Having children's eyes tested....

[Yorkiegirl]

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Not a 3 yr old but I took my 8 yr old last September and he did need glasses. I went to my own optician, but any optician will do as they test children's eyes for free. You also get a voucher towards the cost of glasses if they need them.

DD1's short sight wasn't picked up until she was tested in Y1 at school - maybe she just didn't have it until then, certainly she could see planes very high up when she was tiny. Because of her I started looking out for the other kids' sight when they were younger than that and I definitely had DS2 tested first before he started school - just at a good local optician, which is where we still go. They are dearer than eg Specsavers but very reliable and we always see the same opthalmologist (?).

Ask around, YG, see if any of your friends or parents of kids at school recommend anywhere as being good with children.

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My ds (4) wears glasses and has had them for almost a year. I noticed that he seemed to be squinting when looking at picture books and took him to the gp who referred him to the optometry department at the local hospital. They had all sorts of special stuff for testing a 3 year old's eyes. It took a few months for the hospital appointment, but was well worth waiting for as they clearly knew how to test children and also had the equipment to check my ds's eyes once they realized from the eye test that he had astigmatism. It's all free. I upgraded on the glasses (although the nhs ones were actually quite nice) and paid a whole £10 extra for some pretty blue ones. They have already had to be repaired 4 or 5 times and replaced 3 times in the first year. We go back every 3 months to have his eyes rechecked and they wrote a second prescription so that he would have a spare pair (nhs ones this time) to wear when the other pair were off being replaced/repaired.

DD "appeared" to have a squint when she was 8mths, so had regular appts at hospital optowhatdoyacallthems.... It amazed me how well dd sat for each appt she is now 2 and has been signed off by them. But i was told to get them checked again when she starts school and to go to any high street opticians for that.

I took my dd to Boots opticians - they were very kind and patient with her, she didn't really understand what the optician was saying to her, so I just repeated the questions and pointed to the letters etc, turned out she didn't need glasses after all, which she was quite miffed about.

I took mine six months ago (and due to go back). Went to Vision Express and they did a very thorough test - first looked in a machine where they measured the eyeball and got a prescription estimate, then an eye test with the optician using pictures rather than letters.

My HV recommends all children at the age of 3 start going for regular eye checks (something I think is probably right - my short-sightedness got missed for a good while as a child). She also mentioned that one of the signs of short-sightedness is a child who blinks a lot (as they are trying to "clear" their eyes to see better).

My ds1 (3yrs 8mths) is very slightly short-sighted but not bad enough for glasses yet. Was told to take him back after six months (and I really must make that appointment!)

Meant to say that they also did a very thorough colour blindness/long sighted tests specially geared for kids - was very impressed.

Just wondering, DS1 and 2 both were automatically given eye tests through HV at around 3.5. Is this not a routine health test in all Health trusts then? That seems a bit unfair!

serenity: they've stopped the official 3 year checks here