Dd has just come home from school with a letter suggesting a referral to an orthoptist

[tortoiseSHELL]

As far as I'm concerned her eyesight is fine, but they did vision tests at school today, and she came home with R for refer to the orthoptist. I'm now panicking! She's in reception - any ideas or reassurement? Thanks!

Oh - sorry - just read that she's young etc

I did have a look at your pics and it is a hard thing to tell from some of them because photos don't always give you a good idea and when her head is slightly tilted it can make eyes look off centre when really it isn't.
This is all going on the assumtion that it is a squint though it could be short/long sighted a lazy eye anything.

Try not to worry until you know more there is no point in grieving for something that might never happen it will all be fine no matter what.

I've had a look but really couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. There are just so many other tests and things that can be done. I'm sorry but you'll just have to put on your brave, cheery face and take her in

FWIW, I am an optometrist in the US and I am taking my son in next month to a developmental optometrist to have further testing. I don't suspect anything specific but he is not terribly cooperative when mom examines him and he is 4 1/2 which is a critical age to catch problems with the visual system. So I finally decided it would be better to just let someone else take a look as well.

glasses arent the end of the world tortoiseshell. honestly!

dd3 has been wearing them for over 18months now, and they just are a part of her. i think it enhances her big eyed look. loads of pics of her ihn my folder. she still has to have the big toddler ones with the curly ends, your dd will be able to choose from loads of styles, if she does neesd them, which she may not.

dd1+2 are always trying on the glasses at the opticians whenever dd3 needs her repaired or replaced.

It's good to go for a proper eyetest.

I taught my own son for a bit when he was 11. I noticed that he was behaving strangely in lessons (only looking at the board when absolutely necessary, and then squinting, or looking at his neighbour's notes).

The penny dropped that his eyesight was a bit suspect. I whisked him off to the optician and it turned out the were about minus 2.5. I was horrified and shocked that I hadn't spotted anything before. He was unaware because it was all normal to him.

The school nurse just phoned me, and said that the test they did at school showed that her right eye was not performing as well as her left eye. Looking at pictures I've realised her hair is often over her right eye - could this be a contributing factor? And is this something that could be rectified? Thanks!

Does this sound like a lazy eye? I know there's not much you can tell from here, but it is really worrying me!

.

It sounds as if her acuity is not as good in that eye which may or may not be lazy eye. When is your appt?

tortioseshell, my DS1 (also in Reception) had a routine eye test was told me he had a slight squint and poor (long sighted) vision in his left eye. The orthoptist appointment in January confirmed this and he know wears glasses.

I, like you, noticed nothing was wrong and the orthoptist said the squint was very slight and not obvious to the untrained eye.

It took a while to get used to seeing DS1 with glasses but he is very good at wearing them and we have a follow up appt later this month to see how he is progressing.

obviously I mean he now wears glasses!

jabberwocky, I don't know, the nurse will make it for us. If it was a lazy eye, could I have caused it by not always stopping her hair flopping in her eye? (she has a wonky head, and it does seem to flop on that side if it's going to).

meemar - did your ds1 mind wearing glasses?

my dd has worn glasses since she was 18 months old, her sight is very poor and she has a squint on the left. it was quite scary as one day, her left eye was turned in all of a sudden, she's worn glasses ever since. we went to the hospital and were told after her first sight test there, she has very bad eyesight, she's been doing a lot of work in order to see, she'll need glasses and they'll have very strong lenses in them.

i was devastated and cried all the way to the opticians with the prescription, but now, we're so used to seeing her in them, she looks odd without iykwim.

if your dd does have a lazy eye, it is best to get it checked out asap, a lot can be done early on to correct it, if left, it will only get worse.

have a look on my profile, there's a pic of dd in her glasses, and wearing her patch, which we're doing 2 hours a day atm

She looks really cute lucykate, and that patch is fantastic!

I have been crying on and off since yesterday at the thought of there being something wrong which is STUPID I know. Goodness knows what I would be like if they had something serious wrong. A wreck I think.

it's just the shock that makes you feel like that, it's upsetting being told your perfect child is not so perfect, but, like you say, after a while, you gain some perspective and realise it's not so bad. dd has pink barbie glasses, and she loves them!

her classmates are all jealous and complain of sore eyes all the time, keep asking their parents can they have glasses

A friend's litle girl recieved one of these letters last year when in Reception. her mum took her to the opticians who had the orthopist there who did a full sight test and her eyes were fine, just needs check ups every couple of years.

ps, hair in front of the eyes will not cause a lazy eye etc, it is all down to the internal muscles of the eye. the way it was explained to me is that, they look with both eyes, one works better than the other, so the brain stops using the weaker one, relaxes the muscles, and that is when it can 'turn'

hth

DS1 hated the idea of wearing glasses. But he is the type of little boy who is not happy with things not in his comfort zone!

We had a long chat about wearing glasses (I wear them so I think it helped) and we went to choose them and he was fine about it. The first time he wore them at school his teacher said there were no problems at all.

lucykate - that's so true. She is a 'perfect' little girl - always has been, and it's that horrible moment where they say 'there may be a problem....'

Ds1 and ds2 have always been much more 'needing' of medical stuff - ds1 is appallingly fussy as an eater, and extremely thin, so I'm used to the HV worrying about him. Ds2 has been referred to both the eye hospital and for an xray on his hips - he has blocked tear ducts and may need an op later on, but his hips were fine. But dd has never needed anything at all.

Hula - that's really encouraging, thank you!

TS - I think it's normal to feel a bit upset about it- especially when you had no idea that there was something wrong with her eyes.

I came away from the initial eye-test feeling really odd because I was expecting them to say his eyes were fine!

I put it into perspective the same way as you are doing though. If this is the worst thing wrong with your child then you are very lucky

Ds wears glasses. And I HATED the idea of it, and most of his early photos don't have them on. But I have got over it now, and wonder why I was so silly.

Had to share- my dd1 developed a really horrible squint when she was about 16months old. She was wearing glasses before she was 18 months old- her prescription was -9.75 in both eyes, with fairly bad astigmatism to boot. We've never lost a pair, although that might be because she likes wearing them so much she never takes them off! Often she falls asleep wearing them and won't open her eyes in the morning until she's reached out, grabbed them and puts them on. She says the world is just too weird without being able to see it properly. As for them breaking, I recommend plastic frames all the way. They're not at all like the old fashioned NHS ones- see my profile pics if you doubt me!

Incidentally, one of the best days in my life was when we went to pic up dd1's first pair of glasses. She put them on, looked directly at me with her mouth open, and said "hello mama!" We think that that was the first time she had ever seen us properly, and it still brings tears to my eyes when I tell this story to anyone. (Vic wanders off, snuffling slightly....)

Ds has a squint too. We are patching. We have had round metal milky bar kid ones. Got new ones this week, Ds asked opticina for "Clark Kent ones"
I demanded that he had 2 - one for normal, one for patching, thus also means we have a spare for the few times that they have been broken - sent back to lovely opticcians and new pair within a week. At the hospital they were reluctant to give 2 pairs, ( everything comes down to finaces/resources, doesn't it). but I was VERY insistent

vwvic - your girls are gorgeous!

There is something vunerably sweet about little kids in specs. It makes me feel all protective of DS1 when he comes out of school

i'm going to uplod loads of 'speccy' pics of dd3 now

she is utterly sweet wearing them and gets lots of comments on her lovely glasses. she got told yesterday in ikea that all the best people wear glasses, which i thought was lovely. she has never had a problem with wearing them ,i know it may change when she starts school but i will say it again, glasses are the new cool.