if you think your child needs glasses at age 8 is that too late

[southeastastra]

to rectify any problems

Don't beat yourself up about it. When they ralised how short sighte I was, they couldn't believe no one had noticed but I had grown accustomed to it and compensated for it in different ways. Wearing that first pair was like an epiphany. I can still remember looking around the classroom (P5 I think) and being amazed at all the posters on the walls. Never once did I feel I had been let down. It was really exciting actually.

It was an epiphany for my son too, which is why he has never tried to not wear his glasses. Life took on new meaning for him.

i know he's a smart boy but something stops him from understanding it all.

i'm really hoping now that it is his sight

and i posted on a live chat with one of the guest speakers on here and they suggested an eye test too, i could kick myself

what sort of sight problems does he have? if it's shortsightedness then it really won't make any difference to the condition that he didn't wear glasses for a few years - I was shortsighted for ages before my mum twigged - like jjs2 and scienceteacher's son, I just got used to not being able to read the blackboard etc and worked around it!

i don't know really, words in novels. though he seems to get batman on his ds

Hands up - we didn't realise DS was so short sighted either - there were NO CLUES until it was picked up in a school eye test. I was blown away. We tested him at home - stand by the kitchen door and read letter names off a poster on the far side wall - he couldn't see a thing until we moved him right up to it! How had we missed it? How had I, his mother, missed it?

BTW, so many children wear glasses now, none of the other kids even comment on it.

You cant do anything about the past. Get him an eye test, see what the problem is and see what happens. Feeling guilty wont help.

Short sight or astigmatism have different causes and therefore different corrective methods.

If he needs glasses you will probably find that the help they give him means he will wear them and be happy to.

we did test him alot though, he can read things close up, mayble its things from a certain distance. what is that? i have no experience at all with eyes

Dont upset yourself, think parents always feel guilty about there children needing glasses. I know I did. My ds was 4 when he started wearing glasses(short sighted), and it was only after hv said he went very close to things and sent him for an eye test. His eyesight was really bad, and has actually improved over the last 4 years, hes nine in May and his last test 4 months ago showed his eyes were still improving. Has a stigmatism as well, which has also got better. Just persevere with the glasses and Im sure he will be fine. Try not to beat yourself up over it, anyone can make a mistake.

If he is short sighted, he will find it hard to see things further away.

Very common.....I too was late getting my first glasses because I just didn't realise that you were supposed to be able to see the blackboard, and just found other ways of doing my work. If this is true for your ds, you just need to get him tested now.

sounds like short (near) sight

Sea I did similar to you -- lazy eye, diagnosed too-ish late (five), never did the right thing with the glasses.. sounds just like you.

BUT -- somehow her lazy eye corrected itself from a -2 to a minus 0.5 and her other eye has not been affected. So maybe you shouldn't feel so bad. Maybe probably no harm done.

LOL at Jas - it is so true. You actually believe that everyone sees the same general blur.

i'l take him on monday, i really have been referred to all sorts for him.

its just annoyed me that i haven't even considered it a problem

My DD was diagnosed with an astigmatism at 3. It means the eye is oval shaped rather than round and so can make things look 'wavy'.

18 months of glasses has helped Dds eyes and the astigmatism has improved slightly. There is a point where the eyes are developed properly either 8 or 11 (I cant remember) where an astigmatism is unlikey to 'improve' although wearing glasses can correct it and make the vision normal.

Alternatively short-sightedness would make things far away seem blurry and he would need glasses.

have an appointment in an hour, thanks for all your help on this thread. i'm very nervous for him

southeastastra - You don't fix short-sightedness with early diagnosis. You just wear glasses/lenses to see better.

I was diagnosed at age 8, as well, and told to wear glasses. The stubborn bunny that I was, I completely refused and went straight to contact lenses. My parents had concerns about whether or not I would be able to manage properly caring for contact lenses, but it was fine (And those were the days when you would buy a pair and hope they last you some years. Lenses were expensive and not daily/monthly)

friend of my mum's didn't realise till she was in her 20s and got glasses that trees were suposed to have individual leaves and not be one big green blur. She'd compensated incredibly well all through school and university being pretty short-sighted.

Anne - Just for your info, astigmatism is not caused by the shape of they eye, but the shape of the cornea or lens behind it. Oval eye leads to short-sightedness or long-sightedness.

And it doesn't make you see things wavy. That would have been funny Rather, it makes you see lines in a tilted/broken way, so makes it hard to tell fine details. For example, my myopia (short-sightedness) is not too bad so I can drive without contacts, but can't read license plates even if the other car is right in front of me because of the astigmatism.

gosh...i didn't start wearing glasses until i was 24! i too could not believe how unblurry things were...!Street lights didn't run into one etc....

i'm still a bit confused. it maybe long sightedness and the optician said there was a prescription that could help, but i have to go back later in the week so they could use some eyedrops for a more detailed exam.

I dont think that a delay in realising someone is short or long sighted makes any difference, just makes it blurry while you dont know.
I was about 10 when I was tested and found to be short sighted. I hadnt been aboe to see clearly for ages, and it was affecting my work at school, because I couldnt see the blackboard, but it had never occurred to me that I might have eye problems. I was amazed when I actually got my glasses, couldnt belive how much I could see.

southeastastra - Long-sightedness? So your DS can see far (reads blackboard, subtitles at movies, etc), but can't see near (can't read book in his hand).

Imagine the eye as a sphere. Now press from front and back. That is what his eye looks like. Because the distance from cornea to retina (front to back) is shorter than usual, images focus behind his retina rather than on it.

No drops or medication is going to change the shape of his eye and hence his far sightedness, but the correct prescription glasses or contact lenses will help him see better.