Optician won't do eye test and GP thinks its not his place to refer

[Monkeyandanimal]

I think DS (3 yrs 9months old) may be short sighted, just because he tends not to notice things even when he is looking right at them. It could be a short attention/inability to concentrate thing too though. I and DH are both pretty short sighted. How can i get him an eye test when the doc and the optician both refuse to do it? (doc says optician should be able to do it, optician says ds is too young and should be referred to hospital. Optician may be right here as he is young/unable to cooperate for his age and has had developmental delays across the board, no diagnosis of anything specific but i suspect when he goes to school they may diagnose something like ADHD/dyspraxia/ slight autistic tendancies; i feel in the light of his delays he particularly needs all his senses working well). How can i get his eyes tested? Just wait until optician deems him old enough?

Maybe try a different optician?

What about the health visitor?

I'd see another optician. My DD2 has SN and has had her eyes tested since she was 2.5 and totally non-verbal.

Around here a hv needs to refer.

I rang hv, asked and an appointment arrived in the post.

Hospital opticians are fab with children and the best idea.

I'm now just taking mine to a high St one at 5

No, not at all. I'm so sorry your GP has been so unhelpful. Your health visitor can refer your DS to an ophthalmologist. Both of mine were referred because I had a squint. They tested visionary the same time - with pictures rather than letters on the chart.

Try different optician. I took DD shortly before her 3rd birthday due to specific issue we noticed. Optician was happy to look at her and subsequently referred to hospital (still waiting for that appointment!)

Ask HV for a referral to Community Optomist (???). I expressed my concern about DS's eyesight to HV when he was 2 and she referred us to a lovely lady who specialised in testing the eyes of preschool children.

X-post!

Actually opticians don't generally do eye tests till school age.
Go back to GP and insist you want him referring. I got my 18 month old referred simply because I was concerned as her father and older sister wore quite strong prescription glasses. Good luck. And please do go straight back to the GP. My dd went for a general eye test at 4.5 and needed extremely strong pescription. I didn't know
Otherwise would have been another year until tested at school!!

Try another optician. Dd had her eyes teted at 3. They put drops in her eyes so they could see how her pupils reacted when she tried to focus or something.

Try hv or another gp. The hospital is the best place to get him tested as the tests they do don't rely on the child understanding or co-operating. If the optician feels your child is not able to follow the test there properly then the test results will not be accurate
Go to hv for advice. Say optician advises gp referral but gp is not helpful and ask if she can refer or convince the gp to refer

Thanks for the advice; i'll try HV and see what happens, otherwise i guess i'll persist with gP, as I really think the high street opticians may not be able to get much out of him. TBH i hate going to GP with him as i have been back and forth to them about DS and with various niggling problems, all of them seem quite insignificant/inconclusive so i'm sure the Doc thinks I am looking for problems, or have munchausens by proxy.....

I'm surprised by this, my optician tested my DS3's eyes when he was six months old, she had to put eye drops in to do it but there wasn't any issue with her doing it all. Maybe phone round a few opticians to see if anyone else will do it.

Agree ask hv to refer dd1 was seen at hospital just after her first birthday due to concerns about a squint. They were able to assess her although she was non verbal.

Some opticians test children, my 3 yr old DS had his tested at Boots opticians and they seemed to think it was pretty standard when I phoned to check they could do it. But both the optician and GP would be able to refer where I live - maybe just make a telephone appointment with your GP and explain that the optician won't do it.

If you ring your HV they will be able to refer. This is what happened with our DS1 - and they did the referral purely on the basis that DH is pretty shortsighted and has an astigmatism.

Try Specsavers, ours has an optician who sees very young and SEN children so ask if yours has someone similar. Dd who has autism and was non verbal had her eyes tested at two without too much difficulty. She's ten now and wears glasses but she's graduated to the regular optician now as she is very cooperative when she knows what to expect.

Orthoptists are NHS eye specialists trained to test children's eyes, opticians do not have this training. Ask your health visitor, the GP should have referred.
Hope you get tested and he is ok

If you live in London there is a Children's clinic near old street. It is 3rd years optometry students who are supervised. I haven't been but am going in a few months. (Short sightedness in family for us too)

www.city.ac.uk/health/public-clinics/fight-for-sight-eye-clinic

My understanding is that optometrists can do it because they have the training but perhaps optometrists that specialise in testing children will be more confident. Did you go to a chain or an independent? Try some of the other independents perhaps?

My dd had a squint when small and because of family history of squints and very short sightedness she was referred to the ophthalmology department at 12 months and has had annual tests ever since.

I would put pressure on your gp to get a referral because the earlier sight issues are dealt with the better chances you are of them not becoming part of a wider issue with attention, focus on learning and development etc
high street opticians often don't have the specialist staff, if you really don't fancy your chances with your gp then go to a smaller independent optician who might be able to help or could give you the details of someone who can.
Almost all of my family (12/16 in my generation) wear specs and none of us go to a high street chain optician because they are just not skilled enough, in our experience.

My GP referred DS1 to the lovely orthoptists at our local eye hosp when he was 18 months. Either see a different GP or ask your HV.

Twilight, that is not true. All optometrists are qualified to examine chilldrens' eyes but some are more confident about it than others. I am an optometrist, have always worked in high street opticians and have been examining children, both verbal and non-verbal since I was fairly newly qualified. Some of my colleagues, however, refuse point-blank to examine children.
OP, there probably is an optometrist locally who is happy to test children. If you check out this list a lot of the listed members will have experience of testing children and will specialise in children with SNs.

I'd try another optician or ask you hv to refer you to a hospital orthopedist. Dd has had glasses from 18 months due to long sight and a squint.

We were referred by the HV because ds1 had an astigmatism. He's worn glasses since he was 3.

The hospital were brilliant with him and he was seen there for years before being referred back to the optician only.

Gp sounds useless! Definitely speak to the HV, but the GP should have told you that at least.

Orthoptist is what my last post should say not orthopedist (bloody iPad!)

We're both short sighted and I took our DD to Boots at the grand age of 2 (both my DH's and my parents never thought to check our eye sight, we were both blind as mice by the time we reached 18 and wanted a driving licence, never knew anything different). Mine was ok, chatty, but sitting still and it went just fine. Since then we go every year for her check up, same boots, different optimetrist. She has, thankfully, no problems.
Same with dentist, yearly check up. She doesn't know any different and she loves the fuss made of her.
Never occured to me they might refuse me. We explained to her what was going to happen and had a little treat on standby if the little madam would kick a fuss.