Sight problems going undetected with eye tests is this normal?

[lexcat]

DD friend had this problem changed optician and problem where found. She now has glasses which have made a huge different for her.

I ask, as dd gets what I think is eye stain headaches, (use to get them myself) occasionally with tired eyes. Been every year to have her eye checked since she started school (Yr4 now). The headaches started just over a year ago have been to the optician since. Very slightly long sighted but normal for her age.

Headaches are coming more frequent and sore tired eyes seem to have started but not so often as headaches. Is it worth trying getting a second opinion as is it that normal for problems to go undetected.

May be worth her having eye drops (cycloplegic refraction) if this hasn't already been done.

This will check she isn't more longsighted than is coming out in the normal eye test.

I would ask your optician about this in view of her symptoms.

If it has been done then there isn't likely to be a difference found by another optician.

No she's never had drops but I always thought that was for younger children.

Mother intuition have never felt 100% sure about her vision but hard to explain why. It's little things she mentions. If you've got to 8 without glasses how can you tell what normal vision is like if it's never been that way.

Yes, drops are normally used on the younger children but would still be useful and give an definative answer in view of your dd's symptoms.

I didn't have glasses until 8 and thought it was normal to not see anything (very shortsighted) so agree with you there.

Just spoke to her turns out she likes sitting at the back of the classroom because the whiteboard is much easier to read then at the front of the class.

Have also discover the left eye is better then the right. When reading she showed me that she need to hold the book out at arms length to get the best view of the book with her left eye covered. Plus she said she can read smaller print but prefers books with larger print.

Will be getting her appointment asap come Monday.

I'd also try a new optician. ds's extreme long sight was missed twice by our local optician (the school nurse picked it up instead, and routed him to the local eye specialist via a community optometrist). The problem there was that she couldn't get past his behaviour (slightly hyperactive and dyslexic four year olds probably are difficult to test, but I wish she had said that, as if he'd had glasses at four rather than six his prognosis would have been a great deal better).

An planning to go to a new optician that comes highly recommended but normally have to wait 3-4 weeks to get an appointment and the head optician up to 2 months from what I've heard.

If she does need glasses how longs the normal time from appointment to having them ready given that it's a small local practice.

I myself go to spec-savers normally appointment and new glasses within a week. But I'm just a little short sighted with a very simple prescription.

Shouldn't be any different. We all have complex prescriptions, go to a local optician and it takes about a week. It's only quicker where there is a lab on site and the prescription is very basic (possibly just reading glasses).

I'm coming to the conclusion she needs glasses. She was reading a phone number out to me which end 8000 (normal size print) she couldn't tell how many zero's their were 3,4 or 5 I suggested to move the card closer or farther away till she could make it out. Full arms lengh before "it's easy now there are 3, their not all muddled together."

Her great love is reading but never got into larger chapter books but wants to read them. Gives up very quickly, never been able to make sense as she has a high reading age. I feeling very sorry for her as suddenly it makes sense. In her words "when there's lots of writting the lines get muddled up or the letters sometimes look like one nor 2 or 3, so my eyes go funny and I have to stop even when I want to read the book." Poor thing that was normal and she's never said.

Plus I feel like a rubbish mother as I thought there has been problem for some time but never push and just thought it was me been parinoid.

Thanks I know the opticain that's we are hoping to see is on holiday. So will be a few weeks but 1/2 term just round the corner. She managed for a few years now so I'm sure she'll manage. I do think it's been getting worst what with the headaches.

Interesting. From what you have said it sounds as if she might be longsighted (the paper being far away before she can read it, sitting at the back etc) and yet she also is struggling with her near sight (reading) although the letters moving around is something that dyslexics sometimes complain about (coloured transparencies sometimes help to calm things down). I think hanging on for the really good optician and making sure that you explain her difficulties is definitely the way to go. If you have a week or two to wait, it might be worthwhile keeping a note of all anything eyesight related in the meanwhile. You also might want to get a GP appointment, as it's possible that this is a migraine related issue with the headaches.

"I'm coming to the conclusion she needs glasses. She was reading a phone number out to me which end 8000 (normal size print) she couldn't tell how many zero's their were 3,4 or 5 I suggested to move the card closer or farther away till she could make it out. Full arms lengh before "it's easy now there are 3, their not all muddled together"

DD has a muscular problem with her eyes that means she sees double if a book is too close. If you put your finger in front of your face at arms length then bring it forward most people start seeing double at 8 cm, she sees double at 20cm. This wasn't picked up for a while and she never told us she was seeing double for quite a long time. I think she was about 9 and she has been seeing the same optician all her life.

She does not wear glasses but is supposed to do excercises.

I love mumsnet all you mums are a wealth of information.

Don't think the headaches are migraine related as they are normally mild I think just a bit of a bore for her.

I myself am dyslexic as is my mother and grandmother so have always looked for that but there no signs.

I think it's the clarity of words is the problem up close. I know myself from first having glasses for short sightedness I couldn't believe the clarity of distance. I'm assuming it just the other way round been long sighted. Therefore letters in words become one. Just like leaves on trees become one mass for me without my glasses.

Bruffin, you could almost be describing my own 9 yr old dd. She has had eye tests since age 4, because eye problems run in my family. However, last year she complained of headaches, and the optician suggested eye exercises.

She's been doing those, but just to be sure I went to the GP with her, who referred her to a specialist dept at the hospital.

They reckoned she's okay, and the original eye exercises do help, but she does need to hold her book out further than I would. I strongly suspect she has the very good long sight of her father, who's only just begun to need reading glasses.

In fact she has her follow-up appointment tomorrow morning!

I just remembered what it's called! "Ocular Convergence"

The muscles aren't strong enough to move the eyes inwards when she is focusing on something close to. She is 12 now and was complaining about her eyes the other day so I do need to take her to get checked out again.

Unfortunately she has the attention span of a gnat and she won't sit for 10 minutes doing the pencil excercises. There was an improvement when we did the excercises originally.

Got her an appointment in just over 2week time.

Just found this "Children?s eyes are very flexible, and they are often able to compensate for long-sightedness by focusing the lens." which is very interesting. It does go on to explain that it can lead to headaches and sore eyes and they might find books hard to follow.

Just an update, came out of school on Monday having done lots of writing in the morning saying she had a headache but it was starting to go. Tuesday headache again had been working on the laptops, so changed her appointment for tomorrow. Just becoming more clear that she needs glasses. This way she's got some of the half term to get use to them. Today was ok but very little close up work mostly board work.

Fingers crossed I'm not been a paranoid parent and they say her eyes are total normal. I hate been the pushy parent when it comes to professionals they have a habit of making me feel about 2 inches tall. As your made to feel your wasting their time.

OK paranoid mother, but also not sure and will keep a close eye on things, don't feel their is any thing I can do for now.

One eye is very slightly longsighted and the other one slightly more between +0.25-+0.50. No glasses needed. Even though she has been having problems the optician thought it was just dd wanting glasses and making up the symptoms. DD was not keen about glasses the quite glad not to be having them.

The optician showed dd what it was like with lens with small print "the prints clearer" but then told her it would be no good as she would have problem with her long sight. Showed her the letters on the board telling her they were all blurry. Interestingly dd did say they looked better with the lens with both short and long distance, but not till we had left and didn't understand why the optician said it was blurry because it was not.