To ger child glasses

[Honeybeesinthetrees]

Our 4 year old child has assessed by an optician as needing glasses as they are long sighted. DH has been reading up on this and some information states that children's eyes can naturally correct themselves over time particularly for long sightedness. We are unsure if our child should wear the glasses or let his eyes naturally correct themselves, he's still very young

I don't think wearing glasses would stop that happening. And in the meantime, it helps him to see!

I was very longsighted as a child and eventually had to get reading specs as I got awful headaches aged around 10 - got to mid 20's and ditched the glasses. I'm in my early 50's and just got varifocals. Yes you get more shortsighted as you get older so it sort of 'corrects itself' but don't let them go through go through the pain without the specs!

Why wouldn't you want your child's sight to be corrected while they grow out of the long sightedness? Trust me it is really annoying to be long sighted (you'll find out yourself in a few years!) and it will make it harder for him to read.

All children are a little long sighted and this corrects over time for many. Children aren’t given glasses for being as long sighted as other kids their age. But your child might be a little bit more long sighted that average for his age. If you feel unsure I’d clarify it with the optician but I wouldn’t just disregard it as your son may be struggling.

Our 4 year old child has assessed by an optician as needing glasses
Just read that again…

I mean, lenses and frames are viewed as medical devices. Why would you not give them a medical device they need?

Most children are born with long sightedness and it slowly corrects itself over time.
If your son has been prescribed glasses, his long sightedness is over the normal parameters and it's unlikely the eyes will correct themselves without the glasses. He could go on to develop a squint or a turn in his eye.
My son had long sightedness and a slight turn in his eye ( nobody noticed except me). I took him to the opticians. As it was caught early at age 4, he was prescribed glasses and they helped teach the brain the right messages to send to the eyes, so his vision corrected itself. He is 7 now and at his last appointment, the turn had completely gone, his vision is normal and his eye muscles are strong. The optician told him he no longer needed them. My son cried at that appointment as he loved his glasses. He missed them for a few weeks, but soon got over it.
Why wouldn't you want to protect your child from a likely squint and blurred version?The glasses are free, come in cool colours with popular cartoon characters on. There's absolutely no stigma these days.

My husband got glasses at a young age and is adamant it made his eyes much worse. I had two cousins who needed them and didn't wear them and eyes corrected themselves. I needed them and wore them and my eyes got worse every year. I feel you end up being dependent on them, but this is all anecdotal of course and none of us are optometry specialists

Do you know how frequently little children damage or lose their glasses? A hell of a lot.

It isn't financially worthwhile for an optician to prescribe your child glasses on the NHS, so if you are happy to wait until it is then don't get your child the medical device they need now

That's ignoring the fact that if you get your son the medical device now and make sure he uses it he could grow out of them in a few years.

If you've been advised he needs them then for goodness sake get them to help him see properly. He may or may not grow out of it. My dd got glasses at 18 months for long sight and although her sight has improved she still needs glasses.

@Passingthethyme that is a myth.

If you are used to seeing well with glasses then when you don't wear them it is like your eyesight is worse.

Incidentally both mine and one of my sister's eyesight improved slightly wearing glasses.

Big joke is my sister's took 2 years and mine took 20.

In my case the multiple opticians couldn't work out how or why, so randomly to this day I have "disagreements" with random opticians in the same chain who can't understand why my eyes improved as an adult.