Sore eyes in 2yo DD

[Suddengeekgirl]

Dd is 2.5yo and has started complaining about having sore eyes a lot in the last couple of weeks.

Her eyes don't look sore - not red or puffy, no gunky bits etc.
She seems to be complaining when the sun is bright, when she's tired and sometimes for no reason. She gets really upset and tearful about it.

Do you think I should take her to the doctor?
I thought it was just one of those things dc say and don't really mean/ wasn't real.

My DD was the same, turned out she needed glasses. I'd say take her to the GP still, they can then refer to the hospital for eye tests if necessary, it's a lot easier than taking her straight to a high street optometrist. HTH :)

Hmmm maybe redlips. Dh's side of the family all have poor eye sight but none of them needed glasses so early in life.

Would there be anything else I'd notice if she needed glasses?
She doesn't try and sit close to the tv any more than an average 2yo or hold books close to her face IYSWIM.

I would get her eyes tested. some opticians see children or you can get referred through a gp or hv. Dd got glasses at 18months for long sight when neither dh or I wear glasses

We never realised DD needed glasses purely from behaviour either, I assume that she never moved closer to the TV, books etc. as she never realised that how she was seeing it wasn't right, IYSWIM? She would drop a handful of raisins and pick up every one with seemingly little difficulty, but she was straining her eyes so hard to do so that she got horrible headaches and eye pain :(
She wears quite thick glasses now, and absolutely loves them :)

Right, dr it is tomorrow then
Hope it's just a random toddler thing and she doesn't need glasses - that's a battle I don't really fancy! :)

Hmmmmm

Took dd to the dr first thing. Nothing wrong there. Dr suggested optician.

Managed to get an optician appointment. They couldn't find anything wrong either!

No idea what keeps making her say her eyes hurt!

It could be dryness, especially if its in both eyes, this could be caused by a number of things:
Certain medications - especially ones for allergies.
Not blinking properly.
Infection of the eye lashes (this would usually make the base of the lashes a bit red and scaley)
Not drinking enough
The tear ducts being blocked or not producing enough fats for the tear layer.

It also could be a very mild viral conjunctivitis especially if she has had a cold recently. Often with a viral conjunctivitis there isn't much redness or discharge.

Anyway if she's still complaining, you need to go back to your g.p and ask for a referral to an ophthalmologist for investigation.

She's drinking enough and hasn't been unwell at all for ages touch wood She's not on any medicines either.

I'm assuming the dr was able to check for the rest of your suggestions - I wouldn't know what to look for.

I am thinking of asking for a referral to a specialist but don't know if I'm being a bit PLB.

No, your g.p wouldn't have the equipment to check for dry eyes or a viral conjunctivitis.

Did the optometrist put any yellow dye into your daughter's eyes and use a slit lamp (which a sort of tower with a light attached to it, your daughter would have had to put her chin near to the tower on a chin rest). Not a great description but you can always google it to see.

I don't think you're being PFB, I would have referred your daughter to a specialist if she was having those symptoms and I couldn't find anything wrong. Its quite difficult to examine a young child thoroughly on a piece of equipment designed for an adult anyway.

I'm waiting on the GP to call me back about getting a referral.

The dr used an orange dye eye drop to look in dds eye for signs of scratches/ ulcer I think

The optician didn't do any eye drops. They did try an get her to put her chin on a machine and look in a hole at a picture of a house. She wasn't still enough for them to get a reading. Which meant they didn't try doing the photo of her eye for a rough prescription. (Sorry don't know the technical terms)
They did colour blindness, the stereo-vision (?) thing and got her to look at some pictures of various sized with one eye covered.

Does that make sense?

GP said "in her professional and objective opinion" dd did need to be referred.
Think I will have to wait and see how the next couple of weeks go...