Does your child hate going to the doctor? At Optiko, we understand that for a kid, an eye exam can be a scary experience. We want your child’s first comprehensive eye exam to be a positive one, because vision is important to your child’s development, and we know how important that is to you!

Alberta Health Care covers annual children’s eye exams for kids under 18, so your family won’t have to worry about paying out of pocket for these important appointments. Our pediatric optometrists have extensive clinical knowledge of children’s vision and offer age-appropriate care. We can do comprehensive eye exams for all ages, including infants and toddlers.

A children’s eye exam shouldn’t be a stressful experience. Your child deserves kind and compassionate care – and that’s exactly what you’ll get at Optiko. We are here for you and your family and have two convenient locations in Calgary AB: one is located in Market Mall and our other Calgary vision centre is inside Sunridge Mall.

When Should My Child Have an Eye Exam?

According to the Alberta Association of Optometrists, children should have their first children’s eye exam between the ages of six to nine months, and then another exam between the two and five. After that, they should be examined annually.

If you notice your child squints or rubs their eyes a lot, it could also be a sign that you should bring them in for an eye check sooner rather than later. If they’re having trouble seeing the board at school or are having trouble reading, then it’s definitely time to get them in for an eye exam.

Remember, the Alberta Health Care Plan covers all annual comprehensive eye evaluations for children under 18, so you’ll never have to worry about getting your child the eye care they need!

In Alberta, 25 % of children begin grade one with an undiagnosed vision or eye health problem, which can drastically interfere with their ability to learn during their first critical years in school. Routine vision screening is essential to monitoring proper eye health development and identifying problems before they become serious. Eyesight is an essential part of your child’s physical development and poor vision can result in poor performance at school and even a loss of interest in learning.

It is crucial to have your child’s vision tested regularly. Pediatric eye exams identify vision issues early, allowing you and your doctor time to correct any problems that may arise. Our service offers early detection so that we can find and correct visual problems in their early stages – before they get worse.

For example, a pediatric eye exam can help detect lazy eye (amblyopia), which can cause permanent loss of depth perception and even double vision if left untreated. If your child has a lazy eye and it is caught early, it can be treated with vision therapy which helps train both eyes so they work together as a team and strengthen the weak eye until it can see as well as the other one does.

Book a pediatric comprehensive eye exam with us today to ensure your child has the necessary visual skills needed for school success!

As the parent of a child who is going through the eye exam process, you may be feeling some trepidation yourself. We get it. It’s not easy to watch your child go through something that you know is scary for them, especially when all you want to do is protect them.

But here’s the thing: we are here to help. Our experienced team works diligently to ensure your child has a positive experience during their eye exam. Our staff will do everything they can to make sure your child feels at ease, and that nothing about the exam is scary. We want your child to love coming in for an eye exam!

When you bring your child in for a vision assessment, our team will take a fun and imaginative approach to our testing procedures. We’ll use age-appropriate instruments, games, and toys to help us assess their eye health and are committed to providing them with accurate and healthy vision.

We’ll start by doing an external eye health evaluation, checking for any growths, infections, drooping of eyelids, lazy eye, or excessive watering. We’ll also measure their visual acuity and evaluate any potential problems like dry eyes, which can be caused by allergies or environmental factors. This is important in revealing potential vision problems before they occur.

We’ll also examine the blood vessels around their retina and take a family history, which helps us figure out the optimal solution for your child’s vision. This may mean prescribing glasses, contacts, or other types of corrective vision aids depending on what is best suited for them.

Our testing procedures are kid-friendly and designed to keep our young patients from getting bored or anxious during their appointment time with us. And if they’re ever worried about something during our visit together, we’ll do everything we can to put them at ease and assure them everything will be okay!

Aside from getting your child’s eyes examined, we also offer many other services! We have a selection of brightly colored frames, including those with fun designs so that your child can look their best. If your kids play sports, we have a selection of sports goggles and protective eye gear for them too. We can also teach your child how to insert contact lenses as well as proper contact lens hygiene.

We offer all the services you need to keep your entire family’s eyes healthy: prescription glasses, contact lenses and contact lens fitting, diagnostic and digital imaging, laser vision correction surgery consults, dry eye management, monitoring for retinal diseases, and much more!

At Optiko, we strive to provide Calgary optometry solutions – that’s why we offer so many different services in our office: so that you can get everything done at once without having to go anywhere else!