4 yr old school vision tests-worry!!

[user1484754837]

My 4 yr old had some vision tests at school and I just had a call from the eye hospital who told me that his right eye isn't working as well as it should. He has to have drops at the hospital to look at his eye and I'm so blooming worried...my thoughts are instantly that it's something bad and I'm in bits. Please can someone reassure me that this is routine as the nurse wasn't very reassuring at all and she asked questions like 'is he in good health' well, he's had a cold almost non stop since he started school in September so my brain is working overtime.

Could be long or short sighted and the drops help to work out a prescription. Could also have one eye that has poorer vision than the other (lazy eye) and again the drops help find out how much worse one eye is than the other. Dd had glasses from 18 months old and up until the age of around 8 had dilating drops at her eye tests. The drops aren't anything to worry about, it just helps in the eye test to make it more accurate

When you get the drops, take sun glasses with you. Our youngest has these often and they make the eyes quite sensitive to light until they wear off. As PP said, they just help them to get a better picture of what's going on in the eye.

I had a similar call in ds3's reception summer term. He has one eye stronger than the other, as well as some structural issues in both eye, but glasses and daily drops have made a huge difference.

OP Don't feel bad - it will most likely be a vision problem. This is how my own DS issue was picked up - long sighted and an astigmatism. I did feel awful and both were quite severe However, it was masked somewhat by other problems including a severe speech/language delay.

Pretty routine.
The drops make the eyes look bigger - blue eys react quicker than brown. They have the drops then you have to wait until they have 'grown'. Take some things to do and even more things to do if he has brown eyes.

It really is nothing to worry about. Indeed, if there is an issue, it's great it has been picked up so young.
Might have glasses, might have a patch for some of the day - all every day and normal.

Thanks all, the nurse made it sound as if there was something really wrong and as I'm so run down and anxious right now that I panicked.
Can't thank you all enough for your kind replies

xx

Its standard to have drops in for a young child, they do have the side effect of making the pupil bigger, but the purpose of them is to stop the eye from over-focussing so that's its easier to work out the correct eye prescription. They are called cycloplegic drops (if you want to google.)

Its good that its been picked up, visual problems of this nature need to be sorted out before the visual system in the brain is fully developed.

Thanks!

:)

DD2 got a referral to the optician after her reception class eye test at school last week. I took her yesterday and the optician thought she does need glasses but couldn't get an accurate prescription her eye muscles kept re-adjusting and altering with the different lenses, so we've got to go back again to have the drops. The optician said this is quite common when they're young and have such strong eye muscles! She did reassure me that DD's eyes were really healthy, apart from a slight prescription needed, so I don't think needing the drops is a sign of anything serious to worry about in itself. Good luck

Thank you again! I swear I wasn't this nervous with my eldest and he's 20!!!

:D