Can eyes get worse within 3 weeks?

[MamiSandra]

Hi,

Three weeks ago, my 5 year old ds had a routine eye test at Boots. They established that he needs glasses and said his prescription on his weaker eye was about 3.5. He is long-sighted. Because of his age and the fact that he has a mild squint, they referred us to an eye consultant for an accurate prescription.

We saw this consultant today and to my great shock, he established that his weaker eye is 9! How can this be so much worse that the 3.5 measured three weeks ago. Is it possible that eye sight can worsen that much without glasses within 3 weeks? Or is it a case of Boots having not measured properly?

I know this must be impossible for anyone to answer, but I would love to hear from people with similar experiences.

Thank you.

Sandra

did the consultant do a test with dilating drops?

No it can't get that much worse in 3 weeks, the initial optometrist mustn't have used dilating drops (as he was referring). He must have been +9.00 for a while. Hopefully his glasses will keep the squint straight and improve vision.

My daughter has jumped from +1.5 to 9+ over a couple of months, even if she was in the care of pediatric opthamologists (at Great Ormond Street Hospital) and dialating drops were used - but her case may be quite different from your boys. At any rate I wouldn't worry too much as the childs eye changes a lot up until age 10 so even if he's had inappropriate prescriptions for a while he's got time on his side. The specialist you'll see will have lots of different techniques to measure the required strenght of glasses so should be accurate in future. Obviously you'll be anxious that your boy has had the wrong prescription for a while but my daughters vision is now 2.5+ so it has gone down dramatically and your boys vision may do the same. In fact I've been told to expect changes of prescription every few months and that's what I've seen so far. However, my daughter was born with a condition so it is somewhat different for her case perhaps. If your worried and don't think you can wait for the appointment by the specialist I'm sure you can get in touch with Great Ormond Street Hospital Opthamology department (which is where my dd receives excellent care) or call Moorfields eye hopsital and ask to speak to the pediatric registrar (they have one on call all the time). If your not comfortable with doing this yourself you could perhaps get your GP to call? Good luck.