What is a significant change in eye prescription for a four year old?

[lovinbeingmum]

Don't know who to ask so posting here hoping I'll get some experience stories...

DS had been rubbing his eyes and complaining of pain so took him to an Opthamologist last week. We had the session with an optometrist as well and finally were given a prescription of high astigmatism (+1/-3/180 if of interest to anyone) We got the glasses on Thursday. He was wearing it for short periods but I realised on Sunday that he was basically looking over the glasses and taking it off whenever he had to do proper stuff with his hands (Lego, reading, drawing etc)

Just for a second opinion we went to another optometrist today and she changed the prescription to +0.5/-2/73. To me that seemed like a huge difference.

Is such a difference possible within a week when the tests are conducted on kids by two different optometrists? Is it significant?

Confused who to follow :/

Is it just one eye that needs a prescription ?

The first part shows he is long sighted ( very slightly) : +1 is only slightly longer sighted than +0.5 and both are very mild long sightedness.

The next part refers to the astigmatism : again -3 is not that much different to -2

The last part refers to where on the axis the astigmatism is present so in the first prescription it was at 180 and the second was at 73 - can't explain the difference in that one though, sorry

Thanks Pixie. I get the explanation too but just wondering if it's a significant difference in the two prescriptions. Should I just ignore the first prescription or should I be writing to the first doc and hauling her over the coals for troubling my poor child :/

If the first prescription was really that bad, i want her to think twice before she gets away with such bad treatment of another child.

As you may have realised, I'm quite furious.....:/

Did they both use the dilating eye drops? You don't actually know which one is in the wrong.

The second one didn't. But even with the first, considering how much he fussed to put the drops I'm not quite sure how much really went in.

My ds(8) has worn glasses since he was 4. His prescription has gradually increased until it finally stayed the same at last eye test. They told me that, because children's eyes are still developing and their eyesight isn't established until around 8, they start them off on a weaker prescription than they need and increase it until their eyes respond. This gives their eyes time to adjust gradually rather than suddenly putting them in strong glasses. Maybe the second optometrist thought your dc was taking the glasses off because they were too strong. Could you not speak to them and find out?

I would have thought that they would get a more accurate result using the eye drops. I wouldn't be so sure that it was the first one that was wrong tbh.

Did he only have the first glasses for 1 week then? It takes time to get used to glasses and using them properly. Maybe you just didn't give him enough time to get used to them (my Dd has worn glasses from the age of 18 months and is now 11 and still has them)

Pixie, I would have liked to let him stay with them longer but realised over the weekend that he was just looking over them to watch to, read etc. That was the reason we went for a second opinion.

Hippy, thanks. That's exactly what the second opinion was. Start him off low. So, if there is an error in the degrees it won't put him off too much.

If you don't mind me asking you guys, did it affect DC's activities in any way? Any tips for the early days? :)

Feeling a bit more in control (of myself) now. New glasses come tomorrow...we'll see acceptance then.

Remember that wearing glasses when you haven't before makes the eye muscles work harder, to go straight to a strong prescription is like running a marathon without training, it has to be built up. No tips I'm afraid as ds has asperger's so he followed 'the rules' from day 1.

Thanks hippy. That's helpful......

My daughter has a very strong prescription (+6.5). When we got her prescription at the hospital, two doctors independently checked her eyes and one mentioned that it can be difficult to ascertain correct prescriptions for wee little ones. We were to go back after six weeks to get the prescription checked, possibly amended, which we were prewarned about.

Because of our high prescription, we were stuck with only two pair of glasses, which slide down her nose. As a consequence, we bought a neoprene glasses band from Madam JoJo Bebe for £4 - she has learnt how to take it off now (for bed etc) but think it helped at the beginning in terms of not peering over the glasses etc. as she couldn't work the Velcro (and in fact, didn't even try). Might be worth a shot?

Sorry, I know it's not useful it's just that the optician said "you have to wear your glasses all the time" and then we struggled to get him to take them off for bed!

Messy, thanks tor the strap tip. He's been asking for one of those. I didn't know where to get it from :)

And hippy you've been a big help. I found your marathon comment extremely useful to visualise what he's going through. Even quoted it to his teachers.