Worried about 7 year old eye test results

[Cati482]

Hi all
Hoping there are may be some knowledgeable parents or optometrists on here who can give some advice around my daughter’s eye test results please?
I took my 7 year old daughter for an eye test today after it was suggested by an option who treated her for an eye infection a week ago. I’ve been told she is farsighted and one eye is weaker than the other (think they called it astigmatism?) and they have referred her to the hospital but said that as she is already 7 there isn’t really much that can be done to treat it and that she may be unable to drive in the future.

I’m feeling incredibly upset and guilty as she’s never displayed any signs of poor eyesight but as her mother surely I should have noticed and am now beating myself up that she will have significantly impaired vision for the rest of her life!

I don’t really understand her prescription either so hoping someone could help me to understand it a bit better?
SPH CYL AXIS Near - ADD Inter - ADD BVD
R+4.00 -1.00 180
L +3.00

Thanks so much in advance for any replies

Thanks so much for replying in so much detail. She had an initial test where she had to look into a machine and watch a balloon. They then used eye drops and said there was an improvement when they repeated the same test but didn’t indicate how much of an improvement.

This is why I’m so surprised, she isn’t clumsy or accident prone which such reduced vision would seem to suggest?? She’s reading at slightly below the appropriate stage for her age but we put that down to the pandemic.

I’ve made enquiries with private ophthalmologists with Spire and Nuffield which hopefully I’ll hear back from tomorrow.

The optician has given her another appointment in 3 months which is when I would assume they may increase her prescription?

But surely with the severity that her test results indicate, surely she would be struggling more with everyday tasks and activities? Or has she just become very skilled at compensating?

I suppose I’m desperately hoping that her results could be wrong or not as sever as first thought. I don’t think I can forgive myself for missing this otherwise 😞

If she's 7 she must be in year 2 or 3 so they use smaller text and numbers than Reception so you would think she would struggle with that vision and that school would notice. Is her handwriting quite big or messy? Does she struggle to see really small or detailed things?

It's good that they used drops, it's much more accurate that way. Does she ever have a squint? (An eye turning in or out?)

She may have ametropic amblyopia from the blur she had experienced all her life. However, it may also be that she can see clearer than they found when she really puts the effort in (you need to focus extra when you are long sighted), but she may not be able to sustain that effort for very long.

Best of luck and keep us updated if you can.

I haven’t had her tested previously as she’s never displayed any signs of poor vision, which is why I’m now feeling so terrible as I feel I’ve allowed this to progress and worsen when it could have been treated more successfully at a younger age.

Stop beating yourself up.

I was 7 when I started complaining to my parents I couldn't see properly, it was another 2 years and a different school before I was taken to an optician.

If she's 7 she must be in year 2 or 3 so they use smaller text and numbers than Reception so you would think she would struggle with that vision and that school would notice. Is her handwriting quite big or messy? Does she struggle to see really small or detailed things?

She’s in Year 2. Her handwriting is quite messy but no more so than some other children I’ve taught at that age (I’m a teacher). I was watching her yesterday and she was quick to spot the spider in the corner of her room above her top bunk bed or a fly that had gotten in through the patio doors (she hates insects). I just don’t know anymore, I do tend to jump to the worst conclusion as sadly past experiences have worked out that way.

I’ve gotten her an appointment with a consultant ophthalmologist who specialises in paediatric ophthalmology and also has experience with refractive errors. He is also who she would have been referred to via the NHS. When speaking to the hospital they also talked about a team of optometrists that worked with him, so hopefully they’ll be able to do a really comprehensive evaluation and explain where we go from here.

Thank you so much for kindness of all your replies. Mum guilt is an awful thing 😞

I'm glad she's being seen soon and they sound like a good team. Mum guilt is awful isn't it? The main thing is that she is now being seen.
This is why there is usually school vision screening in Reception, because we can't expect parents or teachers to pick up on reduced vision. It's not your fault. You have been a good parent taking her to the optician.

I just don't get this driving thing? Will the glasses not correct her vision enough? Because my prescription is something like -7 but I can drive with glasses on.

@Cati482 as your dd is long sighted she can see things that are further away better. It's close work that her eyes will have to work harder at focusing on. I'm glad she will be getting seen sooner rather than later

Just wanted to come back and update the thread as I know it always annoys me when OP’s start a thread and then never return!

My daughter saw the consultant ophthalmologist yesterday. He carried out a very through examination and found that there are no structural abnormalities with either eye or any eye diseases present.

She is indeed long sighted but she performed a bit better at the clinic with him than at the optician. Her right eye is weaker than the left but she has vision in that eye and the left eye is only a little off driving standard, so is optimistic that glasses will help improve it to the required standard.

He’s modified her prescription slightly but I haven’t had it through yet. He’s also said she can start with the full prescription instead of the half that SpecSavers recommended. She will need to wear her glasses full time and then he will review her again in 6-8 weeks, where he will perform more testing to see if her eyesight is improving as well as run a few more tests which weren’t available to him last evening (he wants to see her at his NHS paediatric clinic).

But the main takeaway was that there are lots of options that we haven’t tried yet to improve her eyesight so nothing is set in stone, and that the optician at Specsavers has jumped the gun massively telling us that she’ll never drive!
So, all in all, I’m feeling a lot more positive about her eyesight and hopefully she’ll make great progress with the glasses. 🤓

Brilliant update 🙂!

My friends son had a very similar prescription and was revered to the hospital. Because of Covid delays by the time he was seen he was 7. They got him to start wearing a patch for 2 hours a day. After a year it had made a big improvement. Although he does need to wear glasses his prescription is now much less.
I would expect the hospital will probably recommend she wears a patch.
My friends son doesn't want to wear it at school so he would wear it for the 3 hours when he got home from school.

Thanks for the update OP. That all sounds really positive.

Hi all
Just wanted to further update as my daughter has now been wearing her glasses for the last 8-9 weeks. She had her appointment through the NHS today and the doctor found that her eyes had responded really well to the glasses. With them on she has 20/20 vision and whilst she has a big prescription ( +5.5 & + 5.0) and will always need to wear glasses, she WILL be able to drive a car and do anything else she may choose to do. She does not have amblyopia (lazy eyes) which is what the optician at Specsavers originally told us. She potentially has dyslexia which I have always suspected and which would explain some of the difficulties she has with letters. Now that she is old enough I can look to have her assessed for this .
But I just wanted to come back and update as I drove myself crazy with guilt when we found out she needed glasses, for not realising sooner how poor her vision was and was Googling so much, trying to find anyone with a similar story to ours. Hopefully this will help any other parents that find themselves in the same position.
My daughter absolutely loves her glasses and looks cute as a button in them, so for anyone who finds themselves in the same position, try not to worry as much as I did!

Good news OP and great update. Sounds like you’re a fab mum 😊

Yay 💛!

Hi OP,

Glad to hear your latest update.

I note your thread was old so didn't immediately add with my own experience but I'm unsure why you were told DD couldn't drive. Anyone can drive if eyesight can be corrected with glasses and hers isn't terrible in the grand scheme of things.

My dad is +9 in both eyes with astigmatism of 2.

I'm -2 in both eyes with an astigmatism of -3 (that's severe!) oh and I have a small +1 in both eyes thanks to my age now!

We both drive.

I just drive wearing yellow tinted glasses at night because it helps with the light as my corneas are extremely thin and oddly shaped 😂

Long sightedness often corrects in young children if treated early enough and is often considered to be something they can grow out of. Well until you get older as that's what "reading glasses" are for.

Astigmatism you don't grow out of and I would ensure even when they are happy and if she grows out of long sight it's monitored as it can change - especially in girls around puberty. So yearly eye checks at the optician.

Hopefully your DDs sight will settle itself down and there's such advances in contacts now they allow teens to wear them so if it's a long term thing she has other options.

Personally I don't mind wearing my glasses all day every day. And wearing contacts won't help the fact I can see bugger all without them on 😂😆

Oh - and don't beat yourself up. It's very common not to know your child is long sighted. It's close up things they struggle with and if they don't know any different they just go about life as it is because it's normals for them!