Squint, optician, toddler

[AngelinaK]

Hi there, my dd is 3 and she's got squint and long sighted in her left eye, got glasses 7 months ago, 2.00 + (nearly nothing in the other eye) but now she got 4.00 + in her left eye and 2.00 + in the good eye, really strong prescription and I'm really worried if the 4.00 + is necessary so soon and if she needs 2.00 + for balance in the sort of healthy eye.
It's small and independent optician and wonder if they know what they r doing. They didn't do the test where the child looks into the machine and wonder if I should take her to the big chain like vision express? Anybody with experience on squint in toddlers?

Thank you xxx

My DS was referred to the specialist at the local hospital at about the same age and we did not go through a high street optician, many of whom have little experience of younger children. I would ask you GP for a referal. Hope this helps.

Should have added that we had to patch one eye for about a year to try to correct the squint but ended up having to pay privately for an operation when he was about 7 as this is not available on the NHS.

Squint ops are available on the NHS

If you have never been to the hospital with your little one then you need to ask your gp for a referral -children under 5 are much better treated in a hospital setting and the sooner patching etc starts the more positive the outcome

DD now 12, has had glasses since 4 (long sighted and squint). Had patch for about a year. I wear glasses and had op at 5 for squint (nhs). DS is 8 and had glasses since just before 1st birthday (long sighted and astigmatism). All have been through hospital. Referred by GP and not optician. They have only stopped having hospital appointments and just going to a normal optician in last few years. I would ask GP for a referral. Mine did it no problem.

they dont always start with the full prescription so I wouldnt worry about the jump to +4. Dont know what you mean by looking in a machine as my dd/ds didnt have to do that either. They got drops in their eyes and did different tests involving lenses, looking at the back of the eye, etc. DD has had glasses from 18 months due to a squint and being long sighted. She had an op at the age of 4 (nhs) as the squint was still noticeable while wearing her glasses. She also had patching treatment prior to the op to improve the sight in her squinting eye.

You should be referred to the hospital orthoptist (or ask if you arent done automatically) - dd was under their care until the age of 7 at which point we went to our local independent optician.

p.s. dd got referred via the hv

Agree, go to GP for orthoptist referral. We have only now been discharged from hospital appointments to just have high street optician care, ds is 6.

I'm intrigued! Specialist in our region told me that operation to correct squint NOT available on NHS. However, this was 5 years ago.

Squint ops have always been available on the NHS

I had my first one 34 years ago and my niece had one last year

There are different degrees of squint and the child does have to meet various criteria
Also squint ops are not an exact science so if the degree of squint isn't severe enough then it won't get NHS approval

Small and local does not mean they don't know what they are doing. I also think that you are more likely to get consistently good service because their business depends on their reputation than you might with a bigger chain. However that depends if they have a good reputation? Ask around and see what others think. Am biased as DF was small local optician - people with kids would travel over an hour to see him.