astigmatism and wearing glasses in young child

[tomhazard]

I've just been to the opticians with DS age just over 3. I suspected a squint but it turns out that his eye is becoming lazy due to a pretty bad astigmatism in his left eye, and a more mild one in the right. He is also short sighted. The optician would like to do more tests in a few weeks with eye drops of some sort to make a more accurate diagnosis and then very likely issue DS with glasses.
Now, my main worry here is 2 things:

1. will this astigmatism likely get worse or do they stay the same? Will it have any effect on his life other than wearing glasses?

2. how the heck do you get a 3 year old to wear glasses?! Do you have to buy a zillion pairs because of loss and breakage common to this age group?

DH and I are both short sighted but didn't come on until our teens, and neither of us have astigmatism so it's a bit new for us. Thanks for any experiences.

DD1 is now 7 and has been wearing glasses since she was 3. She was surprisingly good at wearing them, possibly helped by the fact that they had Peppa Pig on (various other characters are also available). I think we offered a bribe of a new toy for wearing them the first week, but after that she just got on with it. This might depend on the personality of your child though. I can't imagine DD2, who is now 3, doing the same and being so reasonable about it. We go to Vision Express, and they offer buy one get one free on children's glasses (other opticians might do the same), so you have a spare pair in case one is lost or broken. DC wears the spare pair while waiting for the others to be mended or replaced/ found if lost.
DD doesn't have astigmatism so can't answer your first point.
Do you and your DH wear glasses? That might help with persuading your DS to wear them, saying 'wow, you are such a big boy, you can wear glasses like me and Daddy' or something like that. My DD liked the fact that she had glasses like her Daddy.

Hmmm he is relatively reasonable but could go either way in his response!
DH has had laser eye surgery and I wear contacts but I do wear my glasses sometimes and I will wear them when he gets his so we can be the same.

Character glasses are a good idea he might like that if we can find some. Thanks

We go to Specsavers who give two pairs for free. DD has worn glasses since she was 4 and weve had a few breakages so was handy to have a second pair. These days she's far less likely to break them so gets sunglasses as her second pair.

My DD is long sighted with a squint and has been wearing glasses since she was 20 months. It wasn't easy keeping them on at first, for the first few days she took them off almost non stop and we just had to keep putting them back on. Within a couple of weeks she was completely used to them and had no further issues. You can get an elastic to put on them to keep them on if they are playing sport or for generally running around. I would recommend getting a second pair but they learn very quickly that they have to take care of their glasses. Once your ds realises that he can see better with them on it will help too. My DD loves her glasses and lots of her friends in school have them now too.

Dd got hers at 18 months. She wore them well because she could see so much more clearly!
The drops let them see what is going on more easily - they make his eyes v sensitive to light, so a cap or a sun shade on his buggy may be needed outside until they wear off. Dd had a v lazy eye and was patched. She hated it but it helped. She did wreck a few pairs but our optician was v patient and v accommodating at quick repairs at short notice.

I have an astigmatism in both eyes and apart from not being able to wear contacts I can't think of anything that's effected by it. Contacts can be used with some astigmatisms but mine is too servere.

She wore them well because she could see so much more clearly

This is what I'm hoping for - that the difference it makes will mean he wants to keep them on.

I'm a bit worried about the eye drop thing - he said it would leave him blurry visioned for the day so I'll make the appointment for tea time ish so he's not got to put up with it for too long before bed!

5 year old DD is currently furious that her vision was fine and she won't be getting glasses

Bluebelltulip have you had this severity since you were a child? DS is apparently quite severe in one eye but I'm not sure how bad yet

1, Astigmastism is basically just being more long or short sighted across one bit of the eye than the opposite bit. In older children/teens it is can be an indication of a condition called keratoconus, but in 3 year olds it's usually just part of being long or short-sighted, so it won't have any bearing on his life at all apart from the glasses.
It can change.

2, I'm an optometrist, but I found that my daughter needed glasses at a similar age. I said things like "oh we can't watch Peppa Pig/Paw Patrol without your glasses, let's go and put them on." Or "we need to get your glasses first before playing with the play doh" etc...
They soon adapt and just get used to putting them on first thing in the morning.

You do need two pairs as they will get broken. Optician can usually just get them replaced/repaired under the NHS.

Tbh my sight in my worse astigmatism eye is also my most long sighted eye, overall my sight has varied but I don't think it's significantly changed since I was small.

My youngest has this, he got his glasses at 3 - I was worried about how I would get such a strong willed child to wear glasses, but once he had them, they made such a difference to him that no incentive was required.

You may find they will do patching, we struggled with this (DS was meant to wear a patch on one eye to improve the eye with the astigmatism) and in a relatively short time, it got worse, so he is now on atropine drops, and in a relatively short time it has improved.

I think they have up until they're 8 years to improve it via patching/drops, else may be operation, we visit the eye clinic at the children's hospital every 3 months for a review.

We were going to go to specsavers, but wound up going to our local optician and paying for Nano frames - they are virtually indestructible, have a bit of bend/give in them and are quite funky - they aren't cheap but (touchwood) we haven't had to have any repairs yet, and that's coming up to a year of glasses - although we paid for the frames, in every other way they are treated as NHS glasses, so free lenses, repairs, etc.

My eldest was also furious at not getting glasses.

nano-vista.com/en/content/5-nano-optical

Thanks Anonymumm that's super helpful I'll look into Nano glasses when we get to the choosing point. I hope he's like all the dc on this thread and is happy with them once he can see better!

My ds started wearing glasses at 3 (almost 4 though )and has always been really good at wearing them. We let him chose his own and he took to them really well. He was referred to an optometrist and now needs a patch and has a new prescription and we're struggling more. He hates the patch and he seems much more tired since the change in glasses but just wearing them is fine. He had his about 2 months before the first breakage but non in the 7 months since then.

I started to wear glasses at 4 and I am now nearly 40. My eyes have got significantly worse as I’ve got older - I have severe short sight (-9.50 both eyes and severe astigmatism) but it doesn’t impact on my life any more than it did when I was younger. I wear contact lenses daily and glasses in the evenings.

If your child is anything like me the first time I put my glasses on (aged 4 as I sat on a swing in my garden) I was so amazed I could see everything I never wanted to take them off! It was incredible. Even now I can remember it so well- it was like magic!

As you get older and you have very poor sight like me there’s a very slim chance of retinal detachment (which the optician tells you signs to watch out for) but it’s very rare and repairable if caught early enough.

you get bendy ones and if necessary the swim glasses holders - like a neoprene tube - to attach around his head until he gets used to it. I wore glasses from age of about 3 too as did my daughter. Its just the way of things. You get used to it.

My Dad at 70 did just have laser surgery to correct his (at same time as having cataracts sorted) and his were terrible - he now just wears a 1.0 standard supermarket reader for close work - he wishes he had had it done years ago! He always had to pay extra to get things made lighter etc so its cost him a fortune over the years

Kids glasses as well first replacement pair is free (although if you paid a bit more for fancier frames you replay that as well)

DC1 had glasses at 10 months!!!
It really is worth getting glasses sooner rather than later to avoid a permanantly 'lazy eye'.
Be bright & breezy about the drops (they do sting:-() with promise of treat afterwards. Make choosing glasses fun. Glasses soon become just part of their face.

One of my Twins (age 6) has astigmatism in both eyes (though it is equal in both eyes). She has the eye drops before an eye test, they do sting a bit and make their eyes look really weird for a while as they dilate the pupils. It took a good 24 hours for DD's to go back to normal afterwards.
She's been wearing glasses for about 1.5 years and so far only broke them once (and she is quite rough and always falling over).
She has gruffalo ones and some Avengers sunglasses plus a spare pair incase of breakage. We went to specsavers.

Fingers crossed he gets used to them quickly. I think it did help that she could see so much better with them and that i wear glasses too (short sighted only). I felt terrible though as never realised she couldn't see as she was reading and writing completely fine!

DS is long sighted and as he has a really high prescription. When he first got his glasses at 2, he would refuse to wear them and throw them when he was having a tantrum. He soon realised he could see properly when wearing them.

I've had glasses since I was 7, I'm now 50. I have severe astigmatism in both eyes, but can wear glasses or contacts (torics). I'm also very short sighted.

Apart from eyewear, I don't have any other issues.

I did have drops in one eye a few years ago, I had urgent laser surgery to repair a torn retina. No lasting issue there, apart from mildly freaking out DD as I had one giant pupil and one normal one.

If your child is anything like me the first time I put my glasses on (aged 4 as I sat on a swing in my garden) I was so amazed I could see everything I never wanted to take them off! It was incredible. Even now I can remember it so well- it was like magic!

Ah that's lovely - I hope it'll be like that for him. The optician said his eye sight will have been pretty fuzzy forever so I'm really excited that he will see the world in better definition! Hopefully he will agree...

Thanks all for your reassurances

My dd started wearing glasses from 4. She's got astigmatism in one eye and one eye is extremely short sighted (-14.75) and the other a touch long sighted (+0.75) which is rather shit.
They tried patching as they thought her retina was detached as sight so poor in one eye. It failed.
She was an absolute star from the beginning though.
We used to get full strength lens thinned for the bad eye (but made one eye look bigger than the other🙄)
Now, there is no point giving high index lens for the bad eye, it just doesn't work right.
So we get a standard index lens for bad eye and correct one for good eye and she relies primarily on the good eye.
I'm secretly gutted as i wanted to sign her up for karate, gymnastics but was advised not to risk her good eye.
However, she just gets on with life like any nearly 12 y.o does.
I wear glasses and lenses with v. Short sight (-9.0)and astigmatism.

Our DD2 was diagnosed with a bilateral squint at just over 2 years old, and needed to wear glasses from that time on. At the time we didn't realise she was also on the autism spectrum, so she didn't properly understand why she had to wear them and tended to take them off and casually drop them when out and about in her pushchair.

DH found a glasses-cord he'd got from a Christmas cracker a couple of years earlier and put them on that, so whenever she discarded them they were at least still hanging around her neck. They made her look like a miniature professor. She got so many admiring comments from passers-by that she soon started wearing her glasses full-time quite happily.

There's a great group on Facebook called Kids in Specs UK that you might find useful they're a very helpful bunch!

Oh thanks pashazade I'll take a look at that!

If your child is anything like me the first time I put my glasses on (aged 4 as I sat on a swing in my garden) I was so amazed I could see everything I never wanted to take them off! It was incredible. Even now I can remember it so well- it was like magic!

Exactly the same reaction I had. I can still remember it.