Should I get my dd glasses?

[beth144]

Recently i had my dds vision checked (5yrs old) and dr said she was borderline for needing glasses and it was up to me if i wanted to do it. he said her vision was a little over +3 (farsighted) in each eye and the recommendation was +3 and above to get glasses for children. to me +3 seems a little more than borderline, but he did mention that can be normal for her age and he's not sure if her vision will get better.

at first i was thinking no, she sees just fine, but now as we are working on reading more i'm not so sure. she seems to do fine when shes working on the reading eggs until it comes to reading whole sentences, same with reading the bob books. i know this could be just her age but we've been working on this quite a while, by her request (since she was 4) and i'm not seeing much improvement in reading sentences. possibly she has a vision issue other than the farsightedness? what do you think?

[DaughterOfKali]

If she's having trouble seeing properly then, yes, get the glasses.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by beth144

i know this could be just her age but we've been working on this quite a while, by her request (since she was 4) and i'm not seeing much improvement in reading sentences. possibly she has a vision issue other than the farsightedness? what do you think?

One thing that comes to me is that she might not be developmentally ready to get much further at this point even though it's something she's wanting to do - it just takes some people longer. It's one of those exceptions to the old adage that where there's a will there's a way . The other thought, especially since you've had the report from her optometrist, is that there very well could be vision skill issues to look into - many optometrists simply don't have the orientation or training to consider those as much. I go to an optometrist who knows about vision skill issues but doesn't treat them - he just does lenses, and he has done a little bit of vision skill therapy in the past, but he is supportive of the work of another optometrist we both know who does only vision therapy. Here's the article I wrote about my son's experience with vision skill therapy. We've been discussing vision therapy on a current thread initially about dyslexia. Lillian

[AAK]

If you can afford it, I would get them. Once she is used to corrected vision, she will probably appreciate it.

Amy

[cbyrum]

We did get my 5 yr old glasses but he was starting to complain about some things being blurry. We never could pinpoint what exactly was blurry but he has an astigmatism as well so they were thinking it would affect both his near and far vision a bit, then coupled with his unable to see things far away, made them recommend glasses as he was complaining about it.

His eyes did actually get a bit worse by his next apt as well so I'm glad we did get them. He's had no trouble with them at all except for forgetting where he put them on occasion.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by cbyrum

He's had no trouble with them at all except for forgetting where he put them on occasion.

Something that's helped me remember where I put things - when I remember to do it, which is rare - is to say out loud to myself "I'm putting my _______ in the bowl on the end table." Just brings in another of the senses that might be able to make the memory more accessible. - Lillian

[beth144]

thank you all for your replies! just to clarify i'm not really sure how she sees, she's never really complained that i can think of. her little sister has glasses due to her prematurity and dd1 has said she sees blurry too, but i think that was because of all the attention little sis was getting because of her glasses. dd1 has never complained consistently about vision problems, just when little sis is getting attention.

i don't know if i would have suspected any vision issues if it hadn't been for the drs exam. now i'm curious to know what would turn up if she were to have a visual skills exam just based on what i've noticed when she is trying to read or do workbook pages.

so do you still think get the glasses and see what happens? then possibly get a visual skills exam? do both?

[Marimami]

I don't think it's fair to assume she has seen properly because she hasn't complained. If it's how she has always seen, then how would she know that things could look better?

In January, my daughter was identified as having astigmatism that our doctor felt was bad enough to necessitate glasses for reading and writing. She had never complained about not seeing things clearly, but she said the difference was obvious with her glasses!

Some of her symptoms previously seemed like she wasn't developmentally ready for the reading activities that she requested. Yet, as soon as we got her glasses and encourage her to wear them while working on these activities, her behavior changed completely.

She's had them for a few months now, and I have no regrets!

Holli

[cbyrum]

Originally Posted by beth144

thank you all for your replies! just to clarify i'm not really sure how she sees, she's never really complained that i can think of. her little sister has glasses due to her prematurity and dd1 has said she sees blurry too, but i think that was because of all the attention little sis was getting because of her glasses. dd1 has never complained consistently about vision problems, just when little sis is getting attention.

i don't know if i would have suspected any vision issues if it hadn't been for the drs exam. now i'm curious to know what would turn up if she were to have a visual skills exam just based on what i've noticed when she is trying to read or do workbook pages.

so do you still think get the glasses and see what happens? then possibly get a visual skills exam? do both?

At just 5 her eyes aren't fully developed yet - our eye dr. told us that typically around 6 is when they finally have fully developed eyes. It sounds like her issue is close up though and I believe that is fully developed by now. I know my daughter at 4 had 20/40 vision and he said that is normal for a 4 yr old that it isn't 20/20 til 6 or so.

The reason we went with glasses is my son was complaining. If he hadn't then we wouldn't have gotten glasses yet, probably not until at least next year.

My daughter (my almost 5 yr old) was a preemie too A 29 weeker so really close to your baby girl, technically I guess she was 28 week and 6 days so we just go with 29. Other than vision how is she doing?

[onyxravnos]

when he did the exam did be dilate her eyes or just had her read the chart? young kids can't always read the chart well as its weird and they get confused with the 'does #1 or #2 look better?' thing

if he dilated her eyes (which you would know he would of said so and sent her home with little paper sun glasses) and she is a +3 Get the glasses she needs them. +3 is not borderline and it just means she doesn't know she can see better because she has always seen like this.

if he didn't dilate her eyes go back and have a doctor re-check with her eyes dilated.

[moominmamma]

I'm the mom of four farsighted kids. Three of them have/had mild degrees of farsightedness (2.50 - 3.00 diopters). At that level kids can see clearly at a distance, and can compensate with their lens muscles to bring things into good focus up close -- at least until those muscles fatigue. So they know what normal clear vision looks like, and they can be relied upon to start complaining if they're bothered by their farsightedness. Some of them may complain of tired eyes, or achy eyes, or headaches, or blurriness when focusing up close in a sustained way. Two of my farsighted kids never complained, even though they read for hours and hours at very young ages. My ds was different; once he was reading novels, he noticed his eyes got tired. At that point we got him glasses and he used them for up-close work for a couple of years. He's pretty much outgrown the need for them. (Farsightedness usually gets outgrown to some extent as kids get closer to adolescence.)

I'm also the mom of a farsighted little girl who never once complained of vision issues, and yet who turned out to need glasses desperately. She began reading at age 3, and her decoding ability was awesome. By age 5 she could read anything, but hadn't really become fluent. More than a sentence or two and she'd run aground. It turned out she required 7.75 diopters of correction. She never complained of visual problems, because her farsightedness was so bad that even using all her lens-focusing strength things weren't in focus. She had never seen things clearly. So sometimes if the degree of farsightedness is so profound that kids don't know what "normal" is, they won't complain.

Anyway, if your dd's eyes were dilated as part of her exam, and you're comfortable that the refractive error measurement of 3.00 diopters is accurate, I think there is no harm in watching and waiting to see if she complains of eye strain symptoms or blurriness as her decoding ability improves and she begins reading smaller text in more sustained ways.

Miranda

[Satori]

Originally Posted by onyxravnos

when he did the exam did be dilate her eyes or just had her read the chart? young kids can't always read the chart well as its weird and they get confused with the 'does #1 or #2 look better?' thing

if he dilated her eyes (which you would know he would of said so and sent her home with little paper sun glasses) and she is a +3 Get the glasses she needs them. +3 is not borderline and it just means she doesn't know she can see better because she has always seen like this.

if he didn't dilate her eyes go back and have a doctor re-check with her eyes dilated.

My dd's eyes have been dilated every 3 months since she was just a couple of weeks old and never have we been given drops AND told to stay out of the sun after appts. We do take some precautions (dark tinted car windows and such) since she's sensitive to light in general but sunglasses? Never.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by Satori

My dd's eyes have been dilated every 3 months since she was just a couple of weeks old and never have we been given drops or told to stay out of the sun after appts. We do take some precautions (dark tinted car windows and such) since she's sensitive to light in general but sunglasses? Never.

Seems to me like a good idea. I remember the last time I had my eyes dilated and went outside to the car - it was almost painfully blinding until I got into the car and got my sunglasses on. - Lillian

[Satori]

Originally Posted by Lillian J

Seems to me like a good idea. I remember the last time I had my eyes dilated and went outside to the car - it was almost painfully blinding until I got into the car and got my sunglasses on. - Lillian

I goofed, the or was supposed to be an and I've watched her and she's never complained about the bright sun light after getting it done. No fusssing, crying ect. We actually keep her right eye dilated all the time with atropine and still no fussing/complaining even though she's in full sun light. This summer I'm going to try getting her to wear sunglasses now that she's 4 and a bit more cooperative.

[beth144]

yes, they did dilate her eyes, so i feel pretty confident on their assessment. they also measured and took pictures of her eyes with a computer. we always get the sunglasses, but my kids won't keep them on, they're just cranky about it the rest of the day i guess one thing that i didn't mention before was that she had an exam a year ago that showed just +3 and this time it showed a little over +3 (like +3.25-3.5). i think today we will look into getting the glasses since we have insurance to cover it and go from there to see if it helps anything.

my preemie is 2.5yrs old now and she is getting so big! i don't know where she is on the charts but she has 3yr old friends she's just as big as and she wears a size 4T! everyone always comments on how well she talks too, full conversational sentences with reasoning and deduction. she's so imaginative too. really so far all we've noticed is that her eyes and teeth are not physically 100%. as far as any learning issues we are uncertain...

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by Satori

I goofed, the or was supposed to be an and I've watched her and she's never complained about the bright sun light after getting it done. No fusssing, crying ect. We actually keep her right eye dilated all the time with atropine and still no fussing/complaining even though she's in full sun light.

Wow - I'm impressed. Or maybe mine get dilated to a greater degree. Lillian

[Satori]

Originally Posted by Lillian J

Wow - I'm impressed. Or maybe mine get dilated to a greater degree. Lillian

I doubt it, her eye is fully dilated. Its done to blur out her vision to force her brain to use her other eye which she doesn't really use or so they tell me. Seems to work just fine to me but 3 different eye specialists have told me she has severe amblyopia.

[elmh23]

I'd get them. My daughter (also 5) thought she could see fine and it turned out that her vision is 60/20. She can't legally drive a car without corrected vision! Anyway, after getting her glasses, while still in the parking lot, she says to me "Mama, I can see FAR!" She really had no clue that she wasn't seeing things normally. Also, since she got them in mid-March, she's made huge progress in her reading skills, something she'd been actively pursuing since she was 3.

[GoBecGo]

I'd get them. My dad was the class idiot until, age 8, they realised he was short-sighted. He went from literally bottom to literally top of the class in 3 months after his glasses were purchased

[PGTlatte]

If she is only recently five, her vision may be completely normal for her age.

Our DS2 is 4.5 and far-sighted, but the developmental optometrist told me his vision would need correction for this if he was older and it did not change, but that at this age it is perfectly normal for kids to be somewhat far-sighted. She advised me to not ask him to do any close-up work with small print until he about two years older...that kids this age should only be looking at print that is large and high-contrast. She advises against putting young kids in glasses when their vision is not abnormal for their age just so they can do close-up work that is beyond what is age-appropriate for their vision. So since that is his only vision issue, and it's not outside what she considers the range of normal for his age, we chose not to put him in glasses at this point.

I do not remember what the number was though.