This special clinic will be at the Kentucky Lions Eye Center (KLEC) location, 301 E. Muhammad Ali Blvd. at Floyd Street. Free parking is available in the KLEC parking lot next to the building.
Appointments can be made in advance by calling 502-852-7818. The Pediatric Eye Clinic at UofL sees patients from birth to age 18 and accepts major forms of insurance.
“We know this time of year is extremely busy for parents, so we scheduled this Saturday clinic to give them more convenience in taking care of their children’s eye exam,” said Rahul Bhola, director of pediatric ophthalmology.
“All preschool children, even those without noticeable eye problems, should have at least one vision screening or comprehensive eye exam before the age of five,” Bhola said. “After age five, every child should have an annual eye exam, and conducting it prior to the start of the school year can help us discover and treat problems before they interfere with the child’s ability to learn.”
In Kentucky, 15 to 20 percent of children have some sort of vision problem, and most of these go undetected. Children with impaired vision often feel that this is the way they are supposed to see. It is thus important for parents and teachers to look for signs of visual impairment.
To help parents, Bhola offers eight signs that can signal a child has a vision problem:
- An eye appears to be misaligned, either crossed or drifting outward
- Squinting, closing or covering one eye
- Rubbing one or both eyes excessively
- Headache, nausea or dizziness with visual tasks
- Excessive or unusual clumsiness
- Tilting the head to one side
- One or both eyelids droop downward
- A sibling or other close family member has lazy eye or other eye problems
The Pediatric Eye Clinic is part of UofL’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Kentucky Lions Eye Center which have been at the forefront of research, clinical care and education of the next generation of leaders in the field of vision medicine.