eyesight

[TanyaL]

I took the kids, 6yo DD and 4yo DS, into our pedi earlier this week to ask about several things, one of them vision screening. Did the basic chart eye exam for both, DS could not make out the shapes at the end of the hall--he named them up close, he knew how to point the direction the prongs of the rotating E faced, but when it was at the end of the hall, I just don't think he could see what was what.

So, an appt with an ophthalmologist is in our future. Maybe everything will be fine, upon more detailed testing, but I wouldn't bet money on it.

Any thoughts on how malleable vision is in a young child? How much room for improvement there is? I have some astigmatism and am near-sighted, I feel very uncomfortable trying to get around without my glasses and would never drive without them except in a dire emergency. Most of the people in my family have glasses, but it doesn't make sense that it's just genetics.

Environment--naturally switching between looking at things close-up and far away seems beneficial, so plenty of outside time would be best, yes?

How much do you think is determined prenatally? And if things were awry at that point, any guesses as to whether, or how much, things can change through the growing years?

It surely seems like there are nutritional impacts, nutrients that, if lacking, would tend to grow eyeballs that aren't just the right shape, and DS started behind the curve there--I've run across references to vitamin A and zinc and those are two biggies for us.

What about skull shape? Do you think that could play a part?

Any thoughts, anything I should look into more?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

There have been all sorts of thoughts relating to eye issues in young children. night lights was one thing that was published on some time back.

IMO, you make sure your children eat lots of blues, purples, greens and reds. Get their diet sorted. and just apply common sense, and don't think it through to the point of paralysis.

[TanyaL]

Good advice, and yeah, it's not something I'm going to worry to death--I've done that with other things, it's a bummer for me, and not so great for them. And in the grand scheme, well, some things are worth researching til my eyeballs bleed, and some are a bit less serious.

The nightlight... need to see if I can work on that, it's not a nightlight, but the closet has a light and they like the door just barely left ajar--it's more light than I think is best. I'll read about that a bit more, and see if I can think of some creative ways... maybe just turn it off after they're asleep, I'm not sure they'd even object.

[MinorityView]

Some heredity and some environment IMO.

My family, on both sides, has lousy eyesight, which is very common among Jews for some reason. As it happens, I provided my daughter with a father with excellent eyesight and she is now in her 40s and has never needed glasses. However, she went to a waldorf school and became a bookworm about 2 1/2 years later than I did. This means a lot more playing outside and a lot less close staring at an early age.

Both of my grandkids, so far, have excellent eyesight. Their dad doesn't need glasses, either. Perhaps the family curse of glasses has been lifted...

[TanyaL]

An update: our ophthalmologist appointment was today, kiddo has crap vision. His prescription is +5.5 diopters for both eyes, I had to go searching around a bit to figure out just how lousy that is--way more far-sighted than kids usually are. And presumably his vision has always been this bad. So the glasses are on order, we shall see how this progresses over the coming years--apparently change is common, and change for the better is common for a few more years. We lean unschool-y, I can't tell if the kids play outside more than most, maybe by default if most kids are in preschool, which seems be the norm around here, I think I run with odd folk. Maybe the lack of focus on close work will help over the coming years, it shouldn't hurt and outdoor play really is normal and valuable just for its own sake. But dang, really, the world must be a fuzzy, fuzzy place for my son. I'm looking forward to the call saying those glasses are in.

[MinorityView]

Good to know what is going on, at least.

You know, except for stuff like reading, he may not realize that the world is fuzzy. It probably looks normal to him...

I wear glasses for everyday life that leave things moderately fuzzy and it works okay except that sometimes I can't recognize people if I'm 10 feet away or more. I've gotten very good at spotting stuff like posture and pace since I can't see faces well enough to recognize them. I only wear my strong glasses for driving. I just realized that my eyesight is so bad that glasses that make things sharp are actually a strain to wear. It is hard to describe, but they distort stuff in the process of making it sharp. So I've settled for comfort and blurry. If I wanted to take up birdwatching, I'd be in trouble I guess. And I generally wear the strong glasses for movies.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

it's interesting Tanya. You can't tell what kids see. We have a son who plays international cricket, and who, over the last few years, has said that something 'wasn't right' with his vision. problem is, his normal eye tests were A1, and everyone just looked at him sideway. Over the last two years, his puzzlement increased, and this year he stamped his foot metaphorically, and said loudly, "Something isn't right!!" He went to another opthalmologist who did everything and the barn door, and suddenly, on the placement of a particular lens, our son went, "Oh, so that's what it looks like clear."

There is something about the shape of his cornea, which results is specific things in his peripheral vision (don't ask me!) not being seen clearly. also, at a distance, he can't read an electronic score board clearly, but he can read an ordinary score board.

They tried contacts, but contacts move on the eye-ball, so the specific place wouldn't stay focused, so now he has a pair of glasses, which make everything "crystal clear" so he says. I put them on, and they made print smaller and fuzzy!

all of which goes to show that even the most alert mother, who does everything and more besides because eyesight is a valuable component of cricket, can miss something - as MV says, because to the child it's what they have and normal. it's only later when listening to others and understanding more that they "get" that there might be something not quite right.

Your son will have known no different, and when his glasses come, he'll go around feeling everyone's faces and being tactile to the point of distraction. :D

[Paper Cut]

because to the child it's what they have and normal. it's only later when listening to others and understanding more that they "get" that there might be something not quite right.

This is also why my husband didn't realize he was quite colour blind (combo of two different types) until he was in his late teens... the world looked perfectly normal to him lol

[TanyaL]

Good to know what is going on, at least.

You know, except for stuff like reading, he may not realize that the world is fuzzy. It probably looks normal to him...

It IS good to know what's going on, that's made me feel better, but the bolded part? I think I know what you're going for, but in a way, that's the part that's hurting most today, yk? His vision seems to be such that there's no distance at which his vision is at all comparable to another child. The end-of-the-hall chart, just the basic screening at the pedi's office, gave an estimate of 20/70 and from what I can tell, his near vision is worse. Rationally, I don't think there's anything I've reasonably missed, and I wear glasses and am quite content with them, so wearing glasses in itself isn't a bad thing, I just didn't expect quite this. Stuff like this always exhausts me--a good night's sleep will do wonders.



it's interesting Tanya. You can't tell what kids see. We have a son who plays international cricket, and who, over the last few years, has said that something 'wasn't right' with his vision. problem is, his normal eye tests were A1, and everyone just looked at him sideway. Over the last two years, his puzzlement increased, and this year he stamped his foot metaphorically, and said loudly, "Something isn't right!!" He went to another opthalmologist who did everything and the barn door, and suddenly, on the placement of a particular lens, our son went, "Oh, so that's what it looks like clear."

There is something about the shape of his cornea, which results is specific things in his peripheral vision (don't ask me!) not being seen clearly. also, at a distance, he can't read an electronic score board clearly, but he can read an ordinary score board.

They tried contacts, but contacts move on the eye-ball, so the specific place wouldn't stay focused, so now he has a pair of glasses, which make everything "crystal clear" so he says. I put them on, and they made print smaller and fuzzy!

all of which goes to show that even the most alert mother, who does everything and more besides because eyesight is a valuable component of cricket, can miss something - as MV says, because to the child it's what they have and normal. it's only later when listening to others and understanding more that they "get" that there might be something not quite right.

Your son will have known no different, and when his glasses come, he'll go around feeling everyone's faces and being tactile to the point of distraction. :D

Thanks. And in particular, I'm wondering about how that first day with glasses will go. Will he just sit and look at all sorts of stuff, will he be running around looking and touching, what will he do? That will be fun to watch.


This is also why my husband didn't realize he was quite colour blind (combo of two different types) until he was in his late teens... the world looked perfectly normal to him lol

That was one nice thing about today--I mean, it was good to get a better grip on what's going on and to actually deal with instead of waiting and wondering--but they pulled out a book with colored numbers inside fields of different colors, and he saw them all just fine. So that's one thing off cross off the list.

[MinorityView]

I guess it depends on what age things go weird.

I was 8 when my eyesight started going wonky, so I knew that something was wrong.

But my mother was quite tiny when hers went, probably under 2 years of age, and it took a while for anyone to realize because she couldn't remember what normal was so she didn't complain.

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

I am really interested in eyesight. I was prescribed glasses when I was 17, though I was a bit shortsighted since 14. I've been wearing glasses for over 2 decades, and I was about -3 diopter.

I finally decided to do the Bates Eye exercises, which I'd known about for years but couldn't be bothered doing. I did them for 2 hours a day....sungazing (with closed eyelids), long swing, palming especially. The basic aim is to relax the eyes. I am into yoga and also incorporated a bit of candle-gazing which is very nice for the eyes. I also did a bit of acupressure around the eyes.

I did 2 hours of the eye exercises religiously for about 5 weeks. I went from 20:200 on the Snellen eye test chart to 20:40 or 20:60 in that time. My colour perception also improved. Without knowing it I had not being seeing colours quite as vividly as I should've.

I had taken off my spectacles from the beginning, but had felt very strange and nervous without them. Things were a bit fuzzy, and definitely I was a bit handicapped. :boohoo: But after 4 weeks I felt my eyes were good enough to drive without glasses. It was amazing!! I was so happy and pleased. One of the best things I've ever done.

Not only that but I noticed there seemed to be some other positive side-effects, apart from not having to wear glasses (which I do think are somewhat disfiguring), not having to pay for new prescription lens etc. I felt more relaxed in my personality. A friend also said my eyes became "alive".

One of the key features of wearing glasses is you tend to "stare". Your eyes lose their natural saccadic movements. They lose energy.

So I would recommend the Bates vision improvement exercises to anyone who's shortsighted. There is a very good website forum devoted to them. It's called "Imagination blindness" and is full of personal stories, how to do the exercises, the philosophy behind it, etc.

[TanyaL]

Update:

DS has had glasses for about 2.5 months now and within a day of getting them, I started to see positive changes and over the course of several weeks, the improvements piled up. I've been thrilled with the glasses.

Well, a few weeks ago, while we were on vacation, I noticed DS starting to rub his eyes again (he'd done that before he got glasses, I thought it was just tiredness, but in retrospect I see that it was eyestrain). He was playing with his glasses more too, pushing them up, like that, and I thought it may just be a phase, he's only 4, but it's persisted (even after we're home), and last week he said his eyes felt like "pins and needles."

So I made an appointment with our ophthalmologist and on Wednesday we'll have a new exam and see if a change (got my fingers crossed for an improvement) is the cause, or try to brainstorm other reasons. I'm doubting allergies since a) it happened in two very different locations/climates, b) he doesn't have red eyes/watery eyes/runny nose/throat issues or anything else that seems allergy related, and c) I've been working hard on improving his immune function for a few years now, I'd be surprised to see a backward step like that.

I don't want to get my hopes up, but it would be lovely if his eyesight is improving. I know it's awfully fast, I know it's too much to reasonably expect--but I'm hoping for the unreasonable.

[Barefoot]

Pinhole glasses are worth a look at too.
http://www.seeing.org/visiontd/articles/pinholes.html