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.

I had a lazy eye from a squint which was operated on but I’m almost blind in that eye. It’s never bothered me except when my usable eye was patched, leaving me unable to see at all. I think this was cruel and it did no good at all.

Almond that's awful. I feel absolutely terrible making ds wear his patch and he's really struggling with it. Did the surgery result in the loss of your sight? (obviously feel free to tell me to mind my own business)

You have until around 7 to try and fix the squint so it's really important to follow glasses and patching advice etc.

Definitely absolutely get a spare pair or what will happen is you'll have a small battle to get him to wear glasses, eventually he'll settle to wearing them, then the pair will break and you have to wait a week for the pair to be replaced and then start the cycle again trying to get him to wear them!!

When he's starting to wear them - TV and tablet time is a great lure (with you sat next to the remote, glasses off, click, TV off)

Or small fine finger work, e.g. a plate of chocolate buttons. Busy hands will stop him taking off the glasses and he'll learn that they're helping.

My 4 year old has to wear glasses.
I noticed a squint when he was three, so we got a hospital referral.
Ironically, by the time it arrived his squint had almost gone but they did spot that the eye was weak.
He then had to have the drops. I gave him a lollipop to suck whilst I put them in which helped.

He turns out to be quite long sighted. They took a picture of the retina in his bad eye with one of the big machines which he actually found quite exciting and we're seeing a consultant soon who will go through the results.
It took him a week to get used to the glasses. We went to Specsavers and he has a Lightning McQueen pair and a Minions pair. He realised he could see better with them, and he also falls over a lot less!

Hi,
I hope you don’t mind me jumping on this discussion. My son has astigmatisms of 4 in both eyes, is it common for this to get worse? He is only 4 years old and Google isn’t helping 😢 He is slightly longsighted in one (0.25) and shortsighted in the other (0.5). It’s so difficult to get any ‘answers out of anyone, all they say when they see his prescription is ‘oh, that’s strong’ which doesn’t help the stress or worry 😢😢

My DD wore them at about 10 months, and yes we got through a lot of pairs! - get a glasses mending kit with wee screwdriver and tiny screws - it will save a lot of trips to the optician. She once "buttered" them and wondered why she could not see where she was going!

Those of you that have severe astigmatisms, what is your prescription for it? Did the astigmatism get worse as you got older? Trying not to worry about my son 🙈

My twins got their glasses around 3. I was really pleasantly surprised how well they did wearing them. I think they do see an immediate improvement in the world around them.

I have one eye at -4 and one eye at -5. I can't remember my prescription as a child and whether it has worsened or not. I hated my patch with a vengeance though.

Tomato glasses are like nano frames- superlight and virtually unbreakable. Not the cheapest but well worth it for glasses wearing compliance.

Oh and breakage will happen- that's kids for you. Having 2 kids wearing glasses from quite early on as both myself and the 2 kids are vvvvv longsighted means I know the staff in the local opticians by name.

Thank you for replying, I realised after I posted that this was from last year! I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what is your vision like without your glasses with the astigmatisms you have? No one in the family has eyes like him and every one keeps saying it’s v severe but I have no idea what that means 🙈 He also keeps taking them off to play outside so I wonder why he does that if his vision is that much improved by glasses?
(Apologies for going on, I also have a 6 wk old baby so hormones and overthinking like crazy!!)

My dd's sight was improved with a patch. She has worn glasses since she was 18 months old (now 15) due to long sight. Her sight in her left eye was worse than in the right so the right eye got patched to force the left eye to work. She also got a squint OP when she was 3 as she still squinted with her glasses on

My son started wearing them at 12-months. The dr said the youngest patient was 8-months. My son would throw them as soon as you placed them on his face. Eventually the lightbulb went on one day and he realized that he could see with them on. Give it time

Actually my son is now 4 and his prescription for astigmatism has actually improved as his eye shape has grown.

I had it explained to me that astigmatism is a curvature rather than the magnifying aspect. So if you imagine trying to see through a curved magnifying glass (rather than say, something zoomed in.) Its very disorienting when walking and moving around or looking all around. But easier with fine motor detail or screen watching to get used to.

As I said from last year! If you can get them used to the glasses feel on the face when it's slightly easier to wear them when they have steady vision in a concentrated direction they will eventually (slowly) get used to wearing them full time.

The only way I can describe it is the edges of everything I look at seem to blur together. There is no defined lines.
Mine has definitely got worse as I’ve gotten older (was discovered at 11/12, now 35) but I was never been told it was “severe” in the beginning. I don’t know my prescription, I’d have to dig out my most recent paperwork

@Sarell An astigmatism of 4 is very severe, especially as he's not very long or short sighted. Mine is around that but I have -10 short sightedness and an underlying connective tissue disease which causes my eye balls to be quite "squishy". I've always had quite bad astigmatism, but it has got really bad in tandem with my myopia, iyswim. On its own I would find it quite alarming, especially with no "reason". However, I'm not an expert; just someone with crappy eyes. Have you been to see the eye hospital?

We found out at the eye test referral from reception tests. They didn’t really say much about it. I don’t know if it’s good or bad he’s not very short/longsighted with it 😢 I imagine that will happen in time. I can’t seem to find anyone else who has such a bad astigmatism at such a young age 😞

My almost 4 year old son has a similar astigmatism, and he is just +0.75 for long sight in each eye so astigmatism is the main problem.
The most important thing is that the prescription is roughly equal in each eye - is that the case? Otherwise one could be at risk of turning in/being lazy because it's weaker. If they're similar prescriptions for astigmatism then he just needs to wear glasses and that's it. It may change a bit as his eyes grow with age but he will probably be astigmatic for life. If that's the case it's only a refractive error so he could have laser eye surgery if he wanted.

Embrace it - there are some brilliant frames out there for little ones now and loads of kids are in glasses. The screening programme is there to help identify issues and you can rest assured that now your son can see properly with glasses on then he will be able to learn and thrive properly in school.

She once "buttered" them and wondered why she could not see where she was going!

My DS once covered his in green play doh in the hope that he would 'see in green'. He Couldn't really figure out why that wasn't the case

The astigmatism is exactly the same in each eye but one is slightly long sighted and the other is slightly short.

It’s worrying that everyone thinks it’s really rare for it to be so bad 🙈 He does wear glasses now. Just hoping it doesn’t get worse 😢

The astigmatism is exactly the same in each eye

Well that's great, exactly what you want. I can assure you that your level of worry isn't necessary. I say this is a mum of a boy with a similar thing and a family history of astigmatism. It is less usual for astigmatism to be the only or main issue, but that doesn't make it a problem.
It is only a refractive error - there are many many children with large degrees of long sight or short sight which are also just refractive errors. Pop him in glasses, let him choose nice ones and stop worrying - it is normal and there are much much worse eye issues. Glasses are a modern wonder!

I guess there is so much information out there about long and short sighted children that you worry when there isn’t much. Convinced myself he had Keratoconus and would need cornea transplants (in the middle of the night whilst on google feeding the newborn) 🙈🙈🙈

Keratoconus gets really bad (much worse than 4, like 10 or 11), really quickly. How often is he being seen? If they see him in 6 months or a year and he's still about the same then it's not keratoconus.

They said every 12 months with the orthoptist every three. I guess I’m just looking for reassurance that no one can give 🙈 First orthoptist appt in 2 weeks.

Why is he being seen by orthoptics?