Glasses for mild long-sightedness in kids

onlyroz

My kids have both been prescribed with mild longsightedness (my daughter is +0.75 in both eyes and my son is +0.75 in one and +1 in another with slight astigmatism). They've both been told that they should wear glasses while reading or watching TV. To me this seems like a very mild prescription to need glasses - but I think the idea is that if they wear them for a few years then they might be "cured", whereas if they left it then they could get worse.

Has anyone else been given glasses for such a low prescription? And was it the case that glasses were only needed for a few years?

duloch

onlyroz wrote: »

My kids have both been prescribed with mild longsightedness (my daughter is +0.75 in both eyes and my son is +0.75 in one and +1 in another with slight astigmatism). They've both been told that they should wear glasses while reading or watching TV. To me this seems like a very mild prescription to need glasses - but I think the idea is that if they wear them for a few years then they might be "cured", whereas if they left it then they could get worse.

Has anyone else been given glasses for such a low prescription? And was it the case that glasses were only needed for a few years?

Similar to my prescription I got last month except I'm 0.75 and 0.50. 2 years ago I was 0.25 in both eyes. Did get free nhs glasses due to being on low income but didn't really wear them at all. This time I have been wearing them so hopefully in 2 years time my eyes won't have changed.

jenniewb

I had an astigmatism and milk short sightedness when I was 4 (this was when it was picked up). The optition I remember telling me explained that it was important I wore my glasses all the time so my eyes could get better and my mum let me pick any frame I wanted. But fact is in the '80s glasses weren't trendy and bullying was rife, I was not going to wear them and I didn't and each time I went to get an eye test my eye sight had gotten worse. By the time I got to secondary school I could not see without glasses- not as far as the words in a printed book let alone a blackboard.


I have no idea if my eyes would have gotten less worse in time had I worn the glasses as a child. I doubt the astigmatism would have gotten better but the short sightedness I'm not sure about. Both the astigmatism and the shortsightedness are at a level now where they are a small fraction from being applicable for complete NHS funding for the entire glasses (sadly the NHS wont offer if you add both the prescriptions together to give an overall number, both are around -3, added together per eye is an effect of over -6 which is applicable for the full £200 odd which I have to find myself instead if I need new glasses-hence only being able to afford new glasses on credit every 5-6 years.)


I would love to have eye sight which isn't as bad as it is. I know there are people with eye sight worse than mine, this is not a woe-is-me. It's me saying if there was anything I could have done to have prevented this I wish there were and the words of my optician which were said over and over to me about wearing my glasses "all the time" so they could get better- or even stop them getting as bad as they did...It's just such a high price to have paid (literally) because now I'm unlikely to ever not need glasses, lazer treatment is never going to happen and not being able to afford my lenses year on year so living with headaches when the prescription is too old or living with scratches when the lenses have become worn and so on....I see all these offers (BOGOF, discounts on a second pair, money off a complete pair, even complete lense and glasses costing...) which are not applicable to me because of the strength of my lenses (the price is much higher) it would just me nice to know that I could afford another pair every two years rather than upwards of every 5-10 considering that still at my age my eyes do still change every year.


And don't even get me started on the prohibited price and blurry vision I get from contact lenses which have to be made especially.


So if your wondering if such a small prescription matters- if my experience is anything to go by, yes it does. I don't know for sure if wearing glasses would have prevented my eyesight getting worse but if my optician was being honest with me when I was 4 (and 5 and 6 and 7....) then it is down to me and my refusal to wear them. (having said that, I've no idea what the effects on being heavily bullied for wearing my glasses as a small child in a class full of non glasses wearers would have been and wouldn't like to think...)

onlyroz

Thanks for your opinions. I wore glasses when I was very small and back then the NHS frames were hideous. I can't say that I was really bullied but it certainly knocked my confidence a bit. These days it seems like the NHS frames are much more stylish, and neither child is too unhappy about having to wear them (although they've got another week or two before they actually get them so they might change their minds).

My main concern is that I was given different advice for each child even though their prescriptions seem very similar. My son (age 9) was told that he only had to wear the glasses when he was reading, writing or watching TV. My daughter (age 5) was told that she should really try to wear them all the time. I'm not sure if their relative ages were a factor or if it was just that different opticians have different opinions (they both saw a different optician at the same practice).

Sazzarella

I didn't think bad eyesight could be cured. I've been wearing glasses constantly since I was a child and my eyes have continued to get worse every year. Currently -5.50 and -5.75.

Rodders53

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/long-sightedness/Pages/Introduction.aspx

It may be possible that a squint might be involved in one and not the other? But the big issue in not wearing them will be eye strain / eye tiredness making things uncomfortable.

Really you should go back to the Optician and ask for further explanation, just to satisfy you as to why.

My youngest had squint and wore specs (and/or an eye patch to exercise the lazy eye) for a time. Now has no need for them at all.

My eldest is short-sighted (like me) and has worn glasses since young and still needs them.

As one gets older one tends to get short-sighted and that would potentially mean some young long-sighted people have a period when no correction is necessary.

+ve dioptre lenses correct long sight (can see distant objects can't see close)
-ve dioptre lenses correct short sight (can see close objects, cant see distant)

theoretica

According to this: http://www.uhs.nhs.uk/Media/Controlleddocuments/Patientinformation/Eyes/GlassesforChildren-patientinformation.pdf
a child's visual system develops until age 8 - see pages 2 and 3 in particular.

onlyroz

Sazzarella wrote: »

I didn't think bad eyesight could be cured. I've been wearing glasses constantly since I was a child and my eyes have continued to get worse every year. Currently -5.50 and -5.75.

I think that while a child is still growing their eyesight can change. The optician said that it is common for children to be a little long sighted initially and that this can gradually work its way back to "normal" so that they don't need glasses any more. It is more problematic if they start off short sighted.

elsien

I don't know what the prescriptions were, but my teenage niece was told if she wore glasses then she may only need them for a year or so, whereas if she didn't wear them at all then she'd likely continue to need glasses longer term. I think she was meant to wear them all the time, but being a teenager decided just for lessons, reading and watching tv.
I don't think she needs them any more, so something seemed to do the trick.

onomatopoeia99

Sazzarella wrote: »

I didn't think bad eyesight could be cured. I've been wearing glasses constantly since I was a child and my eyes have continued to get worse every year. Currently -5.50 and -5.75.

I started wearing them (horrible NHS frames) when I was 7 so that I could see the blackboard, by the time I was 10 I needed them all the time. My prescription peaked at around -7.5 when I was 30ish, now (age 45) they are coming back and down to -6.25 / -6.5, so I guess I will start to need a separate set of lenses for close work in the next few years

ginvzt

My son is 2.5 years old and he has just been prescribed glasses, he measured +2 in one one and +1,5 in the other. Option gave the prescription for slightly less. his twin sister measured +1 in both eyes, no glasses for he. She explained to me that at this age longsightedness is quite common in the children and it can correct itself as the head/eye grows.

We went to optitian as my son was constantly rubbing his left eye (the one that measured +2). He had his glasses for enarly 1 month now and willingly wears them, so I assume it makes him see better and feel better. In my research I also read, that at this age and strength the glasses for longsightedness are often prescribed not to correct the eyesight, but to reduce the strain on the eye muscle, giving the chance for the eyes to get better.

Both me and my husband are short sighted. He is about -3/-4, I am much more severe at -8 in the right eye, -9.5 in the left. I have been wearing the glasses since the age of about 10-11, yes, horrible tiny ones, as theat is when the problem was noticed by one of my teachers. At that point my left eye was -8.5, right abtou -5.5 or -6. I had numerous exercises and similar to try and improve my eyesight, which occasionally made a difference by 0.5, but soon to return to previous number or get worse.

Maybe the problem was picked up early enough and the glasses were issued straight away, I may have not ended up with the glasses so strong, but we will never know. I am sure to keep an eye on my childrens eyesight...