In a video posted to Instagram on Nov. 13 with over 3.8 million views, a little girl is given a pair of glasses for the first time. Before she puts the glasses on, she’s zoned out, not focusing on anything. Once she puts them on, she smiles and looks around at her family.
The video is captioned, “This is adorable 🥰 (Jennah Walker via Viralhog).”
How do doctors know a baby’s eye level at this age?
Doctors use Teller Acuity Card tests to determine glasses prescriptions. They show the baby large cards with half of it blank, and half with black and white stripes. Since stripes are more interesting to look at, the baby will look at that half of the card.
“If your child can see the lines clearly enough, they’ll prefer to look at that square,” For Little Eyes explains. “However, if a child’s vision is blurry, the lines blur together at some point and the square will be the same shade of grey as the rest of the card and they won’t look at the square.”
The test continues until the baby stops looking at the striped square.
How do you know if your baby needs glasses?
Though you can’t know for sure if your baby needs glasses without an examination, there are signs that indicate they do. Johns Hopkins Medicine describes the following behaviors as signs your baby or child may need glasses:
- Squinting.
- Tilting their head/covering one eye.
- Sitting close to screens or holding phones or tablets close to the eyes.
- Excessive eye rubbing.
- Headaches and eye pain.
- Difficulty concentrating.