harder it is to learn.