Any opticians? DS aged 2 has +6.5 prescription

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Hi 👋🏼 Are there any opticians/optometrists on here that can give me an honest opinion on how bad my 2.5 year old’s vision is please?

High Street opticians used the dilating eye drops and said his prescription was +6.50. He has been prescribed glasses (although not the full prescription) which he took to instantly which I guess shows how bad his vision is/was. He has now been referred to the eye hospital for monitoring although we are still waiting to receive an appointment.

I’m just wondering how severe a +6.50 prescription is for a 2.5 year old? I did ask the optometrist but they weren’t particularly forthcoming. I will ask the eye hospital when we get the appointment but not sure how long that will be. He has a speech delay but now nursery are saying he is behind in other areas too and I’m wondering if it’s vision that has contributed to this developmental delay or if it’s something else.

Thank you.

My youngest niece was found to be long sighted at about 3 (I think her prescription was more than yours). She'd seemed physically delayed compared to her siblings (walked later, less inclined to climb and explore), and her progress once she had her glasses was notable.

I hope your son does really well from here.

It's a pretty high prescription. Is it the same in both eyes? Probably looking at long term glasses use. My dd had one eye at +6 and one at +4 from 18 months old and still has glasses now at age 21.

She was under orthoptist care at the local hospital until age 7/8ish and then she got discharged to a local optician instead.

Being long sighted means he could find it harder to focus on things that are close up so reading/writing could be impacted. Hopefully having the glasses will help

@dementedpixie yes same in both eyes and no sign of a squint. He’s had the glasses for a couple of months and have seen an improvement in him socially, so just hoping he starts to catch up in other areas soon.

My DD had glasses from 3. 6.5 and 4.0 plus. We only knew about the vision problems when we developed a squint overnight after having a virus (slapped cheek I think). She was clumsy but still is with glasses, she’s probably dyspraxic (according to the person who diagnosed dyslexia). She was at the eye hospital until age 9 ish. No one ever commented on the strength of her prescription apart from needing lenses thinned to fit in child frames and not be too heavy. She’s 14 and mainly in contacts now.

DD has a prescription of 8.75/9.25 We noticed a squint when she was really just a baby when she'd go cross eyed when looking at her own hands. She had pretty high strength glasses by the time she was two and now she's a teen with a stable prescription.

One of the first things I asked was had she been seeing everything in blur but I was told no, it would take her longer to focus on things, but she would still be seeing things clearly. Her glasses mean she doesn't have to work hard to get things into focus.
Without her glasses now she just says she can see two of everything!

I was about that in the 70s when I was a child. My only option was either the pink or blue NHS specs with lenses like coke bottle bottoms (you'd need to be a certain age to get that reference!)
There are so many lovely options now! One of my dc inherited my myopia and had lovely glasses all through childhood with special thin lenses. As a teen she got contacts and is fine.

My eyesight stopped getting worse when I was about -11 in both eyes plus astigmatism. Eventually when I was about 38 I had laser eye surgery at Moorfields eye hospital at vast expense. That was life changing!
I'm saving up for DD when she's 21/22.

Anyway- it was a bit annoying and made sport harder than it needed to be and swimming was dreadful but other than that both DD and I managed fine!

My dd was a plus 7 age 2. She had a squint but didn’t need patching . She has worn glasses ever since (age 19 now). She had limited vision round the side of her glasses I would say, so had the odd bump on a door frame. This was resolved when she moved to contact lenses in secondary school. She was a bit slow to start reading and writing but caught up. A tad clumsy but all her exams were As in the end. Her speech was good at two.

She had a cousin who was +9 I think at two. Wears contacts and has a professional career now.

I hope this helps. I remember being very worried.

Prescription goggle fir swimming are really good.

my DS is +8.00 and has worn glasses since he was 2. because his prescription was so high, he was under the care of the hospital and they would see him every 3 months, increasing to every 6 months until aged 7-8 when he was discharged from the hospital back to the high street opticians, as his prescription was otherwise stable.

he is 15 now and doing really well. we found a lovely independent opticians who we have been with for years and they know us by name, so he has always felt comfortable going. he used to get upset when he couldn't read the bottom line of the eye chart as he thought he was 'failing' a test, but our lovely optician put him at ease.

we tried him on contacts, but he couldn't get them in his eyes, so we're going to try again in a few months.

It's not that high a prescription in the grand scheme of things. My husband is +12 in one eye and +13 in the other and he's a perfectly functional and very academic adult. He's blind as a bat without glasses, but it's not a problem beyond that.

Just to above poster, we found some opticians no good for finding the right contacts. Boots eventually found the right ones.