Can children outgrow longsightedness

[Missmiller]

My daughter is 6. She has worn glasses since 3. Her prescription is +4 in both eyes. Her left eye turns in without her glasses. With her glasses she has really good vision, straight eyes and 3D vision has developed. What is the likelihood of her growing out of glasses please?

Any info would help as I find it all v confusing
Thanks

Probably unlikely to totally grow out of it at that prescription tbh. It may improve slightly but I imagine she will always need them

It should improve by age 9 ish, but it’s likely she’ll still need to wear glasses if she’s +4 at 6. We start as young children mildly long sighted, they become less so (or even short sighted). It then stabilises for many years until in middle age we again develop long sightedness

Thank you for the info so far....

This is the highest prescription she’s had. It’s been increased gradually since age 3 until her eyes have been well controlled. Her squint in now totally controlled by her glasses, her eye sight is really good etc. It’s unlikely to get any worse now I’ve been told. Really keen to hear from anyone whose child has had a similar prescription at age 6 (+4 in both eyes) and how it’s changed as they’ve grown older. The orthoptist said they can grow out of a max of 3.5 diopters through puberty.

Was she patched?
My son is 8 and has just been examined by an independent optometrist rather than a chain.
My son's eye turns when he takes off his glasses and she said this indicates that patching didn't work and he's now got to wear glasses with a "fog" over his good eye to make his poorer eye work harder.....
I doubt she'll grow out of wearing her glasses completely.
I was meant to wear glasses from age 5 due to being long sighted and didn't until I was 28 and couldn't compensate anymore.

Patching is only done if the sight in one eye is poorer than the other. Patching forces the other eye to work. Eyes squinting with glasses off is normal as the eyes are trying to focus without the help of the glasses. My dd had patching but as I said it was due to poorer sight on her left eye. Once her sight was equal in both eyes the patching stopped. She still squints with her glasses off.

My dd had a larger prescription than yours and it has improved by maybe a couple of diopters but she's had hers from 18 months old and is now 15 (still with glasses). I didn't notice puberty making a difference tbh

Your daughter squinting is a product of her prescription.

When she takes her glasses off, she has to accommodate (shift her eye focus) in order to see clearly. When everyone accommodates their eyes also converge (move inwards together).
The higher the prescription the more you have to accommodate to see clearly and consequently the more your eyes converge.
If the eyes converge too much (and the amount is particular to each child's visual system) one will squint.

Her prescription should reduce during puberty and that will mean that she will have to accommodate less (and converge less) and that may mean that her visual system may be able to keep her eyes straight. But it completely depends on the individual.

Can she see the same amount of letters on the test chart with both eyes individually?

Children often tolerate contact lenses well and I've had many children wearing them from the age of 9 (school hours mainly).

My dd has never been interested in contact lenses. Maybe as she's had glasses for so many years (13/14) she would feel very strange without them on her face

Squints can be fixed surgically but they don't do it on the nhs anymore, I imagine because it's considered to be cosmetic. Mine were fixed when I was very small. I'd look into it if any of my dc had a squint.

*mine was fixed

My son has a +6 at age 7 prescription and it's gone up rather than down . They said this is because it gets more accurate as they get older . I wouldn't imagine he will grow out of it but why worry , glasses are cool now 🤷‍♀️

Squint surgery would only be an option if the squint was still present while wearing glasses. Dd had a noticeable squint with her glasses on and had an eye op age 4.

Does it matter if she doesn't grow out of it? There is no stigma attached to wearing glasses

My DD had her squint corrected on the NHS a few years ago because glasses were ineffective at treating it.

Patching is not an option as she has nystagmus & it makes her "wobble" worse.

We have been told she can wear contact from 9ish onwards (if she wants).

I was hoping she would grow out of her prescription too but she is +6 so unlikely.

My ds is 6 he has worn glasses since he was 2 and had a prescription of +5 in both eyes until last month where they have gone down to +2. Between his last 2 tests he had to wear an eye patch, not sure if that has anything to do with the change.

@NotMySquirrel I work in eye services and have never heard this info about squint surgery no longer being available on the NHS ?

Where did you hear this ?

Op trying to guess how glasses will change is like trying to predict what size your feet will end up, lots of factors including genetics.

The natural tendency is for long sight to reduce (longsight is often due to a small or short eye length and as the eye grows the longsight gets less) but not always.

Patching is to encourage the brain to use a lazy eye and improve the vision in that eye. So more likely just a coincidence bubble !

Hi

Please don’t get me wrong, I love her in glasses they suit her and she looks so much happier with them on as she can see! I wear glasses for mild shortsightedness and love them. I’m just interested in hearing how growing affects longsightedness.
My dd was patched for a year when her vision was unequal but it’s now the same in both eyes and she sees equally on the letter chart with both eyes.
Thanks all, I find it all fascinating but confusing . It’s great to hear she may get a bit less longsighted as she grows for her visions sake, I’m sure she’ll aleays need glasses, that’s not an issue.

@whatthesmeg I presumed that because of the number of children and young adults I've seen with uncorrected squints in recent years. Mine was corrected before I even started to wear glasses as I was under 2, they just corrected it as soon as I was old enough for the surgery. Pretty sure they don't do that now.

If it's corrected by glasses but not while the glasses are off, it might affect confidence when not wearing glasses in future. Would the squint still be evident when wearing contact lenses? Either way, I'm glad mine was fixed when it was and would look to do the same for any children of mine with the condition.

I don't blame OP for hoping her DD grows out of glasses. I have worn them all my life and hope my DD never needs them (she probably will though). There's no stigma to them, no, but my peripheral vision is affected by them, they make sports and swimming difficult, they're pretty expensive and they do change the way I look. I'd definitely prefer to not need them.

I was long sighted in one eye for years, from childhood. Then when I became an adult the other eye became short sighted and the long sighted eye is now fine (no prescription).

I think there's no way of knowing tbh as there can be general rules but not everybody follows them.

@NotMySquirrel - It's only usually cosmetic squints in teens/adults that it's difficult to get NHS funding for.

I think there are horribly long waiting lists for elective surgery at the minute which will affect squint surgery as it will often be bumped when a sight threatening emergency requires immediate surgery however spreading misinformation like 'squint surgery is no longer funded on the NHS' really doesn't help.

Many adults just don't realise that there is help out there - even non surgical such as Botox can help eye position! There will always be risk factors such as double vision for adults that may mean surgery is contra-indicated but referral to Orthoptics will look at that.

For the op yes contact lenses should straighten the eye in exactly the same way the glasses do.

Squint surgery is still available for children. If the squint is only present without glasses then surgery is not indicated. Some areas have decommissioned squint surgery for adults however. OP if your daughter is +4 at the age of 6 she is not likely to grow out of the longsight but her prescription may gradually reduce a she gets older. Blueuggboots patching is to treat amblyopia not a squint so the info about patching having failed as the squint is present without glasses is not correct at all. A fogged lens over the stronger eye is a form of patching and often the child will peep around this

Rodders - I wondered about the fogged lens too, but having thought about it, I suspect its to try to equalise the v/a more in order stimulate binocularly before commencing vision therapy?

A fogged lens is a form of partial occlusion as is atropine , so is less disruptive to binocularity, if a fully accommodative squint or microtropia then binocularity is already established and tends to improve as amblyopia reduces whichever method of occlusion is used.