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I will add my son to the plan for 2014, he will be 3. I could have done it last year, but in all honesty, I didn't pay close enough attention and I didn't realize my husband didn't include our son in our dental plan.

As for vision, our policy is primarily for corrective lenses/glasses, as something like an eye infection would be covered under our regular health insurance, so I am still undecided.

We're at enrollment time too. I didn't end up adding LO onto dental since he's not getting regular exams at a year old. It seems like everyone adds LO to dental at 2 years old or so.

Our dentist recommended bringing LO for a visit between 12-15 months so he could get used to the idea of the dentist. We were going to pay out of pocket for the visit because we though it would be cheaper than adding him to our plan (monthly premium x 12), but we were able to add him at no additional cost.

DH wears contacts, and is the only one who has vision coverage. Since my oldest and I don't need glasses, it's cheaper for us to have annual exams and pay out of pocket for them. We will go the same route with LO. If anything should ever change, we can/will add on to husband's vision plan.

Our dentist says to start bringing them at 3.

I added DS this year (he is 13 months) to my dental plan but not vision.

Our regular dentist takes a look in LO's mouth for problems when I have my cleaning and the hygienist does a polish. They charge me $5 for him in addition to the price of my cleaning, which seems very generous to me, but my dentist is awesome and we pay out-of-pocket for everything. We've been doing this since he was 2, but I've taken him along to all my cleanings, so he kind of knows the drill.

The optometrist said unless I had specific concerns (squinting, cocking head, etc.), to bring him when he was about 5 years old. I pay him out of pocket, too.

So, the grand total for LO (age 3) has been around $10/year.

LO has her own insurance which includes dental and vision. If not I would be adding her at the beginning of the year during open enrollment. I want her first dental appointment to be by two.

We're in open-enrollment right now and I hadn't even thought about this! M is on our health insurance but I'll have to check on the dental and vision. Thanks!

@birdofafeather: I totally agree.

Personally, I buy insurance to protect my family against financial devastation in the event of catastrophe. I don't want to be homeless and/or bankrupt if we have something really expensive and unexpected occur. We save for small emergencies; insurance should handle the big ones. The dental and vision plans I've seen are essentially prepayment plans for routine expenses and really expensive ones at that (expensive both in dollar costs and time costs for submitting claims).

I would cover dental right away, I hear of kids having teeth accidents all the time. Also, I recently asked the dentist at what age we should bring in DS, and they said as soon as he has teeth! I still haven't done it though and he is almost 3! Ooops....

Luckily for us, everything is covered under our insurance, so we don't have to worry about enrolling for extra dental and vision plans.