longsighted toddler - glasses prescription

[Piglett]

DS is 2 and just been seen regarding his sight. He has a prescription of+4.00 in one eye and +3.50 in the other. They were just numbers to me but then in chemist today I saw that the prescribe yourself glasses only go up to +3.5. Does this mean the poor might has really bad eyesight and been going round half blind? Also are the glasses going to be able to cure this or is he going to have to wear glasses forever. I had been quite blase about what I thought was a little bit of a lazy eye that would need patching and then be ok - didn't realise how bad his eyes are. Obviously pleased that it has been picked up on relatively early on but still feel a little shell shocked. Any knowledgeable MNetter able to offer advice/make me feel better?

hi piglett, i am +4.75 and +6.25 and I was diagnosed when I was 3. Until then yes I was walking round half blind, but because i was quite shy and placid I didn't look at people so no one noticed the lazy eye apart from my mum. Once I had my glasses a whole new world opened up for me, i could define colours and outlines, I could see the expression on peoples faces without going bozzeyed!

With that prescription I am not sure glasses will FIX it. I had an operation on my lazy eye when I was 5, that just stopped it wandering on it's own, it didn't fix my sight. I have worn glasses forever and tbh, people comment that I look better with them than without, I have one of those faces that suits glasses.

Your toddler will be fine whichever way the cookie crumbles, if he has glasses forever it really is no big deal anymore, and as he gets older contacts could be an alternative if he doesn't like glasses.

I wish you and DS luck and hope he finds some dead cute specs to make he look really cool!

it is a shock isn't it? I could've cried the day we picked ds' 1st pair of glasses up at age 3 1/2, it just felt all wrong. I don't know why I felt that - I wear glasses and so does my dh so the chances were quite high. Now age 6 1/2 he looks wrong without his glasses. I've just checked his prescription and he's +2.5 in each eye. Now I'm short sighted and am -3.5 and can see bugger all without my glasses. Dh however is longsighted and has the same prescription has ds and now as an adult wears them for reading or if tired when watching tv - he can see for miles without them just not close up work. So would imagine your ds is similar. It's odd as, as a person that wears glasses you do just accept that wearing them makes you see things better - I assume you don't wear them?

ds has a micro squint and wore patches for 2 1/2 years for upto 5 hours aday - yes it's a PITA but loads of threads here of similar situations and you do just get on with it and so do they. Most squints can be solved as long as they are dealt with before the age of 7.

Any other questions - just ask

Hi Piglett.

DD3 had her eyes tested at under a year old due to referral as family history of squints. her basic eyecheck was a bit 'well not sure' really, but she was referred for a special new eye check involving a fancy new camera, which pciked up she was long sighted. A follow up appointment 6months later (the camera test meant a big waiting list as lots of little ones got referred) revealed that dd3 was extremely longsighted and her perscription is +7.5 and +9. She was 18months old.

She then developed a squint in her right eye last year, and we have had to do patching as well, but her glasses have helped a lot.

It is a bit of a shock, but dh and I both wear glasses although didnt need them until our early-mid twenties, (we are now late 20's) so it is a little easier.

Do be warned though, you will spend a lot of time getting glasses repaired, or trying to find them everyday. dd3 once hid hers in the sandpit and they came out very scratched.

i can recommend the kids sports band coupled with the curly-ended specs to start with to help keep the glasses on. After a while they do learn that they can see better with glasses on.

DD3 now puts her glasses on as she wakes up, and i have to remove them once she drifts off to sleep as she doesnt like being without them even when fallings asleep.

piglett, my ds got his glasses at 8 months. Had to put up with no end of stares and stupid comments (fancy making him wear those/we don't make babies where glasses where I come from/are they real glasses or just for fun etc etc)

He's +7.5 in each eye btw. I also wear glasses, as does my mum, gran etc so was hardly a shock, but I still cried. Anyway, he's 8 now, never complains about wearing them. WIll certainly have to wear glasses or lenses all his life. With your ds & lower prescription I don't know, but probably. But hey, it's not the end of the world. You and he will soon be very used to them. It's all new and still a big shock. Did your optician not say if it's something he could grow out of? Or is it one of those million Q you think of after you've got back home (I'm like that).

I'm taking ds3 tomorrow to get his eyes tested, and am preparing myself for him also needing glasses. And I will be upset, and I'll probably cry when(if) he gets his . But if he needs them he needs them, and we'll all get used to it.

2 is still very young. Don't worry that it wasn't picked up sooner. I remember very clearly travelling home wearing my 1st ever glasses (must've been 3 or 4) and everything seems to bright and vivid it was scary and I had to take them off. The world suddenly being brought into focus was terrifying! Didn't last long

you think you will be sad about the glasses but when you see the difference it makes to your childs life... Dd now 5 was let down by orthoptics for her first three and a half years and had no help at all. She was eventually diagnosed with a host of eyesight problems. Squint severely long sighted, nystagmus- no depth perception - this is unfixable, and astigmatism. Now she has had very strong lenses for over a year and the difference has been phenomenal. Her prescription has so many numbers on it I could not tell you but the long sighted ones are both 9. Her squint has now turned into one great eye and one lazy left eye. So patching is being tried next. I was relieved to get dd properly tested and sorted. If we had that at age .2 things like her squint may have been avoided so be happy!!

Thanks for all your helpful comments/insights. I am really pleased it has been picked up on just is still a shock as both me and his father have great eyesight (altho' I was slightly longsighted for a year or two as a 10yr old). He has been such an active little boy - always on the trampoline doing forward rolls etc and I have worried that the glasses will have an impact on that. Don't get me wrong I'm sure the glasses will really help his sight and improve things but still a little shell shocked. I hope to get them soon and open up the bright new world for him.
Only problem is that I was so sure he would get a patch that we had been bigging up pirates and I think he was quite disapointed not to be given one. A lot of talk about Granny etc wearing glasses and how grown up it is going on now.....

ernest did you get him tested cos of family history or cos you noticed something wrong with his eyes? what's the earliest they can be tested?

My DS is longsighted with a squint as well, and got his glasses a month ago aged 3. He is coping fine and looks adorable in them (but I did post a whiny thread about feeling sad over it when he got them...). It's much, much better for DC to have glasses when they need them, and if you are on WTC or benefits you get perfectly nice ones free.

was it his first eye test? how do they do it when they can't read?

Hia na. OK, ds1 I suspected as a baby (due to family history) but it was also really clear to me - the GP agreed and referred him at his 8 week check, so very young! Being the NHS, we had to wait months for his appointment, but he got his first glasses aged 8 months old.

Ds2 we had checked also quite young (maybe 1 or 2) but his eyes were fine.

Ds3, he's had a rudimentary eye test as part of his developmental checks at Paediatrician, and there was no hint at all that anything was amiss, so was BIG shock to find him dx aged 4+ (was & ).

It really was obvious even as little baby with ds1, and they could and did test him as an infant. With ds3 it really wasn't obvious, so I guess you can't always tell.

hth

sorry, re testing as young child before they can read,

in UK, (about 8 years ago) (with 7/8 month old) they put drops in to dilate the pupil then basically got him to look at various things while looking into his eye, and when the image instide the eye was in focus, this determined the prescription.

Maybe it's moved on in the last few years - the Swiss docs asked that exact Q and were horrified at this archaic method! Here they used a machine basically to do a similar job. They were most disgruntled to find that the archaic UK method was pretty spot on.

With an older child eg aged 3, so able to communicate but not read, they use a combination of the machine, plus showing them pictures of common objects like dog, house etc and they do it like that.

The drops unfortunately do hurt, so it was a pretty miserable experience to say the least, for both of us.

It's still the archaic method in the uk, at least where we go! But they do put anaesthetic drops in before the dilating drops so you just get a bit blurry for a while. Dd3's eyes were first checked at 4 months so not being able to read isn't a problem, she had her first glasses at 7 months old. She is 2 now and loves them, she's very short sighted (-9) so pretty blind without them! Like others have said, she looks odd without her glasses on now.

bigcar was their a family history that made you get dd checked or did you think something was wrong? ds is always walking into things andvery clumsy.

Hi nappyaddict! No family history of eye problems at all, I thought she had a bit of a squint and asked at her 8 week check for a referral to the eye unit. The doctor, luckily enough did it for us as she said she couldn't see anything! On the first visit she saw the orthoptist first and she wasn't convinced either, she just said the bridge of her nose was wide making it look like she had a squint. When the doctor saw her with the drops in we could have fallen over when she said how shortsighted she was and that she definitely had a lazy eye and squint as well as a partial cataract! Obviously at that age, bumping into things wasn't a problem but she used to hold her hands almost at the end of her nose staring and wiggling them and found it hard to find us unless we were very, very close. I hope that's some help, but I would always say it's better to get things checked and be sent away reassured that there's nothing wrong.

do they always have a squint if they need glasses cos i don't think ds has one?

No, I don't think they do always have a squint, that's just what happened with dd3, partly because her eyesight was so bad. If you are worried ask your hv or gp for a referral, the eye tests don't take long and will just leave your ds looking a little spaced for a couple of hours after the eye drops!

well he's had a letter for a development check which i was going to ring up and decline but it will probably be quicker going to that and asking the hv than trying to get an appointment with the gp.

Neither me nor ds1 nor ds3 have a squint and we've all got really shitey eyes

Ahh nappyaddict, you have a gp like mine then! Hope you get it sorted, let us know how you get on.

I am just a bit shocked to discover that my 2 and a half year old DD has very long sight - especially in one eye which is plus 8. Had no idea, even though I have older DCs some of whom are slightly long sighted. She is getting lenses specially thinned and has to wait a few days for her glasses. Will they look like jam jars with a prescription like that? She has shown no problems that I would have connected with sight problems, like clumsiness or a squint.

they will magnify her eyes ime. (pics of dd3 in my profile, she is a +9). they are thick lenses, but honestly, you wont notice after a while

Hello
Not sure if you any of you might still be able to give some updates on your little ones now ?
The ones started glasses before age 6-8 . Are they all stopped wearing glasses now ?
Mine 3.5 girls +4 both eyes prescribed glasses.
All I want to know is will she get ride of this by age of 8 by any chance ? Thank you !

Tilly - I'm an Optometrist (I also have a little girl who is R+3.50/L+4.50). They won't get rid of them full-time especially if they have a squint/strabismus - one eye turning in without the glasses.

My DD doesn't wear hers full time now that she is 7 as she can read the bottom line of the chart. She has a low AC/A ratio which means that she doesn't squint with her glasses off which combined with her high amplitude of accommodation means she doesn't struggle without them for distance, although she would always wear them for reading and close vision tasks.
I also find that long sighted children tend to concentrate better in a classroom situation if they are wearing their glasses, so she wears them constantly in the classroom environment.

Hi Underneaththeash thank you very much for your reply !
What is Ac/A ratio should I have her checked now ? When did your DD started wearing glasses and has the longsideness improved since ?
And very important question is they shouldn’t squint anymore as long as glasses on ?
Thank you so much ! !

My son has just just had his first eye test of +9.50 and +9.75 and also an astigmatism. We collect his glasses on Thursday. My question is how can my sons prescription be so strong when he hasn't been suffering from any symptoms at all. He is 5