Could Your Child Need Glasses?

Making the Process Go Smoothly for Your Child

By Felicia Hodges

When Laurie Wheeler's 8-year-old son, Michael, began telling her that his eyes hurt, she wasn't convinced that he was really having difficulty seeing.

"He's at that age where I wasn't sure if he just said his eyes were bad because he wanted to wear glasses," Laurie says. "I even watched him closely for a few days and I couldn't tell if he was rubbing [his eyes] because he knew I was watching or because they were really bothering him."

To help her get a better idea of whether or not Michael was trying to fake her out, Laurie scheduled an appointment with Dr. Paul Collins, an optometrist at Sterling Optical in Newburgh, N.Y. Collins, who sees a great many children in his practice, not only has a way with children, but he has no difficulty telling which kids are trying to throw the exam so they can get a pair of stylish frames.

"A lot of kids come in and really are disappointed when they don't get to wear glasses," Dr. Collins says. "Some are even upset when I tell them their eyes are OK without glasses."

Dr. Collins uses a technique called retinoscopy which enables him to tell a person's lens prescription very accurately within the first few minutes of the exam. He also tests his patients for myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), astigmatism (mis-shaped refractive surface) and strabismus (one eye turns farther out or in than the other). Unless there is a strong family history or other factors that signal a eye pressure problem, he says it is not recommended to test patients younger than age 10 for glaucoma.

Often, patients come in to have an eye exam and are surprised to find that their vision is not as sharp as it could be.

"You can get amazingly poor acuity from people who don't even realize it. They get so used to it over time," Collins says, although he adds that some refractive error is normal in children younger than 10.

"Some farsightedness is normal at that age as it necessary for growth," he says. Once the child enters the preteen years, their farsightedness is closer to the normal range for an adult.

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• Diagnosing Vision Problems in Toddlers