Long-sighted 5 year old - recommended glasses

[5star123]

Hi there,

Last week I took my 5 year old daughter to the opticians for the first time - it was just a routine check-up and neither my husband or I, or her teacher, have noticed any issues with her vision.

The optician said she was long-sighted and that she was to come back to be re-tested and have some eye-drops put in before so they could accurately determine her level of long-sightedness. We saw a different optician the next day who re-tested her with the eye-drops and gave her a prescription of +1.75 in both eyes. He recommended that she wears glasses for when she is focusing (ie reading, writing etc) to help her eyes develop and said hopefully she would grow out of it as she grows. We didn't chose any frames that day as it was quite stressful for her so I said we would go back another time.

When we got home and told my husband he said that he wanted to get a second opinion as the prescription doesn't sound severe enough to warrant glasses and he doesn't want to make her unnecessarily wear glasses at such a young age. I really don't want to take her to another opticians and put her through another test as she found it quite stressful and draining. I did a bit of a search online and it does seem that it's quite a low prescription but on the other hand I don't want to impede development of her vision by not getting her glasses.

Are there any opticians/optometrists on here that can give any advice or has anyone else been through the same thing with their little one?

My dd started wearing glasses at that age. She loved being able to choose her own frames. She happily wore her glasses because she could see better so her quality of life improved.

My advice would be don't overthink it and make choosing frames exciting. Lots of kids wear glasses.

Does your husband know anything about eyes or is he just unilaterally deciding the optician is wrong? Would you rather have a child that could see properly or one that will find it harder to do close up work?

Get the glasses and stop dithering about!

Why would your husband know more than the qualified professional?

What other uninformed decisions will he make about your daughters health.

It's glasses why the drama. Eye test done, pick frames move on.

I'm not an optician but I don't think the prescription is that low. My DD is long sighted and we found out one of her eyes started turning inwards at age 7. Her first prescription was something like +2 but wearing glasses basically saved her 3d vision.

P.s. My dd has had glasses from 18 months old and is also long sighted (but with a higher prescription that your dd). It has improved slightly as she got older but she will always need them.

As your dd gets older she may improve too and as its a smaller prescription she may not need glasses in the future. In the meantime she will see better doing close work if she wears glasses.

He's read that glasses for children are only normally recommended for a prescription over +3.00 and her prescription is much lower than that so in his infinite wisdom he thinks it's unnecessary.

I'm going to take her tomorrow to choose some frames - thanks all for the push!

Uncorrected long sightedness in that specific age group has been linked to decreased literacy rates, headaches and fatigue.

Why would you want your child to experience that?

Sorry cross posted

I wouldnt be wanting to make reading unnecessarily harder for her when she's only just started.

Ask anyone you know in their fifties (most of us are +1.5 at least) how annoying it is to try to read without reading glasses! Why would your husband want to make things harder for your daughter?

As an oldie hovering between +1.5 and 2. I can read if I expand the iPad screen and stretch my arm…. Paper and books just a no. Can do both normally with my specs.

glad you are putting it sorted. Reading can be one of the greatest pleasures for many. Good to sort anything that makes it harder.

Oh, I missed your later post too, sorry! Glad you are going for the glasses.

He’s got a bit of a bee in his bonnet about opticians as they once tried to make him spend lots of money unnecessarily on ‘computer’ glasses he didn’t need. In that case he got a second opinion from a different place and was told his eye sight didn’t warrant glasses and that Specsavers were just trying to bump up their commission 🙄

Of course I don’t want to impede my daughter’s vision and development so I will take her to choose some frames and make it as exciting as possible for her. I just wondered if anyone else’s children wore glasses with such a low prescription.

DC2 got glasses aged 4. Long sighted, approx +2 / +2.5. Started with a lower prescription for 6 months to allow his eyes to adjust, and then moved to the full prescription above and wears them all the time. We were told there is a possibility that as he grows and his eyes change shape he may stop needing them. - my DB was long sighted and stopped needing his glasses age about 12.
Choose some nice frames and encourage her to wear them. Point out friends / family / people she knows that wear glasses to help normalise it for her.
Don't make a big deal about it (negatively) and she probably won't either.
Good luck

The use of glasses for a PC is often recommended to reduce screen stress. Not to correct a eyesight deficiency.

Hopefully your husband isn't involved in work that requires him to be discerning with research.

He doesn’t even use a computer for work - he’s a tradesman 😂

My eyes are-1.75 & -2. Without glasses I can only see about 5m clearly. Hers are in reverse so she will have very blurry close up vision. Listen to the professionals

Two of my DDs were the same, I’m long sighted and had glasses as a child too. One DD didn’t need them after a year and the other only needs hers when doing lots of reading or computer work.

At her age +1.75 prescription, she won't be blurry at distance or when reading BUT it could affect how her eyes work together.

Being long sighted it could make her eyes converge at distance or over converge when reading, hence making reading more difficult leading to slower learning rates as a pp said. Some children's muscles converge more than others when accommodating for the long sighted prescription.

She will likely grow out of it to some extent, hopefully enough to take her out of the glasses. Wearing the glasses won't hurt her at all, but not wearing them might. I would side with the two different opticians who both detected an issue (and one issuing a prescription) over your DP who read something online which he doesn't fully understand.

I will also add that most optometrists under correct long sighted children, only giving enough to maintain binocularity, so her full prescription might actually be higher than +1.75.

@swanfake this is very helpful, thank you. We are back to the opticians tomorrow after school!

My ds has glasses. He is 5. He was referred by the GP to a children’s eye clinic at the hospital who monitor his progress with them and the NHS provide the glasses for free.

His class at school also got a visit from an optometrist from the nearest hospital.

Can you go down a GP route rather than a High Street store? Or has your child’s school had Child Vision Screening?

‘Child Vision Screening
The UK National Screening Committee recommends orthoptic-led screening to detect reduced vision for all 4-5-year old children at school entry, to ensure that any problems that can be treated are identified and that a child’s vision develops normally1.
Children can often cope very well with some eye problems and may go unnoticed by the child, parents or anyone else, so even children with apparently normal vision should be tested.
Screening is usually carried out at school.’

I asked her teacher if they do the Child Vision Screening and they don’t which is why I went down the High Street route. That’s a good point about the GP - I will speak to them tomorrow. Thank you!

Hi Op , it is normal for children to be slightly long-sighted at age 5 , +1.75 is just slightly more than the average amount of long-sight at that age and that amount tends to reduce as the child gets older. Whether glasses are needed depends on how well they are seeing without glasses and whether they have any squint. If you are longsighted, without glasses your own lenses inside the eye have to accommodate (focus) more than someone who doesn’t have longsight. Young children are able to do this extra focussing much better than older children and adults, so may not need glasses for lower amounts of long-sight. When you get older your ability to do the extra focussing gradually gets worse so if you are still long-sighted then you will need glasses for prescriptions that may not need correcting in a younger child. When you get into your 40’s and older you become presbyopic due to the lens no longer being able to focus effectively and then need a reading prescription that requires what is known as a plus add , presbyopia is not the same as long-sight. Long-sight in children is usually due to a shorter axial length of the eye ( eye is shorter from back to front)

As swanfake says most optometrists undercorrect long sightedness. It would be worth asking what + number she was with drops so you can see this.
The issue with children can be they don't report symptoms of blur or discomfort of their eyes as they just think everyone sees as they do. It may be as subtle as she doesn't become an avid reader when books become more difficult, as reading too long isn't comfortable but she can't articulate this as an issue because her sight is how she has always seen. I thought everyone struggled to see the blackboard in primary school before I got glasses!
Teachers won't always pick up on small issues as they have lots of children in their class and unless the child is obviously struggling to see or complaining you cannot expect them to pick up an issue. Surely this is where the optometrist/eye professional comes in.
If you're worried ask to speak to the dispensing optician (qualified DO not an assistant) at the appointment when you go back to choose the glasses and get them to go back through it with you.
Try and make this appointment as positive and fun for your dc as you don't want them to pick up that wearing glasses is a problem and having had drops at the last appointment she may already have had enough of the opticians.

I wouldn't be taking her to another opticians as they will likely want to repeat the drop test and that is subjecting your dd to more procedures.
She also doesn't need to be seen by the hospital eye service so no need to involve the GP (the optometrist would have referred if she needed to be).

Optometrists are professionals that have a strict code of conduct and an apparent outlier that your husband encountered does not apply to every optometrist. You have to be able to trust the opticians you see and if your husband doesn't then it's very difficult for them to advise you.
The NHS sight test is also not set up for second opinions so unless there was an issue with the first test you may have to pay privately. It all becomes very complicated with free glasses with NHS vouchers that can't be issued from a private sight test. And if the next optician finds a slightly different prescription do you then have a third test? There's no exact numbers on what to prescribe for children so the +3 your husband saw seems quite arbitrary. There's lots of factors being considered before a final prescription is given.

The best thing about being long sighted as a child is it is caused by the eye being short in length which obviously increases as the child grows. So she is likely to need a weaker prescription and then in all probability come out of glasses. The older she gets the more she can tell the optician whether she finds the glasses helpful.

It's a shock when your children need glasses when you weren't expecting it, but hopefully your dd will love the frames she chooses and the drops won't have put her off opticians.

If a professional is saying your child needs grasses, you get them glasses to help them see surely?? My 3yo ds got his first pair of glasses earlier this year, I was disappointed but cam understand its not about my feelings its about his life not being heavily impacted by poor vision. Hes so happy he can see clearly now, she probably isn't aware of how much strain her eyes are under when she's at school etc. Get the glasses to help her now and hopefully she'll not need them when she's older. Tell your DH to suck it up unless hes an optometrist or optician he doesn't know what he's talking about. Childrens glasses are free on NHS anyway so its not about money making.