Severe longsightedness in daughter

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

MrBrindle wrote: »

Our teacher noticed recently that our 4.5 year old daughter has been struggling to see a bit during school work.

So today we went for an appt, and discovered she is severely long sighted, 6 in one eye and 8 in another.

I cannot believe it, she has never complained to us about not being able to see something, or never exhibited any signs like a squint or lazy eye developing. She's never rubbed her eyes or has never looked like she's struggling to see. She does school work well too, like drawing letters, words, shapes etc. Just don't understand how they're so bad.

I don't wish to offend anyone who wears glasses, as a lot in our family do, but we're very upset tonight. Both of us have shed a few tears and my partner has had a panic attack after reading online that those numbers mean 'severely long sighted', and may not improve at all. I guess it just hurts that your child had something wrong with her. I know this problem may sound trivial to others.

We were hoping she may only need glasses for school work/watching tv etc, but the optician has said it's best if she can wear them all the time, to stand the best chance of improving the eyesight. And will probably need to wear them for the rest of her life.

Has anyone had any experience of this? Did the eyes improve at all? I don't know if it's a bit OTT, but we're both feeling extremely down, and very guilty that neither of us noticed anything wrong with her.

It's not a disaster. She isn't seriously ill. She just needs to wear glasses.

Get a spare pair, as once she's able to see clearly, she'll be doing far more activities confidently and it's a right so-and-so trying to cope when the world is returned to the old fashioned blur whilst replacements are being made.


I had no idea (neither did anybody else) that I needed the things for shortsightedness until the school held eye tests on site and I walked across the room to read the letters. But I'd sat on the table nearest the teacher and the board since I was 4 and had no problem with things up close like reading and maths, so nobody thought much of my being useless at sport other than gymnastics.

Getting my glasses suddenly threw the entire world into sharp, bright relief and I saw things I had only ever read of or heard. Like birds, the number on the bus - or the car turning the corner as I was riding my bike. So the initial 'just wear them for looking at the board' became 'I wear them all the time so I can see what I'm doing'.


This is one of the few times when you need to be told that you are both being ridiculous and to keep your mouths shut about it other than to smile broadly and tell her her glasses look amazing.

Madmel

Please please try not to worry or get upset in front of your child. I'm really long-sighted and had a squint which was surgically corrected when I was 3 (except it wasn't great). When DD1 was 2, we noticed one of her eyes was turning in when she was tired. Our dragon-like Health Visitor was actually brilliant and referred us to the local hospital which has a regional eye unit. They diagnosed DD1 as very long-sighted and prescribed glasses.

I was quite apprehensive about this even though I was/am a wearer myself. I went to check out the local shops before dragging a toddler and baby round. Vision Express were unbelievably rude to me. They accused me of trying to turn my child into a fashion accessory. I have never crossed their threshold again. SpecSavers were brilliant (no, I don't work for them). They showed me their ranges and explained that very young children often have wide nasal bridges and they could adapt glasses to fit. I took DD and her hospital prescription there and she loved it. She was less keen on wearing them, so I resorted to bribery. I drew some on her favourite dolly then set the oven timer for 5 minutes. If she kept them on until it beeped she got a chocolate button. Then it was 10 minutes, then 20, then 30... She managed about 10 in an afternoon and that was it.

We were advised to get 2 pairs by SpecSavers. They also recommended getting different styles. That meant that in the morning instead of telling her to put her glasses on, I would say "pink ones or purple ones?" She loved having the choice,

She is now 19 and studying at Cambridge. She has worn glasses ever since then. Her eyesight has improved and because we were fanatical about patching at 2.5, her eyes are now pretty similar and new opticians cannot tell which is her "bad" eye. She has a driving licence and competes for her college in sports. Funny enough, she broke her last pair and rang me in a panic to send her old pair to her as she was living in sunglasses. She did sort herself out, but we have gone back to the 2 pairs just because she knows how reliant she is on them. She now coordinates them to her outfits!

Please don't worry. It's a shock to discover that your little one is not quite perfect, but DD has honestly never been bullied and has managed so well that it's now become part of her.

GlasweJen

You don't need a second opinion, the less medicalising you do the better. Optometrists are highly trained in this field and the hospital is only appropriate for really tiny children who can't be tested conventionally or who need input from orthoptists (specialists in eye muscle disorders, your child would have a squint or be complaining of double vision. The optician would have tested for this during your daughters test).

In 6 months time the optometrist will check your daughters vision with her glasses on, they might try and fine tune the prescription and see if they can sharpen her vision a bit.

Your daughter won't go blind. She just needs glasses. You need to calm down.

splishsplash

My younger daughter was always prone to tripping over and would stand very close to the tv if she had the chance. When she was about a year and a half, she was found to be extremely long sighted and also had/has astigmatism. One eye was beginning to turn in when she was tired. She was almost functionally blind in that eye because her brain couldn't process two such wildly differing vision streams and discarded the one from the weaker eye. She needed patching and very strong coke bottle glasses.

She loved her glasses immediately because suddenly she could see everything. She would even insist on wearing them in bed and in the bath! She had prescription goggles for swimming and sunglasses also. Patching was a bit more difficult but with perseverance it did the job.

She was under the care of an ophthalmologist and orthoptist for years and her eyesight has improved significantly. She quickly moved to aspheric lenses in her glasses which were lighter and looked far better. She wears lenses mostly now, but can do without them unless working or driving or watching tv/movies. They are a much weaker strength and both eyes are the same in terms of long sightedness.

It hasn't stopped her doing anything - she's always been active, has travelled the world and has an *extremely* active social life. So don't worry, glasses will help your daughter, no doubt about it.

sillyvixen

Don't beat yourself up for not realising your child has sight problems, children who need a high prescription, often get to school age before it is recognised by teaching staff. They have always had blurry vision so have thought it normal.

I remember years ago a set of parents who were horrified their daughter was very short sighted, a teacher in reception had suggested a test as she felt the child had problems with the board at school. Glasses were prescribed, fitted, and a week later the mother and child came into practice with a box of chocolates, the girl stated she knew there was a tree at the bottom of the garden but thought you had to go down the garden to see it, she had never realised every one else could see it from the window!

As others have said there are worse problems children can be diagnosed with than needing glasses.

Gloomendoom

One morning my next door neighbour's son complained that he couldn't see his breakfast. It was right in front of him. He only had peripheral vision. It turned out that he had an aggressive tumour. By the time it was cut out he was only able to see light and dark

OP please get a sense of perspective. Along with 68% of the UK population, your daughter only needs to wear specs.

annandale

In shock because your kid has to wear glasses? Seriously. There are kids who wont see their next birthday. I've been wearing glasses since I was 12. Im short sighted, very in one eye and long in the other. The long sighted eye is also lazy so even though I have vision, the eye doesn't do any work which means when I need to wear contacts I only need to wear one. My brother is more short sighted than I am. He has been wearing glasses since he was 8. He was devastated and cried but got over it and he wears contacts now and glasses sometimes.

All of my family wear glasses or contacts. I can understand you feeling guilty, even though its not your fault but down? Having panic attacks?

I also had surgery in my eye when I was a baby to correct a squint and yes my mum felt bad as other people noticed and she didn't but loads of kids these days wear glasses, I was never bullied for wearing glasses and Im talking almost 40 years ago now.

The only time I wanted to ditch my glasses was when I was in my late teens and was going out socialising with my pals and then I got contacts

I also would avoid places like specsavers like the absolute plague. The last 4 pairs of glasses I got from them didnt last the two years they were meant to. The next pair I get are going to be for an online optician.

annandale

Sorry to anyone who works for specsavers on here, but I wont be touching them with a ten foot pole ever again. Their glasses are expensive (and crap in my opinion). I paid 100 quid for a pair, they didnt even last a year and the leg fell off, they had no part to replace it and they told me to get superglue to hold in together. The last pair didnt even last a year before the same thing happened. That time they had no spare part and they sellotaped them which lasted all of five mins

Asda do two pairs for the price specsavers do one. They also advertise in the hate rag that is the daily mail.

Their opticians may be very good but their specs are terrible quality

Please. I suffer from anxiety. I have also been wearing glasses almost 40 years now and I am not blind yet. Neither is my brother. Neither is my mum, who will be 70 next year. My gran lived till she was 86 and she wore glasses. She is not going to go blind simply because she is long sighted!!

I suggest you get some treatment for your OCD and anxiety if you aren't already before passing over your irrational fears (and they are irrational), to your child

beedeedee

My son was very long sighted and was not allowed to wear glasses when playing football (even with the under 11's), so has worn contact lenses since he was 9. Never had any problems.
He's now in his 40's......

Davesnave

annandale wrote: »

Sorry to anyone who works for specsavers on here, but I wont be touching them with a ten foot pole ever again. Their glasses are expensive (and crap in my opinion). I paid 100 quid for a pair, they didnt even last a year and the leg fell off, they had no part to replace it and they told me to get superglue to hold in together. The last pair didnt even last a year before the same thing happened. That time they had no spare part and they sellotaped them which lasted all of five mins

Do you realise that Specsavers is a franchise? The quality of service is variable, but I'm happy with my local branch, which recently put a new arm on 5 year old specs my grandson helpfully 'modified' for just £5. They've also changed nose pads for free in the past.

Obviously, the quality of frames varies, and all will be bought-in. Thanks to my prescription, only a few are suitable for me, and because of my lifestyle only two of those are tough enough. They're expensive, but virtually indestructible in normal use, so the cost works out fine in the long run.

I'm not saying 'You get what you pay for,' because I imagine a huge mark up on specs is typical wherever you go, but with difficult requirements, I'm happy with my Specsavers branch and the care they have always taken.