Glasses for children

HelenKA_2

I don't claim to understand optician speak at all but I wanted to empathise with you. Our youngest DD was also picked up at school and was almost 6 by the time we were seen at the hospital. She was prescribed patching for 6 hours a day initially plus glasses and I had to bite back tears in the clinic.

But her teacher was lovely about it, they did circle time on it and not one person ever said anything derogatory to her, infact when another child had to do patching a few months later I think it helped that B had already done it.

6 hours is so long in one day but B never ever complained about it, I was prepared to do some kind of star chart or reward scheme but I never had to.

When we went back to the hospital they said they had never had such a dramatic improvement in such a short time so we patted ourselves on the back for that.

She still wears glasses but we have fun choosing new frames and infact the first time her twin was a bit upset that she wasn't getting glasses.

In our case I have never had glasses - infact I never saw an optician till an adult - but my husband had a squint (which B has too with a lazy eye) and wore glasses till about 16 yrs and only started back wearing them a couple of years ago so my knowledge is minimal.

So I just wanted to encourage you that it isn't such the big deal that we as parents might think and that you're not alone in the guilt, it's only normal but what you can do now is follow the clinic/drs advice to the letter.

Helen

kj*daisy

We have had this with our DD , also 4. I noticed she was starting to squint so took her to the optician, and her prescription is a + 6 in one eye and +7 in the other, so really bad. She also has to wear a patch for 2 hours a day as the worse eye had become lazy. Again she has had no problems with this at nursery.

When you go to hospital they will check the prescription and sounds like they may change it. They didn't decide on patching until DD's second hospital visit when the orthoptist said that the glasses alone weren't sorting it out enough.

Like you - we hadn't a clue that DD had these problems till she started squinting and it's because children can compensate for bad eyesight for a while but eventually the eye strain causes the squint to start up. I felt really guilty.
I was upset at first but the glasses are really cute and even the patching hasn't been at all problematic.

take care

Krystaltips

Don't beat yourself up about it... Children deal with what they've got, she probably doesn't even realise she has a problem with her eyesight and therefore gave no signals for you to pick up on.

shoppingnoodles

maybemischief wrote: »

Hi I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post but im looking for some advice please.
My daughter has just had her school vision test and was recommended to see an optometrist.
We went today and She has been given the following eyesight prescription.
R sph +4.75 cyl -2.00 Axis 180.0 L sph +4.50 cyl -1.00 Axis 180.0

Apparently this is a temporary prescription as she will have to be referred to the hospital.

Im aware that this is a pretty serious eyesight problem but dont really understand the extent. Neither myself or my husband wear glasses and we hadnt noticed any problems with her. I feel terrible. Any advice please?

Hi there.

Firstly, don't feel terrible! You have done all the right things. Long sightedness like your daughter's is relatively common and is often called "latent" as it can be hard to detect.

Kids don't fully develop adult levels of vision until they are about 7. If they need specs, but aren't corrected so that they can see well, they can never develop sharp vision. This is why its important for little ones to be checked and their eyesight fully corrected as soon as possible.

Your daughter is quite long sighted, which means that her eyes don't magnify things enough, and she is also astigmatic, meaning that her eyes are rugby ball shaped. This would make images blurry and a bit stretched. When kids are little, their eye muscles are very strong and the structures inside the eye are very flexible and because of this, some of the long sighted prescription can be concealed during an eye test, unless eye drops are used to relax the eye muscles. When your daughter goes to the hospital, the prescription may change after she has been checked with these drops and if that is the case, she will be given stronger specs.

The hospital will probably keep her close for a few years, to monitor her progress. Wearing her specs should make her ability to see well develop, but if one of her eyes is lazy (meaning that it isn't developing as good vision as the other)she may need to wear an eye patch for a while. This will cover her good eye and make the other eye develop.

You have done all the right things and your daughter is getting treatment in good time. The hospital clinics are very expert at dealing with this kind of problem, so don't be worried-you're in good hands.

Hope this helps a bit.

mrcow

She's long sighted. And only +4ish.


The best thing you can do is just not panic. Get her the glasses on the temporary prescription and chase the hospital up for her appointment.

I was gutted when my son was first dianosed with the problems he has with his eyes. Mind you - it was only me worrying - he seemed oblivious!

modgit

Another "and me" here too. Our youngest DS was prescribed glasses last summer at the ripe age of 19 months. His prescription is +8 in both eyes!
He wouldn't (obviously) comply easily with any of the tests and frame trials, yet when his proper glasses came he put them on and we've never looked back since.

Your DD has exactly the same prescription that I have, once glasses are being worn properly she'll see so much better.

Once you've had your referral they'll give you more idea about what's next. If it's similar to our son, a consultant will see her for the official prescription and then you'll have regular visits to an orthoptist. The orthoptist are the "fun" ones, they play games to get their readings
If you've any questions please feel free to PM me, there's not many questions I haven't asked in the past year!

maybemischief

Many thanks for all of your replys and advice. When i went to a car boot this morning i noticed how many small children wore glasses and pointed it out to my daughter. She now quite excited about getting them!! Thanks.

Js_Other_Half

DS has been wearing glasses for about 3 months now - he's been very good with them. He recently started wearing a patch for 2 hours a day, and was most impressed to find a baby in the 'baby room' at nursery also wears glasses and a patch.

The orthoptist at the hospital said whilst DS may be the only child in his class to wear glasses at the start of his schooling, he will not be the only one by the end of that first year.

Actually I am very unimpressed that we are all encouraged to register our children at a dentist from being very young, but we don't get any information about how important it is to take them for regular eye tests. After all, baby teeth fall out but if their eyes aren't sorted by 7/8 then it may be too late.

mishkanorman

in my area children have a very basic eye test at 3 at the local health clinic, slightest thing and they are referred to the hospital. my ds was picked up here and has specs for the last year, thank god they are an improvement on the choice my and my sister had which was white, blue, or pink plastic ones !! he wears his mr bump specs with pride,


mishka

mrcow

maybemischief wrote: »

Many thanks for all of your replys and advice. When i went to a car boot this morning i noticed how many small children wore glasses and pointed it out to my daughter. She now quite excited about getting them!! Thanks.

Kids love glasses. My son has had Batman, Spongebob and even Clone Wars.

My three year old is desperate for glasses after seeing her brother in them but doesn't need them. You can get really cool frames these days (not like when I was a kid and had to wear one size fits all NHS glasses!)