Severe longsightedness in daughter

JulieM

Has the optician explained long-sightedness to you? It's when your close vision is fuzzy but you can see clearly in the distance. It's probably only showing now that's she's doing more reading and the letters are smaller. Her distance vision won't be affected, that's why you, or she, never picked up on this.

MrBrindle

JulieM wrote: »

Has the optician explained long-sightedness to you? It's when your close vision is fuzzy but you can see clearly in the distance. It's probably only showing now that's she's doing more reading and the letters are smaller. Her distance vision won't be affected, that's why you, or she, never picked up on this.

Yeah he did, and this is where it gets confusing. He sort of explained that she struggles to see close and further away? She has struggled to see things around 10ft away from her - like the white board in school etc. So I thought she'd be short sighted then? They did a test where he had a little piece of metal with like patterns on it, and she could only see the star and none of the other 3 shapes. As far as I understood longsighted means poor close vision and short sighted means poor long vision.

I don't quite understand tbh. When we get the prescription next week I'll ask more questions - just we were a bit in shock yesterday and didn't really ask much.

Owain_Moneysaver

Rubik wrote: »

I said exactly the same thing!

And in case anyone isn't old enough to know what the frames looked like:

And if you want to buy them now they're £55.

hazyjo

MrBrindle wrote: »

Yeah he did, and this is where it gets confusing. He sort of explained that she struggles to see close and further away? She has struggled to see things around 10ft away from her - like the white board in school etc. So I thought she'd be short sighted then? They did a test where he had a little piece of metal with like patterns on it, and she could only see the star and none of the other 3 shapes. As far as I understood longsighted means poor close vision and short sighted means poor long vision.

I don't quite understand tbh. When we get the prescription next week I'll ask more questions - just we were a bit in shock yesterday and didn't really ask much.

You can have both (look up 'varifocals').


I wear glasses and don't think anything of it. They're very trendy again at the mo - look at the last Love Island lot to see how big glasses have got for the girls again (Deirdre, eat your heart out!).


I find it easier to remember that:


short sighted means you see short
long sighted means you see long


Rather than trying to switch it round in your head and say short sighted means you can't see long distance. It just gets confusing that way. But, like you say, she could have a touch of both.

MrBrindle

hazyjo wrote: »

You can have both (look up 'varifocals').


I wear glasses and don't think anything of it. They're very trendy again at the mo - look at the last Love Island lot to see how big glasses have got for the girls again (Deirdre, eat your heart out!).


I find it easier to remember that:


short sighted means you see short
long sighted means you see long


Rather than trying to switch it round in your head and say short sighted means you can't see long distance. It just gets confusing that way. But, like you say, she could have a touch of both.

Yeah I'm not sure, she was 6+ and 8+ so I assume that means both are longsighted. Unless that is so longsighted she can only see very far away objects clearly?! Hoping to have more of an idea next week. Just feel sorry for her in the meantime that she's having to deal with this issue.

Rubik

Mr Brindle said: Just feel sorry for her in the meantime that she's having to deal with this issue.

Your daughter has been dealing with her eyesight all her life - she now has glasses which allow her to see clearly for the first time. Please stop making having to wear corrective glasses into some sort of major issue - if your daughter picks up on this it will give her a complex about wearing them.

Davesnave

MrBrindle wrote: »

Just feel sorry for her in the meantime that she's having to deal with this issue.

Your daughter'sjust had one of her abilities enhanced.

You and your partner are the ones with the issue, but in a few weeks it's possible, likely even, that you'll be used to it.

kirtondm

More Technically speaking

Longsightdness people will strugle MORE for near than distance but it does not mean they will not struggle with distance. At values +8.00 they will struggle for all distances without spectacles.

It is to do with the length of the eyeball and nothing to do with diet etc.

You need to stop blaming yourself as their is no way you could have been aware unless a squint had developed.

As long as the spectacles are worn vision will be normal - She will no go blind that is when even with spectacles people can't see.

Young children tolerate spectacles extremely well.I would not bother getting a 2nd opinion their is no way an optometrist will have decided a kid is +8.00 when they are plano!

With that prescription she will need full time wear otherwise the world will be blurry and risk the vision not developing properly. She may need patching if one eye is weaker than the other.

This is not an uncommon reaction to first specs for kids! I get it at least once a month! - The key is to try and go through at the time which it seems the optom in question did.

This kind of precription is likely to stay relatively stable it is unlikely to get much worse but equally will not go away.

rach_k

If you're worried, speak with the optician again when you go to collect the glasses. I'm not sure if it's the case for all Specsavers branches but ours requires the optician to approve the fitting of new glasses (they don't for adults) so they may well be there already.

I wouldn't fret over it anyway. My daughters both have glasses for very slight long sightedness and it seems like half the school does! By making a big fuss over it, you're likely to disadvantage your daughter as she'll pick up on it and start to wonder if she's faulty or if she's done something wrong. Let her enjoy it instead! My youngest cried when she didn't get glasses at her first appointment and was over the moon when she was finally allowed them the next year. So what if her eyes aren't perfect? Are you going to cry if she's not a fast runner or able to kick a ball the length of a football pitch? Some people can do that so are those who can't 'faulty'? NO! We just all have different bodies, able to do different things.

Hillwalker11

You are the adults here. Your reaction will be what your child notices. She will be wearing glasses as do a huge percentage of adults/children. She needs to feel proud of herself for who she is.
My son was born with a bit lateral cleft lip and palate. Whilst he was never going to win any Bonny baby competitions, we brought him up to be proud of his differences. He had 5 operations, the first at 3 months, the last at 10, when bone was taken from his hip and grafted onto his upper jaw. He had 4 years of speech therapy and 10 years wearing braces.
When he was called names, he would turn round and laugh at his perpetrators. He wasn't often bothered by the bully boys, he could stand up for himself.
He is now in his early 30's and is a Neurosurgeon. All those hospital visits in his early years paid off!.
As parents the best we can do is to play down anything a bit different and not overthink 'what if? It is what it is and you have to deal with it calmly and logically. My son also had to wear glasses, so the name calling was quite something 'Muppet mouth' was the one I remembered. But we all came through it stronger than we started out! Everything will be OK, try to curb your anxiety, wait until she is a teenager, believe me the glasses will seem like a very small issue then!!