How did you find out you or your child needs glasses?

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Serap

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We are getting my daughter’s eyes checked this month b/c I’ve noticed that she seems to have trouble seeing far distances. I noticed this when she was reading to me or telling me what time it is.

She’s only 5 and someone told me that this could be normal as her eyes are still developing.

When did you suspect that you or your child needed glasses? Was it a false alarm? What happened?
 
Our kid’s school checked their eyes every other year I think and they sent home a paper saying maybe to get them checked by a doctor. Since I wore glasses since 5th grade, and my husband from 10th, it wasn’t a stretch to see my daughter probably needed them. 😉 Even if you or your husband don’t wear glasses, it is worth a trip to the eye doctor just to be sure. 🙂
 
I have been wearing glasses since I was 5, so I can’t tell you how my parents discovered I couldn’t see. I imagine it was something like you are describing, when I couldn’t see something that was pretty obvious. Many times, kids go to school and the teacher sees them squinting and not being able to see what’s on the board.

Both of my sons are myopic, and one has astygmatism like I have. The eye doctor picked it up before they got to school.
 
I couldn’t see from the blackboard in class when I was about 10-11 years old.
 
TheRealJuliane said:
I have been wearing glasses since I was 5, so I can’t tell you how my parents discovered I couldn’t see. I imagine it was something like you are describing, when I couldn’t see something that was pretty obvious. Many times, kids go to school and the teacher sees them squinting and not being able to see what’s on the board.

Both of my sons are myopic, and one has astygmatism like I have. The eye doctor picked it up before they got to school.
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boy, I’m going to feel really bad for not getting her eyes checked earlier! My husband also has an astygmatism.

Oh well, at least I’m doing it.
 
Serap said:
boy, I’m going to feel really bad for not getting her eyes checked earlier! My husband also has an astygmatism.

Oh well, at least I’m doing it.
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Don’t feel bad, her eyes may have gotten worse quite suddenly. And in any case, you can’t go back and undo anything. Something to keep in mind when you make what you consider mistakes in the future. Just go from where you are today and don’t beat yourself up.

Glasses are a fashion accessory today. Both of my sons wear their glasses as well as contacts and they look great either way. I had to wear “coke-bottle bottom” glasses because we only HAD glass lenses for years. The technology has come so far.

When she gets her glasses, be sure to get the extra “insurance policy,” if the optometrist or optical retailer offers it. Until a child gets used to wearing them, and especially when they are young and active, accidents happen. Better to anticipate that and not climb all over the child for just being a child. At least it’s not a month to get a pair of glasses replaced like it used to be.
 
When I was 7, I was being a goofy kid and crossing my eyes and discovering that it looked like I was seeing double. I thought this was so entertaining that I ran to my Mom and told her only to have her take me seriously and bring me in to the eye doctor. I’ve been wearing glasses ever since. :o

My DD is 6 and we haven’t taken her yet. She hasn’t really given any indication yet that she is having trouble seeing things, though it seems inevitable she will need them at some point. At her well child visit a year ago, they gave her a little vision test and she wasn’t very cooperative. They kept asking her to read the sign and she didn’t know what to say. They suggested taking her to the eye doctor. A week later, though, she asked my wife what the word “TOZ” meant because she saw it at the doctor’s office. She thought she was supposed to be reading actual words from the eye chart. That’s why she had been so confused as to how to respond. 😛 So we figured her vision must be good enough for now. 🙂
 
TheRealJuliane said:
Don’t feel bad, her eyes may have gotten worse quite suddenly. And in any case, you can’t go back and undo anything. Something to keep in mind when you make what you consider mistakes in the future. Just go from where you are today and don’t beat yourself up.

Glasses are a fashion accessory today. Both of my sons wear their glasses as well as contacts and they look great either way. I had to wear “coke-bottle bottom” glasses because we only HAD glass lenses for years. The technology has come so far.

When she gets her glasses, be sure to get the extra “insurance policy,” if the optometrist or optical retailer offers it. Until a child gets used to wearing them, and especially when they are young and active, accidents happen. Better to anticipate that and not climb all over the child for just being a child. At least it’s not a month to get a pair of glasses replaced like it used to be.
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thanks. maybe we’ll just get 2 pairs off the bat in case (if she needs them).
 
Serap said:
thanks. maybe we’ll just get 2 pairs off the bat in case (if she needs them).
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Yes, AND the insurance! If you have company vision benefits, that may already be in the plan.

👍

Oh, and I would NOT recommend wire frames. Glasses with heavier frames look quite hip these days and are more practical for young children. There are also frameless styles but I don’t think these are sturdy enough for most childrens’ lifestyle (playing, running, getting bonked in the face with various playground balls, having the specs fall off, etc.)
 
It was discovered I needed correction for longsightedness when I was about 8 or 9 when I started to complain to my mother that the world sometimes seemed “very far away”. My mother, being also long-sighted I think, recognised what I was talking about and the next week I was off to have an eye test.

Just a word to the wise: if this is the first time your child is being tested, do reassure them that it won’t hurt at all. And prove it by getting them to try on other people’s glasses to show how the world looks different with different types of lens. Tell them that that’s what the eye test is like. I only say this because before my first test I was really quite worried that I was going to hate it or experience pain. Playing with lenses beforehand would have prevented that fear.
 
Our son was 10 years old and suddenly starting thowing up on long car trips. He loved car rides and had never been carsick before. He was an extremely tall child, growth spurts often precipitate nearsightedness, he gets it from me, and his younger brother is also nearsighted.
 
I always thought it was normal for things to be fuzzy so i never said anything. Then while waithing for my elder siblings at school with my mother i was reading the sign on the side of the gym about 60ft away and couldn’t read some 2ft high letters so mom sent me off.
that was grade 4 or something.
 
I don’t remember too much about what caused me to get glasses because I got my first pair in second grade. My eyes changed rapidly, about 2 prescription strengths stronger every 6 months until I got rigid gas permeable contact lenses in high school and only then did the change slow to a halt.

I think what tipped my parents off was how horrible I was with sports. I wasn’t very accurate in throwing a ball or catching it. I still can’t catch well. shrugs But I adapted by becoming more of a bookworm. 😃
 
fbl9 said:
I always thought it was normal for things to be fuzzy so i never said anything. Then while waithing for my elder siblings at school with my mother i was reading the sign on the side of the gym about 60ft away and couldn’t read some 2ft high letters so mom sent me off.
that was grade 4 or something.
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My first clue was a 6th grade science book that said something like, “This is what the world looks like to someone who is nearsighted” as the caption to a picture that showed how the world looked to me. My first response was to discount the book–sure, I had friends who could see things I couldn’t, but they simply had outstanding eyes–but I came around…in 7th grade! When I finally did get glasses, I could not believe that everyone could see that clearly and that no one had said anything!!

The “someone” to ask is the pediatrician. If the child does not do well on a vision screening, find a pediatric ophthalmologist. Glasses take some getting used to, but it is nice to actually see the world as you go through it! Even now, it makes me feel better to put on freshly-cleaned glasses. The world just looks better!
 
I had eye surgery when I was like ~ 2 1/2. Then I got glasses around age 5 or so. I had bifocals at age 8 until 30 or 31. I am not in bifocals anymore for the moment (though my eye doctor said I’d need them again eventually). My parents both wear glasses and both of my siblings do, too, though when they were teenagers they wore contacts some of the time.
 
For some of you feeling bad about waiting too long, or not noticing, I have a story for you that will hopefully make you feel better.

When my son was 14, he and his friend were hanging out in his room. His friend found the old doorknob to the bedroom in a box and was tossing it around (it was a cool, old fashioned knob). The knob came up and smacked my son just above the eye and broke open the skin. My husband and I took him to the emergency clinic and the attending dr. said everything looks fine, but he noticed my son has an astigmatism. He noticed it when he had my son stare forward and follow his fingers. 😛 Something none of us noticed, not even my son, till that day. So don’t feel bad! 😃
 
Sebrina said:
For some of you feeling bad about waiting too long, or not noticing, I have a story for you that will hopefully make you feel better.

When my son was 14, he and his friend were hanging out in his room. His friend found the old doorknob to the bedroom in a box and was tossing it around (it was a cool, old fashioned knob). The knob came up and smacked my son just above the eye and broke open the skin. My husband and I took him to the emergency clinic and the attending dr. said everything looks fine, but he noticed my son has an astigmatism. He noticed it when he had my son stare forward and follow his fingers. 😛 Something none of us noticed, not even my son, till that day. So don’t feel bad! 😃
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too funny! it was a “door knob” moment :newidea:
 
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