DS eyesight

[2010Kyla]

DS vision has suddenly deteriorated and I noticed he was having difficulty seeing both near and far. He said the letters looked squished together and he can’t follow them.
Visited Specsavers and optician advised he had a minor prescription of -0.75 however she would like to use drops just to be sure.
Following the drops she has now prescribed +2 glasses although he was still mixing up letters on the test. I queried the change of prescription and also asked why he was finding it difficult to still differentiate the letters and she said if he didn’t have a prescription she would refer him due to visual accommodation issues but as there is a prescription she wants him to wear glasses full time instead.
Does this sound like correct advice or should I get a second opinion!
Any opticians on here that can help? His vision has been perfect and now suddenly he can’t seem to pick out certain letters particularly o,c, m. He is 8 years old and is a fluent early reader from 4 years old.
Thanks

I'd be getting a second opinion fast.

Thanks for responding.

Any opticians that can offer some advice/guidance?

I would take him to your GP and get referred to your local hospital ophthalmology unit.

So he went from -0.75 (shortsighted) to +2.00DS(longsighted) with the cyclo? Or was it from +0.75 to +2.00?

I've had a lot of children recently with odd accommodative issues and not great vision and it's just been too much time spent in front of a screen and not enough time outside causing an accommodative spasm.

Without having seen him I obviously can't tell exactly what the issue is though.

A second opinion won't hurt - although you won't get that on the NHS. Unless the optom found anything untoward, there's no point in being referred.

Hi underneaththeash

Thank you for replying.
Yes he went from -0.75 to +2 following the cyclo drops.

My concern was as you have said that it is more an accommodative issue. He also seems to struggle at all distances?
I will now be encouraging more outdoor time and less screen time however should we still give the glasses a try for the 6 months?

As for second opinion without a referral do you know how I could do this privately? I would be happy to pay as I know how important our sight is

Thanks again

Please please please.
Go to the gp

Spec savers missed my sons very rare eye disease, they said he was fine just 12 weeks before he was blind in his left eye. I’m so lucky in a way he bumped his head so I toke him to eye a&e for it, he complained about eye pain so they got him seen that night a ophthalmologists
They spent all night running test I knew something was very wrong after waiting they told me to sit down and said they think he’s got cancer. My world just all came down.
They sent me for a urgent referral to a cancer unit..... lucky it wasn’t very lucky, but he still had a eye problem that we didn’t know about after further blood test Eye exam and seeing multiple doctors
He’s been diagnosed with uveitis, it a disease that can make you blind.
He’s had cataract surgery 2 times, takes 12 eye drops a day and steroids and Immuno suppressants! He’s lost he vision in his left eye, we are finally getting some back.
It’s a horrible horrible disease! We know travel a 5hrs around trip to a eye hospital that can deal with him. Been fighting for his vision for nearly 2 years!
He’s only 7 😭

@2010Kyla I'm sorry I can't say about needing the glasses without seeing him, but I have spent a long time worrying about my patients (I only see children and contact lens patients at the the moment) - who can't see as well as expected and can't accommodate.

The ones I saw before the Summer holidays all seemed to sort themselves out before term started in Autumn with less screen time and a few exercises. But it seems to have started again this term - I suspect and hope that they'll go back on the 8th, but it's another reason to get them back. Developing eyes do not like only looking at one distance!

@Hereforhelp127
I'm so sorry to hear that, have you approached specsavers?
If it's rare, then it can be difficult to detect - especially if it's behind the eye like a irirocyclitis. Even if you don't want to complain it's really useful for us to see if we could have done anything else to detect the problem at the time. Any sort of posterior uveitis is more difficult to detect.

I did, I went back to them to say what was going on they was so shocked, they apologised 🤦‍♀️
He’s got chronic bilateral immediate uveitis.
With high iop 57 😭

@underneaththeash
Thank you for your advice on this issue. I do feel he has an accommodation issue as following your initial advice, I reduced screen time and his vision is clearer.
Do you have any exercises that you recommend to your patients that I could try with him?
Thanks again

That's good. Some children's eyes are just susceptible to overfocussing when they use the screen too much.

The only thing I'd feel comfortable recommending over the internet is simply looking out of the window and focussing at something in the distance for a minute every 30 minutes or so when he's on the computer, with lots of outdoor time.

At the moment when his eyes are in an accommodative spasm, you just want to be doing as much as possible to relax them. It will hopefully be much better when he's back at school.