parents views needed regarding childrens eyecare

[optom]

Hi all, I'm a Mum of 4, (ages 9,4,3 and 8mths), and have just started studying at university reading Optometry. As a Mum I have personally found that other than the initial developmental checks given to my children when babies, there seems to be a lack of information given regarding when children should have eye tests and what to expect. I'm interested in finding out if this experience is just in my case, or whether other Mum's have found the same. If you could take the time to share your opinions I'd be very grateful as I would really value the chance to improve healthcare information to Mum's with children of all ages, if I can see a need to do so exists. Thank you all :)

Do you know, I've never even thought about eye tests for DD (3.10), and this is despite me having been in glasses since 7. I didn't even know they had a check at school. Shocking, isn't it?

I'm in Scotland and children here get an eye test between 3.5 and 4.5. However we took DS for an eye test before he got called for his as he was blinking a lot.

He has a lazy/longsighted eye and is now wearing glasses to fix it. I feel that as there is a limited time for this to be repaired while the eye is still developing then they should check it a bit younger.

I also think more info needs to be given to parents about eyes, as children are so good at compensating for poor vision it is not easy to spot.

I get my children's eyes tested regularly but again this is because dh had shocking bad eyesight at a young age and severe stigmata, as his dad. They tests their eyes at about a year/18 months old via the HV but I think that may have been due to family history too. So far so good though!

i think you mean astigmatism?

stigmata is something else entirely!

hi optom I hope u will be recommending all parents with worries seek referral to an ORTHOPTIST as this is the specialist they need to see particularly if there is a concern about a squint !

when my dd1 (21) was little it was routine to be called in for an appointment with an orthoptist at 3, it changed to 4 for the next 2 dcs and now it's only in school as part of a wider health screen, I much prefer the way it used to be when any problems were picked up and sorted before nursery/school. I guess it's the cost. My dd3 has been under the eye unit since her squint was picked up at her 6 weeks check, ds2 who is younger hasn't been offered any screening, yet dd3 is also deaf and he's automatically been called for follow up screening with audiology. No point relying on anything from the hvs here as they don't routinely do any checks apart from the new baby one. I think a lot of it is educating parents, people don't always know where to go with young children or that you can get an eye test done from birth.

I referred dd through the hv when she was about 18 months old as she developed a squint - she was under orthoptist care at the hospital until she was 7 and then discharged to a local optician. She is long sighted and had weaker eye sight in her left eye that was treated with patching. She still has glasses. DS had an eye check when he was about 4 at the nursery (in scotland) prior to starting school and it came back ok.

Thank you brokenmarrow, I'm afraid my capacity to give advice here in this forum is zilch. This is my first year, I only started in September and so I'm under no illusion that I still know next to diddly squat hehehe. My whole purpose for posting here is to literally put the feelers out for what information parents receive regarding eye care and if there is room for improvement. :) Please keep posting, positive feedback of experience, negative feedback of experience, it's all valid and very much welcome. Thank you all x

I am very short sighted but as my parents have good eye sight it wasn't discovered until I was about 12 (I didn't realise you were meant to be able to read what was on the blackboard* !!) - my DH is also short sighted so we have had our DS's eye sight checked from age 3. No letters/information have ever been issued to us. I think it should be given as much prominence as dental check ups.

*showing my age.

DS1 is now in year 1. At the end of Reception a letter came home saying that they would be conducting eye tests at school towards the end of the summer term.

At the time of the letter, I was starting to think that he needed an eye test, but as he was going to get tested anyway left it for the school check.

I am SO glad I did wait as he has been fast-tracked through for an unusual eye disease and had laser surgery last Wednesday to try to arrest it. We now have an 8 week wait to see how successful it has been. He's lost some sight, and we don't know how much he's likely to regain, but we hope that the surgery will have stopped the disease for the time being. And at least he's in the 'sausage machine' now and will be monitored very closely.

I am a great fan of the Reception year NHS eye test and believe it should be continued at all costs.

Two of my DC were checked at the hospital for a squint. All was fine....just me panicing. HV arranged for the appointments.
DH is short sighted so we took all 6 for regular check ups staring at age 3 or 4.
We also paid privately to have various coloured overlays tested and eye muscle strengthening exercises for dyslexic sons. We didn't bother with tinted glasses in the end just used a yellow sheet over reading books.

Good luck with your course - I qualified 15 years ago now.
The EIS do produce " Get your child's eyes tested" slips which are given out in school locally to me in Camden. Its also very important for professionals to ask about patient's children and recommend they're tested at least before school.

Thank you Karoleann :) I've really been enjoying the course so far and can't wait to get my teeth into the rest of it. We haven't even touched on paediatric care yet so I'm way jumping the gun with this subject I guess and it's precisely the reason I don't want to be to narrow with the subject question or any judgement, (I as yet know nothing), but I'm really hopeful this initial eye care area may well be worth investigating towards my final years for some kind of study or dissertation. The responses from here, my local parent groups and schools so far are certainly a mixed bag that's for sure! I'm hoping enough confusion across the nation must prove to my lecturers that more education can be given and that they will support me in how to look at this further and more 'scientifically'. Or I may have to prepare to be shot down in flames either way it's great to hear about so many experiences and learn from other Mum's :)

sorry if i seemed snappy but here in NI there has been a false impression bandied about by certain groups that children with eye problems are being missed when in actual fact we have an excellent screening programme on the nhs with follow up hospital based care !

I realise this may not be the case in all areas in the UK.

Perhaps you should look at some documents related to this such as Hall 4.

One of the problems a friend of mine found was actually trying to get her dd's eyes tested. A lot of optitians refused as she wasn't at school yet and under 5 which seems silly as if there is a problem the younger it is sorted out the better and they say that by 7 if it isn't sorted it is harder to fix.

DD has had glasses since she was 2, TBH I had never spotted any problems but once just once her dad had noticed that she was screwing up her eyes at the tv so I took her to get checked as we do have a strong family history of astygmatism on my side we all wear glasses for it. She did need glasses and one eye was near perfect sight and one was short sighted with an astygmatism and that eye had become lazy.
She is 8 now and at her last eye test the optitian was extremely impressed at how good her sight is with her glasses and I have been told that is down to her getting checked early and action taken.

DS1 has nothing wrong and was again checked early in fact the hopital askd for a referral for him when he was still under 2 because of our history.
I live in a new area now and dd is no longer seen by the hospital either and I ams truggling to convince the gp to refer ds2 (nearly 18 months). The optitian said to go back and insist and if I got nowhere then he would put drops in and take a look himself if I got nowhere as he felt it was extremely impportant to know as early as possible.

broeknmarrow children are not necessarily being missed, but could easily not get treatment early enough because screening does not happen until primary school!

i hadn't noticed ds2's squint and it was only luck that my mum happens to notice these things as my brother had one, and that he was at a nursery where someone with experience happened to spot it too.
he could easily have gone untreated until he was in school.

we no longer have an 8 month check here and you have to book your own 2 year check if you are worried about anything, so many people don't have them either. ds2 DID have his as I was concerned about his speech, but they didn't look at, or ask about, his eyes at all.

I think the OP is correct that there does seem to be a big lack of information given to parents about eye care.

I agree that there is very little information or sometimes help out there for pre-schoolers.

I was reading back my previous post and realise I didnt say it was only in one eye and his reading / manual dexterity is so good because his good eye is working hard that we didn't pick it up earlier. So we haven't missed that he's going blind in both eyes and are very fortunate his condition was picked up and dealt with so quickly.

just thinking, we got a leaflet last year about the school admission process in ther nursery/pre school.
why not make leaflets for nurseries and infant or pre schools at the same time?

Do you realise there is a paid for section for research requests?

I definitely agree that more information for parents is always a good thing, i just think it should come from the NHS not from non-health service opticians who after all are running a business at the end of the day !

opticians do kids eye tests for free.

where else do you think people get NHS eye care???

my mum gets her glasses on the NHS, from specsavers. my kids have their eyes tested free at Bateman's.
you don't have to go to a hospital for routine NHS eye care.

Risk of genetic condition (occulocutaneous albinism) so eye checks from very young on both my kids. DD1 clear but diagnosed with 1 eye weaker so ended up glasses and patch from about 1 year old. Was talking with someone at the park whose ds didn't have any early tests - he had same problem just diagnosed age 4, had to patch for 3 hours instead of my dds 1 hour. Dds sight much better, no patching now and may not need glasses much longer. Glad dd got diagnosed early, but why isn't everyone checked early? Seems much better.

not all opticians treat children or babies so have treatment through hospital orthoptists. DD was not discharged to normal optician care until she was 7 years old.