4 year old DD school eye test - Reduced Vision...she's had Conjunctivitis...I'm TERRIFIED she's got damage :(

[mom2daisypie]

Hi,

As the title says, my 4 year old daughter had her first eye test in school today. I received a letter saying that they had found "reduced vision in both eyes" and have referred her to a local hospital.

Over Christmas she had what appeared to be Conjunctivitis however the drops the GP gave us didnt help as we couldn't get them in her eyes. No matter what we tried she would not let us use them. It has now cleared up on its own (it seems) but now Im worried that it may have damaged her cornea or something?

When I asked her this evening about things she said Is sometimes looked blurred :(

Any advice please? How many children on average get this kind of result from a first eye test? She said some of the letters looked blurry.

I got a phone call the day of the reception eye test asking if I was aware that my sob couldn't see out of one eye and asking me to take him to the hospital the next day. I was distraught!

Turned out one eye was very lazy and he got glasses and now he's 13 and his eyesight is fine. He still wears specs but it's all ok.
Please try not to worry.

My son!! Not sob

It's more likely she's just short or long sighted. I don't believe eye drops can cause that kind of issue.

I doubt it's anything to do with conjunctivitis or drops she's probably long sighted. That's why do the screening - to pick these things up.

Thank you for the replies.

I should explain, I don't think the drops have done anything, but I had read that if left untreated (and effectively DD's conjunctivitis was untreated as she couldn't take the drops) then it can cause cornea damage, but thats only with viral conj and not bacterial.

I am going to take her to our local opticians while we wait for the hospital referral.
I think it's one of the trials of being a parent - always worrying about the worst case scenario!

Im just very surprised as I've been totally unaware of any issues. We read, she draws and colours in very well and she recognises birds and small insects so I suppose it never occurred to me that she could have a sight issue

i was completely surprised too and so was his teacher. we has no idea. The opthalmologist at the hospital repeated the test so we could see and he really was blind as a bat! they showed him pictures of things like a fish and he was peering at them and saying ' is it a rectangle?'

the only indication we saw-with hindsight that is-was that he fouind cutting with scissors difficult. No wonder when he had NO 3 d vision!

ahh bless him! - it must have been wonderful for your son when he got those glasses :)

I suppose we take it completely for granted that our children are 100% fine when it comes to this kind of thing. I will definitely be more on the look out now over the coming days for any signs of anything.

I think if it comes to glasses, she will probably quite like it (one of her favourite Peppa Pig episodes is the opticians one!) but I think I'll be sad...at least for a short time. Not because she has glasses, as they are very cute, but that I had no idea that she was struggling to see clearly and I didnt know :(

yes you will feel sad and that's ok. I broke my heart.

but when i look at ds now..his glasses are just part of him. he's very handsome and very cool-his hair on 'on point'[teenspeak] has a sixpack and wears superdry and his glasses just complement him! i remember asking him if he wanted to take them off for a school disco once and he really didn't want to- they are just him.

loads of kids have glasses these days and the range is fabulous. You can make it an exciting thing for her-get people to say how fabulous she looks etc

My son failed both his hearing and sight test at school. We got referred and saw opthalmologist three times and audiologist twice, both concluding no issues identified! School can be quite a tricky environment for these kinds of tests especially if your child is distractable (mine is!). Hopefully it will be nothing but good to check it out.

Ha! I had twins, one bumped into everything, covered in bruises. Went to optician, 20:20, eagle eyes. Unlike his twin who was extremely short sighted in one eye and was sent to hospital for it!

Thank you. I really felt in need of support tonight and Googling it was close to useless lol - I have been having trouble sleeping over various issues lately, and so I knew that without hearing some voices of reason I wouldn't sleep tonight either! - Nothing beats real life experiences.

I hope the referral doesn't take too long, I guess on the plus side any issues identified now can be looked after much better than if they had not been spotted until later.

Does anyone know if Conjunctivitis CAN cause sight issues if untreated?

Thing is, that's over now. You did your best to treat it. It is now better. The sight problems are much more likely to have pre existed the conjunctivitis. No one noticed my little girl's significant problem, despite me being a teacher, her regularly attending nursery, and having regular medicals due to an unrelated issue.

Thank you. I suppose as a parent we always feel guilt in some way!

I am still surprised, she has bought a colouring in home today and she is in the lines perfectly and was holding a ladybird earlier telling me all about the colours and the spots, but I suppose kids adapt and manage if they know no different.

I have left a message with the hospital (Orthoptist dept) asking for some more information, as I think the worry comes from the very generic letter with tick boxes, as opposed to a letter directly relating to our child with information on.

Hi Optometrist here.....most conjunctivitis clears up by itself anyway and if it had affected her cornea you would have known about it. There are lots of nerves in it and it would really, really hurt.

The test done at school is usually only done by the nurse and therefore isn't very accurate. Its a little odd that they've asked you to go to the hospital though rather than just being referred to have a proper eye test.

You'll probably be able to get an appointment with an Optician tomorrow, just go and get it checked out and they can hopefully put your mind at rest or get her some glasses. Its likely that they just checked distance vision rather than close vision which is why you haven't noticed any issues with colouring etc.

I am a condemned mother... DC often had conjunctivitis when they were babies/toddlers. I stopped getting antibiotics & just let it clear itself. They all have perfect vision.

My daughter keeps blinking a lot and I have read various reasons for it Inc tics ???? Don't necessarily agree, whobdoni go and see. She is only four years old

DD had a very severe case of conjunctivitis when she was 6. She needed steroid drops for weeks and oral antibiotics for a month. Her vision suffered due to corneal scarring. But just to reassure this scarring cleared over the following year or so and her vision has been perfect since, no sign of scarring. She's 14 now and no problems since.