File under Miscellaneous: Topics That Don't Deserve A Whole Thread

[m2kbug]

I had to get professional hearing tests on mine for speech therapy and my one newborn had a hearing test in the hospital.  How in the world do they do that when the kids have little to no capacity for communication?  They have their measurements and tests and you just have to go with it.  I would say as long as the baby isn't complaining about headaches, the prescription is correct. 

I imagine an eye exam for a toddler is lengthy, if not just for sitting still.   

Very cute!

[Luci45]

I had to get professional hearing tests on mine for speech therapy and my one newborn had a hearing test in the hospital.  How in the world do they do that when the kids have little to no capacity for communication?  They have their measurements and tests and you just have to go with it.  I would say as long as the baby isn't complaining about headaches, the prescription is correct. 

I imagine an eye exam for a toddler is lengthy, if not just for sitting still.   

Very cute!

Something that has baffled me since I was 7 years old: my mother was given spectacles at the age of 2, so in 1915. She was fine with glasses of new prescriptions for all those years.

When our daughter went in for glasses, 1973, there was a lot of equipment that measured her biological lenses and figured out what she needed, plus, Daughter was old enough to play with the eye charts.

How in the world, in 1915, did they manage to make glasses for a 2 year old, and the glasses were so much better than natural vision that a toddler would be willing to wear them?

[dawbs]

From what I've learned in the last few months, for very young kids, they pay attention to the child's ability to focus on an object.
(they did have 'pictogram' eye charts--which also caused issues, because my child has never seen an 'old style' phone, and didn't know that one  )

With modern equipment, meant pushing buttons so the objects off in the corners (lights, stuffed toys, etc) moved--and seeing if she was 1-focusing there (seemed able to see the object and retain interest) and 2-able to FOLLOW the object--so if she was watching the blue stuffed dog, when it walked from left to right, did she follow it with her eyes. (I'd imagine that an assistant w/ a toy on a stick was probably in place before the electronic gizmos
(the techs held various prisms/lenses in front of her eyes while they did this)

Apparently, kids have incredibly elastic lenses, so they can make themselves focus, but they can't always force their eyes to follow what they've focused on. 

They did also dilate her eyes--because that keeps them from being able to focus--and then the doctor put on a monstrosity of a helmet (on the doc's head, not the kids , and played w/ looking at the shape of her eyes and looking into the backs of eyes, to tweak the prescription they had so far.
Think of all the equipment that the eye doctor puts in front of your eyes at an appointment--now attach that to the doc's helmet--that way the kid wasn't batting things away.
That part was actually decidedly low-tech--it had prisms and lenses and some lights...and that was it.  So nothing new and fancy.  (and the doc could use the kiddo's favorite toy bunny as part of the 'game'--which helped.  And Bunny ALSO got an eye patch when they were trying to limit which eye saw what )
This is the closest I can get to a picture of it: http://www.honolulueyeclinic.com/images09/pediatric_eye_exam.jpg--I would swear our doctor's had more things attached than that.

[Minmom3]

I discovered something while on vacation. I've thought for a while that my eyesight isn't that bad other than getting a bit of double vision when I'm tired due to a lazy eye that likes to wander off on its own more when I'm tired, and an astigmatism. 

But then while on vacation my friend asked me to hold her glasses while she pulled her sweatshirt off or on and I put them on just for fun.  I tend to do that sometimes with friend's glasses. I don't take them off their face but if they ask me to hold them while they do something I'll try them on to see what their vision is like.  I expected my vision to turn fuzzy but instead it brought the world into clearer focus! 

So I guess I need glasses!

If they tell you your astigmatism is too small to correct via lenses, or not worth bothering with - don't listen to them!  They tried to tell me that, and I gave in and got lenses without that correction, and I couldn't read for more than a few seconds without getting a headache!  The print wouldn't stop dancing on the page.....  I took them back and made them redo the lenses and not charge me, since I HAD said I wanted that in the first place.  My astigmatism isn't (or wasn't) so great, but I sure have to have it addressed in the lenses for reading comfort, and I read a LOT!

[m2kbug]

Thank you for the description, Dawbs!  I appreciate it.  I know the Snellen chart for pre-schoolers and kinder and grade school is different for that of adults, and I know doctors have methods and measurements, but you really clarified the process for such a young little person.  Thank you for that!  I'm long outside of toddler-hood, but I deal with certain tests through my job, which is largely paperwork, I have no idea how the nitty-gritty works. 

How did you determine your child's vision was problematic at such a young age, if you don't mind my getting all personal on you?  Feel free to ignore.   I don't want to intrude. 

[m2kbug]

I discovered something while on vacation. I've thought for a while that my eyesight isn't that bad other than getting a bit of double vision when I'm tired due to a lazy eye that likes to wander off on its own more when I'm tired, and an astigmatism. 

But then while on vacation my friend asked me to hold her glasses while she pulled her sweatshirt off or on and I put them on just for fun.  I tend to do that sometimes with friend's glasses. I don't take them off their face but if they ask me to hold them while they do something I'll try them on to see what their vision is like.  I expected my vision to turn fuzzy but instead it brought the world into clearer focus! 

So I guess I need glasses!

If they tell you your astigmatism is too small to correct via lenses, or not worth bothering with - don't listen to them!  They tried to tell me that, and I gave in and got lenses without that correction, and I couldn't read for more than a few seconds without getting a headache!  The print wouldn't stop dancing on the page.....  I took them back and made them redo the lenses and not charge me, since I HAD said I wanted that in the first place.  My astigmatism isn't (or wasn't) so great, but I sure have to have it addressed in the lenses for reading comfort, and I read a LOT!

I have an astigmatism and never had issues with glasses or contacts and even got LASIK.  I think the prescription (for contact lenses) was slightly lesser for the astigmatism eye than what would normally be prescribed, but to do the "real" prescription would be too much...I can't really remember the details, it was 25 years ago.  Way too many advancements and knowledge to allow astigmatism to be a barrier at this point in time.  It seems you're at the reading glasses age...fun, fun...so you have choices you need to make for glasses in that arena, but astigmatism should not be a problem.

I get the double vision sometimes too thanks to Mr. Stig, so let's hope to dig up some gold for the eye doctor.   

[bansidhe]

I discovered something while on vacation. I've thought for a while that my eyesight isn't that bad other than getting a bit of double vision when I'm tired due to a lazy eye that likes to wander off on its own more when I'm tired, and an astigmatism. 

But then while on vacation my friend asked me to hold her glasses while she pulled her sweatshirt off or on and I put them on just for fun.  I tend to do that sometimes with friend's glasses. I don't take them off their face but if they ask me to hold them while they do something I'll try them on to see what their vision is like.  I expected my vision to turn fuzzy but instead it brought the world into clearer focus! 

So I guess I need glasses!

I had my eyes examined when I was 22. There was some minor nearsightedness but the correction was so small I didn't bother doing anything about it. Then, for no particular reason, I didn't have another eye exam until I was 44. At that time, on a whim, I decided to see the eye doctor.

In the middle of the test, the doctor looked at me from around the machine and asked, "Have you been driving like this?!" So I went from never having worn glasses in my life to wearing progressives. When I picked them up, they told me not to wear them while driving at first until I got used to them. Just for the heck of it I put them on when I got into the car and was blown away by the difference they made. I drove with them right away and have never driven without them since.

[zyrs]

My wife didn't get glasses until after she had been in first grade for a while. 

Her teacher wrote something on the blackboard for her to try reading.  Luckily the teacher was astute, because up until that point in school my wife had no idea there was a blackboard.  For her to see something she needs glasses or to bring it within 4 inches of her face.

[Piratelvr1121]

My friend wears progressives and when she told me to try to walk with her glasses on, suddenly I look down and it's like trying to walk in a funhouse.  Interestingly nothing was blurry.  The boards of the boardwalk were as clear as day, just much closer and she did tell me that doctors say your first time wearing bifocals, be careful driving or going downstairs and that you have to point your nose to whatever you need to look at.

I got my eyes checked maybe about 6 or so years ago but never did end up getting glasses.  I think it was because at the time I didn't really notice much of a difference between my vision with and without so didn't see the point in spending the money.

Now I think I'll go for it, but find an inexpensive place.

[dawbs]

Thank you for the description, Dawbs!  I appreciate it.  I know the Snellen chart for pre-schoolers and kinder and grade school is different for that of adults, and I know doctors have methods and measurements, but you really clarified the process for such a young little person.  Thank you for that!  I'm long outside of toddler-hood, but I deal with certain tests through my job, which is largely paperwork, I have no idea how the nitty-gritty works. 

How did you determine your child's vision was problematic at such a young age, if you don't mind my getting all personal on you?  Feel free to ignore.   I don't want to intrude.

No problem

We actually noticed because her eyes (er, one eye, actually) started crossing a lot.
The pediatrician had us come in and determined it wasn't neurological, and sent us to a pediatric opthomologist--who said taht basically, if a child is severely farsighted, they can often force their eyes to focus, but since it takes so much 'work', they can usually only force the better eye to focus--the 'bad' eye will just 'drift' off and be ignored by the brain.

With glasses, they can correct the crossing (and, assuming the luck holds, prevent surgery to correct the crossing.  Glasses seem to be doing the trick, but if they don't, step 2 is patching, step 3 is surgery.  We're holding out for glasses doing the trick ) because the eyes don't have to work so hard to focus so they don't get the strain where the eye starts to drift.

(actually, that gets into the touchy territory--there's some debate about whether you make the prescription be for the FULL amount [so the eyes work less, risk, the eye muscles weakening] or for slightly weaker than what is needed [so the eyes work more, risk for eye strain and less effective to prevent crossing'--so it's not unusual for there to be some debate bout the correct script for a child's lenses)

[jedikaiti]

I first got glasses as a high school sophomore - I had no idea I needed them, but Dad noticed me squinting at the TV one night. My vision wasn't that bad, but I had a bit of astigmatism. A few years later, I got contacts and wore them for a couple years. Then I didn't need glasses for a few years, then I started getting a bunch of headaches due to eye strain, so I went back and got both glasses and contacts (backups for each other, not at the same time! <G>).

[Dindrane]

I got my eyes checked maybe about 6 or so years ago but never did end up getting glasses.  I think it was because at the time I didn't really notice much of a difference between my vision with and without so didn't see the point in spending the money.

Now I think I'll go for it, but find an inexpensive place.

Just as an FYI, medical insurance will often cover a lot of what's done at a typical eye exam. Before I had vision insurance, my medical insurance covered everything but refraction (the part of the exam that determines your glasses prescription). I found an optometrist that took my insurance and only charged $25 for refraction. I was on my own for lenses and frames, but it's often possible to find a deal on those in chain glasses stores.

My optometrist also wants to see me at least every couple of years, even though I have a very low prescription that has remained pretty stable over the past few years and don't have any particular eye or vision problems at this point in my life. I do have a pronounced family history of early-onset cataracts and glaucoma, but I am also still in my late 20s and so too young to have to seriously worry about either yet. So regular, even if not frequent, visits to the eye doctor definitely seem to be encouraged.