Eye Test

mirrorwall14

Hi everyone,

My little lad is three. I have shocking eyesight since about the age of 5 when I was diagnosed short sighted. I’d like to know when/where to bring him to keep an eye on in case he’s like me (and my siblings/parents!)? Does anyone know what to do in this case?

seamus

Most opticians and opthamologists will handle children.

The standard machine eye exams are actually perfectly capable of diagnosing eyesight disorders. The oral exam itself is purely for the comfort of the patient.

For younger children who can speak, they do an oral test which involves showing them shapes (duck, house, plane, etc). Specsavers can do these, but if he does need glasses watch out for the hard sell. The advisors (not the opticians) work on commission and so will try steer you towards more expensive frames, lenses, etc.

It's worth doing this early. Our girl spent a lot of time rubbing her eyes cos she couldn't see, and so ended up with quite irritated eyes that needed weeks of eyedrops after we got glasses.

cgc5483

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

My little lad is three. I have shocking eyesight since about the age of 5 when I was diagnosed short sighted. I’d like to know when/where to bring him to keep an eye on in case he’s like me (and my siblings/parents!)? Does anyone know what to do in this case?

Brought my own 3 year old to specsavers recently for an eye test as he had been squinting a lot. They are trained to deal with children age. Can be tricky to get a reading using the machines and they had to use drops to dilate his pupils which he hated as I think they can mildly sting when they put them in.

sillysocks

I brought my girl when she was 4, went to a local optician as am sometimes wary of the bigger chains. The optician was great with her and well used to children. I’d just ring around and ask locally.

deisemum

When my older lad was a toddler I occasionally noticed a very slight turn in his eye. I made a private appointment with consultant ophthalmologist as I had a squint as a child and had surgery so didn't want to be waiting a long time if treatment was needed. As it turned out the public health nurse got me an appointment with the HSE eye clinic within a few days.

It took 3 appointments before his squint was spotted and deciding it worth treating. We were very happy with his treatment and service. Every time his prescription was changed we were given the prescription and could take it to any opticians we liked and the HSE paid for his glasses and lenses up to a certain value.

Initially we went to one big well known chain but they only wanted to show us the most expensive and boring glasses and it was only when my nosy son opened a drawer that we discovered the much more child friendly frames which also happened to be within the limit for the HSE. We eventually changed opticians because I was fed up of the hard sell to buy the expensive frames.

I'd recommend contacting your local public health nurse and see if you can get seen in the local HSC clinic.

sillysocks

It may be different in different areas but in our local area we were told two years ago that a parent having poor eyesight/family history as a child wasn’t enough to have a child seen by the HSE on local lists.

We were put on a list for my son as he also squinted badly, and it was almost 18 months before we were called.

jlm29

My kids have all been referred at birth to the hse eye clinic because there’s a strong family history of lazy eye.
My eldest was waiting ages, and in the interim I brought him to see an ophthalmologist privately. I think it was around €40, and she had an orthoptist who does a clinic in her surgery once a month, so we saw her too.
Waiting lists have since improved, so my other two boys have been seen very early to outrule any issues

Big Bag of Chips

Your PHN can refer you to a public ophthalmology clinic. Our area seems to be very good and we got an appointment fairly quickly. Follow ups are always prompt and I cannot fault the service at all. I'd start with the PHN to get an idea of waiting times.

I know a private ophthalmologist who has a longer waiting list than the public clinic!

jlm29

Big Bag of Chips wrote: »

Your PHN can refer you to a public ophthalmology clinic. Our area seems to be very good and we got an appointment fairly quickly. Follow ups are always prompt and I cannot fault the service at all. I'd start with the PHN to get an idea of waiting times.

I know a private ophthalmologist who has a longer waiting list than the public clinic!

The ophthalmologist we went to operates independently, she’s not associated with any hospital. I actually thought she was an optician until I went to her. We didn’t have to wait more than a couple of weeks to see her.

Big Bag of Chips

So is the one I know! But she is the only private one in the area so her waiting list is quite long. I briefly worked for her and lost count of the number of times people rang to cancel their appointment with her because they'd gotten a public appointment first.

I would suggest going to the PHN for a public referral to the eye clinic anyway, OP. You can also arrange a private appointment yourself. You might not have to wait too long for the public appointment, and as I said, personally I have no complaints about the public service I've received.

Edit: sorry, she's an orthoptist! Ophthalmologist is an eye doctor.. But it will be an orthoptist you'll be referred to originally. Starting point, for a 3 year old is the PHN

jlm29

I couldn’t fault the care my crew have gotten in the public system either, especially since they seem to have worked to decrease the waiting lists!

Neyite

We got referred through the PHN.

Just be aware that if they use the drops to dilate the pupils the vision might be blurry for the rest of the day. So even though the plan was to get our youngster back to the creche and me back to work by 11am, I ended up having to take the whole day off as a precaution. Would have been nice to have been warned about that on the letter like. :rolleyes:

mirrorwall14

Thanks everyone for the advice. He passed with flying colours at the weekend Thank God. I, on the other hand, failed the hearing screening in one ear at my own eye test and after a follow up appointment confirming the loss need to go and get it medically checked! It never stops rofl

Moonbeam

-9 and -7 and prisms and astigmatism here lol
The kids were all referred by PHN and then at 7 I started bringing them to the optician, 2 are long sighted,only minor +2.
My 1st child I brought her private due to public waiting lists and we went to the Charlemont clinic.

yellow hen

Moonbeam wrote: »

-9 and -7 and prisms and astigmatism here lol.

Meet your twin! I've rarely ever met anyone as short sighted as me.

mirrorwall14

yellow hen wrote: »

Meet your twin! I've rarely ever met anyone as short sighted as me.

I was -7.5 before surgery. Had about 7 yearswothout glasses and have settled now at -1.25 which is still brilliant