Preschool eye test, referral..

[CaptainMummy]

Ella had her preschool eye test yesterday. Got her results today and she is being referred. Says that she struggled to see small shapes on the test with her left eye, and that she was found to have a 'tendency towards a squint.'

She will get an appointment through at some point to go to the eye clinic, but just wondering if anyone knows what this means? Will she definitely need glasses? What will the next appointment be like? It says on the letter she will get drops and it will take about 90 minutes... so I'm assuming it will be quite in depth. I've never had glasses myself so am clueless when it comes to anything like this!

 

[Dawnlouise30]

My son had those drops done at the opticians. They dilate the pupils and make focusing hard for the child, it makes them a bit more sensitive to light as well. They use the drops as it allows the optician to examine the eyes properly and see what prescription is needed (if any).

My son first saw the optician when he was 3.5 as we noticed he was blinking lots and seemed very tired - it turns out he was working very hard focusing on things far away and it was irritating his eyes and making him tired. He has worn glasses since he was 4 (he is 5 now), he wears them all the time and gets his eyes tested every six months. Each time he has needed a slightly stronger prescriptions but I do wonder if this is because now he can be more accurate about what he can /can't see clearly. The optician explained that children's eyes are very good at adjusting to the lenses and in many cases children will only need to wear glasses for a few years before their eyes correct themselves.

 

[CaptainMummy]

My son had those drops done at the opticians. They dilate the pupils and make focusing hard for the child, it makes them a bit more sensitive to light as well. They use the drops as it allows the optician to examine the eyes properly and see what prescription is needed (if any).

My son first saw the optician when he was 3.5 as we noticed he was blinking lots and seemed very tired - it turns out he was working very hard focusing on things far away and it was irritating his eyes and making him tired. He has worn glasses since he was 4 (he is 5 now), he wears them all the time and gets his eyes tested every six months. Each time he has needed a slightly stronger prescriptions but I do wonder if this is because now he can be more accurate about what he can /can't see clearly. The optician explained that children's eyes are very good at adjusting to the lenses and in many cases children will only need to wear glasses for a few years before their eyes correct themselves.

Thank you. Her nursery teacher said they were talking about her and that it 'could explain' a few things... like why she doesn't sit still at story time (because maybe she can't see the book?) or why she is always up and down on her chair and wiggling about and falling off. I'm not so sure that her eyes are the reason for these (I'm thinking behavioural and always have done) but could end up going and finding out she is blind as a bat! So hopefully get her sorted with some specs if needed. I've never noticed anything with her eyes at all, so would have never known if they hadn't told me!

 

[Zephram]

My DS1 has had what feels like 100 eye tests at this point as he had surgery a year ago for an atypical squint that caused a head tilt rather than an eye that looked off to the side. He’s still having follow up appointments as they may want to repeat the op as not sure it has worked as well as hoped.

Couple of tips - take Ella a hat and sunglasses to wear after the drops as it can make their eyes more sensitive to light for a couple of hours afterwards. She may need to stay off school for the whole day too as she won’t be able to look around and concentrate properly after the drops.

Also, when they do the vision test with her - don’t be afraid to ask for a different set of pictures if she’s mucking about and refusing to answer sensibly. My son is quite sensible but even he will get silly to the eye surgeon and pretend he doesn’t know the answer. They also every now and then would put up the alphabet when he was still only 3 - he did actually know his letters at that age but challenging him in the way while expecting him to read out what he saw was a little inappropriate! So don’t be afraid to flex your mummy muscles if you think she’s being presented with a difficult chart. At age five they do a mixture of letters and pictures, but if she’s not confident with her letters you don’t want to get a false result because she doesn’t want to say t and be wrong.

For a squint some kids end up with an eye patch, some get surgery if it’s really bad, some they leave to even out as they grow.

I don’t have experience with actual glasses as my son can focus fine and doesn’t need glasses, his is a problem with the muscles behind the eye, but I know kids who wear glasses and they all get used to them quite quickly and look adorable!

 

[_Meep_]

My first had the drops too as a baby when I was concerned about something (which turned out to be nothing - she kept having a white pupil in photos which can be an indicator of retinal cancer). They put them in like half an hour before they do the examination in a dark room with a big magnifying glass thing. It's so they can get a really good look at the back of the eye in case there are problems there - no doubt they will check for the cancer too, but it is incredibly rare.

As others have said, you have to protect the eyes from bright light afterwards for the rest of the day or until the pupils return to normal, but that's really it.