glasses "necessary"? - Page 4

[talk de jour]

Originally Posted by mommy2maya

I am dying for LASIK. Maybe if it ever becomes cheaper than getting new boobs.

[Kreeblim]

Originally Posted by mommy2maya

I am dying for LASIK. Maybe if it ever becomes cheaper than getting new boobs.

LOL. I had LASIK in 2002 and managed to get financing for it. When I was approved for the financing they gave me this big packet telling me about my "elective surgery line of credit" which had a limit of like 15 grand. I still looked at LASIK as a medical thing because I wasn't doing it for looks...I was doing it because I hate the inconvenience of glasses and can't wear contacts.

As the implications of the paperwork dawned on me, I wandered over to the receptionist and asked if LASIK was considered the same thing as plastic surgery and she replied that it was, and if I ever wanted to have anything else "taken care of" I now had 15 grand to go take care of it with

At least she stopped short of naming the things she thought I should be "taking care of"

[elmh23]

Talk de jour- at what age would you recommend children going in for their first eye sight tests?

Dh is one of 5 kids and all of them are in glasses (except the one who had LASIK.) His mom was legally blind until the first eye surgery came out, then she only had really thick glasses. As far as I know, none of the children needed glasses until puperty, but dh and I have been wondering if we should take in our 5 year old. Dh says that all of a sudden one day he couldn't read the chalkboard. He was around 12. Obviously it wasn't an overnight thing though.

[Tofu the Geek]

Originally Posted by elmh23

at what age would you recommend children going in for their first eye sight tests?

Around here they recommend you child should have their first eye exam by age 3. A child can have vision that differs greatly in each eye and if caught early enough it can prevent lazy eye and wandering eye. They also want to detect vision problems before school starts and they need to start reading close or seeing a chalkboard far away.

They discovered my lazy eye (lazy eyes aren't crossed or wandering, that's different) at age 7 and by then it was too late to do anything about it. Wearing glasses and a patch never fixed it for me so I am forever living with depth perception issues.

[mommy2maya]

meaning at an eye dr or a screening at the ped?

[savithny]

I should also add, to address the "very active" part:

My DS started wearing glasses in 2nd grade. He is a very active kid - he spends the summer at an all-outdoor camp, running through the woods, climbing trees, building forts. He plays soccer and is going to start tennis this spring. Glasses have not been an issue at all. He hasn't lost them, he hasnt' broken them. The new frames stay on faces very well, and the new lenses are very scratch-and-chip resistant.

Despite being a bookish girl, *I* was very active. I was also outside, running and playing and scrapping all summer. The only pair I ever broke (and these were old-school *glass* glasses) got dropped and stepped on when I purposely took them off. I played sports throughout Jr. High including basketball and volleyball and never had a problem.

My dad has been a tennis player for 50 years and a coach for 40, all in very thick glasses.

There really is no correlation between not wearing glasses and being active or sporty. You can be as active as you want to be while wearing glasses. Wearing glasses will not prevent you from being active, and glasses are not a risk factor during activity. And *not* wearing glasses is not going to *help* activities, since allowing eyesight to get worse will only harm athletic performance of most sports!

[superfastreader]

So true, savithny! I took gymnastics and participated on the swim team, took ballet and tap and modern dance, rode horses and bikes and rolled down hills. All thanks to the glasses (and later contact lenses) that helped me see where I was going!

[Tofu the Geek]

Originally Posted by mommy2maya

meaning at an eye dr or a screening at the ped?

Our optometrists office has a sign saying that a child should have their first eye exam by age 3. I'm in Canada so kids don't see normally paedatricians here; the go to family docs and neither of my kids have had a screening there at any of their check ups. But, kids have their yearly eye exams covered by provincial health here, so there isn't any excuse for people not to take their kids (since there is no cost to the parent for the exam) which I suspect is why there is no need for a screening at the docs office.

DD went a few months before she turned 3 and she had a full exam where she gets the measuring done on her eyes (by machine), then points out animals on a screen to the eye doc (and they get progressively smaller), tests where she looks for textured letters on cards, etc.

[talk de jour]

Yes, age 3 is a good time. It's important to see an optometrist or ophthalmologist and not just be screened at the ped, because an eye exam is more than "can you see well?" It also involves the health of the eye.

[elmh23]

Thanks. I'll start looking around for someone to see.

[talk de jour]

Great!

Here are some helpful resources to help you get the most out of your child's visit to the eye doctor:

http://www.rnib.org.uk/eyehealth/vis...spx#H2Heading2

http://littlefoureyes.com/2010/01/21...hilds-eye-exa/

http://vspblog.com/2009/08/31/your-c...he-eye-doctor/