Yep. 50 cents. I’ll show you how.
Buy a Snickers candy bar for 50 cents. DO NOT SHOW YOUR CHILD WHAT IT IS. Now, when your child is out of the room, place the Snickers bar on a table, about 20 feet or more of where your child will enter the room. Have the child enter. Point to the table and say, “What’s that?” If the child says, “Can I have it?” your child’s vision is JUST FINE.
That worked for me for years.
I recently saw some fancy gadget online for testing kids’ eyes, and it struck me as a little extravagant. Sure, there are times when fancy gadgets are needed. But then again, there are time when they are definitely not needed. Why spend more than you have to?
My daughter has incredible vision- 20/15, actually. Then this year and last year, she was given 20/20 vision by the eye doctor. And he recommended GLASSES! For all my kids, whether they needed them or not, the eye doctors always recommended glasses. They’d even try to wheedle my kids into getting prescription sunglasses, just as long as they have SOME kind of prescription to them! Holy cow, if the kid’s vision is fine, why fool with it? Glasses can make your eyes lazy. Plus, the eye glasses is where the money is made, not with the exams. :-p I never liked doctors and some of them sure don’t inspire me much, either.
P.S. Hm, I think eye doctors should be required by the FTC to inform me of when their recommendations come as “sponsored posts”! How about you?!
6. July 2009 at 6:47 pm
I worked for an eye doctor for a year - most of his patients were kids on medicaid and not once, did a kid NOT get a prescription - they make the money off the eye-exam (not much) and the frames. The frames are the BIG money maker - you know those D&G, Versace, or Chanel frames that you pay 100s for, they get for about $50 bucks - the frames for the medicaid patients they get for under $5 and then send it into medicaid at $49 - what a rip-off!
6. July 2009 at 9:42 pm
Thanks for posting this and thanks, Sheila, for leaving that comment. From time to time I’ve thought about having my kids’ vision tested since I wear glasses myself. I’ve printed off eye charts from the internet and have had them do those (they pass with flying colors), but I’ve occasionally wondered if I should take them to an optometrist. It never occurred to me that the eye doctor would write them a prescription for glasses even if their vision was good. They are actually on Medicaid, and it doesn’t surprise me that kids on Medicaid received more prescriptions than kids with private insurance or no insurance at all. It just never crossed my mind that kids with perfect vision would get glasses prescriptions - what a… what a… I don’t even know what to call it! What a travesty!
Looks like we’ll be avoiding the optometrist just like we avoid the family doctor.
6. July 2009 at 9:46 pm
I love the .50 eye exam… This made my day. I’m going to have to try it.
My youngest has been suffering from migraines for the last 9 months. At first, I thought maybe it was her vision… but, that didn’t turn out to be the case…
Thanks for sharing
Tiff
7. July 2009 at 1:23 am
Hahahahhahahhaha … I just had to let you know that I love reading your stuff. I too was made to wear glasses at much too young an age when I really didn’t need them. In fact, I was dizzy most of the time but I was told that I just needed to get used to them. The saddest thing is that the optometrist was a trusted family friend. Go figure.
7. July 2009 at 3:15 pm
Absolutely love the 50cent eye exam. Totally frugal. And as accurate as the equivalent hearing test of opening a bag/packet of something yummy. If they hear that, but don’t hear “please put the garbage out”, it proves they are not deaf, just selectively hard of hearing!