How often should I bring my child to the eye doctor for a check-up? Can it not be done by the optician? After all, he does not charge me for the eye examination! No ratings yet.

If the change in numbers is slow and steady, once a year may be sufficient. However, if the child has visual complaints or headaches, it means the numbers have changed and the child may need to be taken for a checkup oftener, Remember, the optician can only check for numbers –he is not qualified to examine the retina, which the eye doctor will do at every visit. Also, many opticians rely on fancy “computer” machines to prescribe glasses in children. These suffer from many inadequacies in children and are not a substitute for the old fashioned manual examination that most eye doctors will carry out.