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.

Will they need a general anaesthetic? I only ask because I know a 17 year old who had an operation to pin back his ears as they really stuck out. His Mum gave him the choice and he wanted it done. He had a bad reaction to the anaesthetic and died.

I had this operation aged 7. It was pretty painful and I took about a week to recover, but maybe surgical techniques have improved. Double vision with a bad squint isn’t seeing 2 of everything. Imagine a word with multiple images of it overlapping above below and on each side. Now imagine a whole page of text with that happening to every single word. Very difficult for a child who is learning to read. It also had lifelong effects on my hand-eye coordination as that developed while I had the eye issue. If it was my child I would not hesitate to have the surgery as early as possible.

Don’t forget you are likely to hit waiting lists so if you wait until problems develop then you risk leaving her living with the problems for longer.

personally if the specialist is saying do it then do it!

I had a severe squint in both eyes. I had both eyes operated on when I was 3. I have no recollection and my eyes are now perfectly straight. The only side effects is mild scarring and opticians comment on the fact I have muscle imbalance behind my eyes.

Change her life, get the op.

I have permanent double vision and I’m having to wait to hit the threshold for approval for an operation to correct it. I don’t have a noticeable squint so it’s not for cosmetic reasons, more because without my specs, I’m at risk of a fall.
Double vision places more strain on the eyes - I have had two surgeries to repair retinal tears that have resulted from this extra wear. Those surgeries also increase the risk of developing a cataract.
It gets harder to manage double vision with age and specs with a big prism as I have are very very expensive.
Take the operation.

I had surgery done to correct a severe lazy eye as a toddler. I don’t remember it at all, but I am glad I had it done. My eyesight is perfect now, and my eyes look completely normal. I would not want to have a lazy eye. I’d get it done for any of my kids although none of them needed it.

But both my eyes were affected and I looked terrible. So I would hate to still have it even just for cosmetic reasons. And I do think these things matter and I’d sooner have them fixed young before they impact the child’s self-image.

Lots of misinformation on here, some of it quite shocking. Please have a read of this https://abuhb.nhs.wales/files/patient-information-leaflets1/eyes/squint-surgery-information-for-patients-pdf/ then discuss your questions with your eye specialist

No worries @blueby7 I hope that my double vision experience didn't come across as something that might cause worry. It really is hugely rare, even in adults. I ended up googling studies because there weren't many real life experiences online and found one where something like 0.8 of adult patients in the study had some post operative double vision after 6 weeks and only 1 patient had this at the year mark. Trust my luck to be in that boat 😂 I mention it only because even with that side effect the benefits have been huge.

It was easy to choose for myself as an adult but understand very different when choosing for our dc.

I had the op when I was 7 . Now in my 50’s my eyes don’t work wonderfully together but far better than if it wasn’t corrected

My 9 year old had the surgery in March for quite a severe squint in one eye and it has been amazing. He does need glasses, but it’s amazing he can now not wear them and his eyes are completely straight, he’s not getting double vision any more and he’s using both eyes at the same time or ‘binocular vision’ most of the time. It’s not just cosmetic, plus it has had an amazing effect on his confidence too.

I had this done as a child (a million years ago) the worst part was that my Mum was not allowed to stay with me back then. Recovery was fine and had no more double vision.

Squint - this isn't just about wearing glasses or not.

My DM has a poorly managed squint and has barely any vision in one eye due to lazy eye. It's been disabling for her throughout her life.

She'd have loved it if this could have been avoided with an op.

get it done. I have a squint. It massively knocks my confidence. I had it corrected as a child & adult but unfortunately hasn’t been successful & I will never develop 3D vision. I’ve had 4 ops. No complications. Quick recovery. Complications are soo rare. It’s almost unheard of.

I'd really recommend reading 'Fixing My Gaze' by Sue Barry. There's an old Ted Talk here but you should read the book as goes into so much more detail.

I've had squint surgery on each eye as a child and then as adult (purely for cosmetic reasons). It's only after reading Sue Barry's book did I have a lightbulb moment and everything made sense - I now know why I find the things I find difficult difficult. It's because I don't have binocular vision (ie see in 3d or have much depth perception). Sue Barry manages to fix her eyes through vision therapy despite the fact that all the literature saying that you can't after the age of 6.

I would explore vision therapy for your daughter.

As a glasses wearer I say get the Op. Mine are for eyesight but I deeply regret not going for laser treatment when I was a lot younger before I started to go short sighted on top of my long sight

Glasses are a ball ache, marking your nose, not showing your make up properly, steaming up at the wrong minutes, rubbing your ears in the summer, constant wiping of them because the lenses get grubby, mascara wiping off on the inside from eye lashes. Then the cost of the bloody things.

Oh for goodness sake! Thousands of people have relatively minor surgery every day without having any adverse reaction. What you’re describing is an incredibly rare outcome and of no help whatsoever for the OP.

I also had this surgery at 7, I barely remember it or the recovery other than staring at my eye in the mirror not long after to look at the stitches. My ‘squint’ is returning though 25 years later, so it’s not a fixed for life thing but lasted a long while!

This surgery isn't so your child won't need glasses in the future. I think you need to discuss this again with the doctor as you've misunderstood the need for treatment.

I'm another example of successful op. I had the op age 5. I don't remember much about going into hospital, other than not wanting to let the doctor listen to my chest with a stethoscope

I don't remember any pain. I had to wear eye patches on my good eye to "exercise" the bad eye for a while afterwards.

40 years later and I still have food eyesight and haven't needed glasses since.

I say do it!.

And I know someone who was killed driving a car, but hey, guess what, I still drive.

And this post has been as helpful and relevent as yours ...

Good eyesight damnit

My son had an op on both his eye at 6 years old to correct a double squint. I was the same as you, and felt bad doing it for 'cosmetic' reasons, but its the best thing we ever did for him. He's nearly 10 now and I look back at pictures of his eyes almost constantly crossed, and realise that it was 100% the correct choice. Confidence wise, everything. He now only requires glasses for reading.
The op wasn't long and surgeon said its very common. Only thing that shocked me was he cried blood when he woke which I wish I knew as it panicked me but apparently very normal and stopped the next day. Recovery wasn't long at all.
Good luck I hope it goes well if you go through with it. x

I didn't have surgery as a child for squint because my mother thought that glasses were sufficient especially as I needed them to also correct my vision

I literally have a headache every single day of my life. I'm visually impaired as well, but the Drs gave explained the vast majority of the headaches are due to the squint and they now can't operate due to other eye conditions.

I have been able to observe eye surgery (long story) and I've seen squint correction surgery. Its fairly quick, not particularly invasive and has a quick recovery time.

Ignore anyone who tells you their uncle had it done and they took the whole eyeball out. People love to tell me this when they realise I have a squint but there are a whole miriad of nerves and muscles that mean this really isn't what happens (not to mention the optic nerve which is not the elastic band some people think it is!)