Child with long sight, not allowed to drive

[dentydown]

Yes I know it sounds bonkers and he’s not allowed to drive a car anyway because he’s 6. (Bless him, he screwed is face up at me and said “of course I can’t drive I’m a kid”)

My son has been diagnosed with a severe long sightedness and I was told, due to the peripheral vision and eye sight he would not be allowed to drive a car if he was an adult.
Will it get any better? Will he be able to drive when older? He may under go patch therapy soon and is under the hospital, but I am not really getting any possitive answers from the hospital.

The “numbers” are

Visual acuity: r 6/12-2 l6-24/3

Does anyone have any experience in this.

[underneaththeash]

Hi denty - so, if he was an adult with his current visual acuity, then his vision would not be at a level where he was allowed to drive.

But, he is still at an age where his vision could improve, so ensuring that he wears his glasses and that you adhere to any patching regime that has been prescribed will give his visual system the best chance of developing and he may reach driving standard when he is older. He's only just off driving standard and the test is done with both eyes together.

The other issue may be the peripheral vision, being long sighted in itself doesn't usually cause peripheral vision problems. Does he have any other eye problems apart from the long-sightedness?

[Sadie82]

Hiya my daughter also has some eye issues that have been present since she was about 3 months old. She has been patching since she was around 2 and a half....she will be 7 in a few months and recently stopped the patching.
When she was about 5 they told us her eyesight was below driving standard (my dd circumstances mean that glasses wont really bring her eyesight up to standard)
The patching has just about brought her eyesight to above driving standard ( she has also worn glasses for 2 years, but with a tiny prescription) but as you can tell from the length of time she was patching it was a lot of effort, sometimes patching up to 6 hours a day.

Just wondering was this just picked up on recently?
Having seen so many doctors over the years you can often never get a clear answer, but from what I understand...most doctors dont believe there is much benefit in patching much over the age of 7....I think thats why they are probably stopping the patching with my daughter as after 7 the eyesight is much less likely to improve.
Every case is different though so I would really see if there is any chance you can bring his appointment forward to get some clearer answers from the doctors. Good luck x

[dentydown]

Hi,Sadie, yes it has been picked up about 4 months ago. We were doing the annual opticians visit (they wouldn’t test him the year before because he was a week off his fifth birthday) and the optician referee him to the hospital. He has to wear glasses for 4 months then discuss patch therapy.

Hi underneath, it is a peripheral vision issue as well. He is “normal” every other way. Not a prem baby. We have autism in the family.
His sister 18mo got referred because of his eyes and she wears glasses now!

[dentydown]

Underneath thanks you, I was looking for that answer! The hospital were a bit um and ah and not giving me any answer!

[dentydown]

Underneath thank you! I just wanted some information on his because it is worrying me a lot!

[dentydown]

Sadie, thank you for sharing that with me. I feel reassured now!

[Rodders92]

Hi op , his vision is likely to improve as he wears his glasses and if he is highly longsighted that improvement can take several months of glasses wear. Patching/occlusion will be needed if the vision in his left eye remains reduced compared to the right after a period of glasses wear. It can be difficult to test peripheral vision/ the visual field in young children and there would be a reason for reduced peripheral vision s have you been told why they think his peripheral vision is reduced

[Sadie82]

No problem Denty, its great its been found so he has a good chance of improvement. With my daughter they decided that patching a couple of hours a day wasnt enough so gave us a kind of eye drops that blurred the vision in one eye...so thats another possibility.
Do you find he struggles day to day with his vision?
Wishing you the best of luck x