To put 5 year old through operation solely so they don't have to wear glasses?

[blueby7]

5 year old wears glasses, she has an issue with her eyes where she needs them for correction but not for eyesight.
Specialist has said will need an op on both eyes but not sure when.
She hates wearing glasses.
I'm wondering if it is wrong to get the operation solely for the purpose of not having to wear glasses anymore?
The operation isn't major but it is on both eyes and eye health scares me as they are so important and delicate.

My stance on it is, specialist has said that she needs an op, so she needs an op. I generally trust medical professionals to know more than me and have the patient’s best interests at heart. So it wouldn’t just be because your daughter “hates wearing glasses”.

Get the op. My two always hated their glasses and would have jumped at it if a surgery meant the wouldn’t need to.

If a specialist has told you she needs an operation, then it’s not trivial or optional, surely? Plus, why wouldn’t you give your child the best chance of good eyesight?

What is the op, eye operations generally are very low impact compared to other operations.

I had to have keyhole surgery done on mine while I was awake, it was completely painless, had to wear a patch for 24 hrs but then just drops a few tips a day. Had 3 stitches in my eyeball which felt a bit scratchy when I blinked but didn't hurt at all. There really wasn't 'recovery time' like there is for a surgery elsewhere on your body.

I'm pretty sure they would put a child under general anaesthetic too so she would just go to sleep, wake up with a patch and be done with no pain.

The NHS wouldn’t find surgery if wearing glasses was sufficient. I had corrective eye surgery one eye at 13 and the other at 17. So glad I did as it corrected my vision and have had no issues since - now in my 40s.

I would get the surgery when the specialist says is the best time for the surgery to get the most successful outcome.

The doctor said she needs surgery, so it’s not just because doesn’t like glasses? If she needs it she needs it.

By ‘correction’ what do you mean? Does she have a lazy eye/squint? If so, she may lose the sight in that eye completely if she doesn’t have surgery as a young child. It’s not trivial. I had this operation when I was six years old.

You won't get any decent advice without saying what kind of operation this is.

Mixed bag of thoughts from me, being that I have bad eyesight, and if i'd had to wear glasses as a child, i'd have taken the operation in a heartbeat for quality of life (outdoor activities, gymnastics etc). On the flip side, do your research carefully. I don't doubt that the surgery will have a "fail rate", they all usually do. Check to see how long the history of this surgery has been done for. I know some doctors inwho said 10 years ago that they would never get laser eye surgery as it was still in its youth and had not been around more than 15 or so years, so there was no way to know how it will affect people in 30+ years. I now know colleagues who got laser many years ago, and it has gone wrong 15+ years later, and they are back in contacts, but likely would have done it again as i'm sure the 15 years contact/glasses free was worth it to them. Personally, I am now ok not doing it, though being young is never easy and I can understand why you would think of this.

My grand daughter has that operation it was fine she was perfectly ok a few hours later and it straightened her squint. However having said that she does still have to wear glasses

“but not sure when”

This doesn’t necessarily mean you could choose to have the op now. There may be benefits in waiting. Eyes change a lot as children grow. I would ask the specialist what is likely to be the best age to have the op, in terms of safety and best results.

I would. I've recently had eye surgery to correct a lifelong squint at the age of 40 - the severity wasn't picked up until the last few years as I've had excellent control over it. But the side effects including when driving and doing my computer based job were huge. It's been very difficult to concentrate over the years on studying, work etc. And with driving I had very little awareness of gaps/distance etc. walking into a busy unfamiliar shop could feel so overwhelming because I couldn't get a good grasp on where people and things were in relation to me, that I often had to leave again.
Having the surgery later in life has left me with permanent double vision which is only now resolving a year later and still persists when I look to one side. So although I'm finally better off in a lot of ways it still prevents me from driving safely. And it's a real pain to keep things in single focus when moving around. I think from what the medical professionals have said I would have had a quicker recovery if this was done when I was younger. I wish someone had picked up on the severity a lot sooner.
The recovery from the op itself however was fine. I needed a week off work but that was mostly due to the severity of the double vision initially. Overall I would still choose to have it done again.

Squint? One of my dc had operation, he had to wait ages until he had double vision. His squint got worse over time. I wouldn't hesitate about having surgery

If its a squint then having it done as young as possible is the best option. Leave it too long it doesn't take as well. I was 4 when I had mine done and still have to wear glasses for other conditions but no squint.

My child had an operation on a divergent eye when he was 7 stopped wearing glasses after. All fine quick recovery.

I'm guessing it's for a cosmetic squint ..instead of glasses .

Thanks so much for the replies. Sorry I should have clarified!
Yes it's a severe strabismus/squint in both eyes.
At the moment DC is managing it themselves and the specialist has said that they won't be able to maintain it so it will eventually need surgery once the eyes turn permanently. But they have no time scale as to when that will happen.
So we've been given the choice to sort or pre empt it and do it now, or to wait until it becomes an issue, ie constant double vision/headaches

@oobladay thank you so so much for this insight. What you have described sounds exactly like what my child is experiencing.
Double vision but only when ill/tired.
Severe squint in both eyes but only picked up after a very bad illness when they couldn't control it anymore so we would never have known about it as they were controlling it.
It's really amazing to hear an adult explain what they've been going through. Thank you

But it's not so she doesn't have to wear glasses, it's to correct her eyes, the benefit also being no need for the glasses!

She’s going to be a lot better having it now than waiting till she’s having blinding headaches and it’s urgent.

I believe it’s a straight forward operation on the muscles either side of the eye so it’s not actually the eye ball bit itself.

Sounds like what my son had.

I'd do it after weighing up the risks. For the convenience of not needing glasses, but also kids are cruel and tease

Cannot thank people enough for replies. I haven't really had anyone to talk to with any experience of these kinds of things.

What I mean is that at the moment she is managing it by wearing glasses. The glasses on the most part alleviate the squint.
So at present if we went ahead with the operation I would feel like it was so she didn't have to wear glasses which I was questioning whether that was a good enough reason for a surgery on both eyes.

Having read the responses I am thinking that maybe it is. Especially the PP who mentioned it being better now than to wait until the middle of headaches or prolonged double vision.

It sounds like there is a positive quality of life impact here rather than just a vanity reason. In which case, I would be led by when the specialist thinks makes the most sense.