Babies With Glasses - The site for families of babies, infants and kids with glasses

My 22 month old has had glasses for 1 year. She has been great at leaving them on, with only one incident where we did have to get new glasses. When we first got her glasses the opthomologist pretty much stated that she would have to wear glasses for the rest of her life. When I got onto this website I noticed some people were stating that it was possible for their eyesight to improve when you catch it so young. We have been back and had her eyes tested and they are still the same. The Dr was happy that they hadn't got any worse but I was expecting that they may have gotten a bit better. She is farsighted - +5 in both eyes. He has stated that with that high of a prescription that they are unlikely to get better. I am just wondering if anyone has had their childs eyesight improve from wearing glasses?

My 18 month old has had glasses (same Rx as your little girl) for 3 months now and the Dr. thinks they will have to give her a higher Rx next visit (we go every 3 mos). He said it's hard to get the Rx right when they're so little (she's very uncooperative througout the exam) so he thinks it is just an adjustment, not her eyes getting worse. Anyway, both at the initial visit and this past one the doctor remained optimisitic that her eyes have the potential to get better on their own. He explained that all children are born farsighted and their sight gets better over time (usually within months) so he won't rule out that helping them with glasses won't spur the same internal reaction that happens naturally in most infants in regards to the farsightedness. However, he did say any drastic changes either way wouldn't really be determined until around 8 years of age. He also agreed that the earlier you catch it the better chance of self correction.

My daughter has a prescription of +4.5, she's 3, but started wearing glasses at 14 months. Our doctor said that it is possible she'll outgrow the farsightedness by around 12 years old. I've done some researching in the literature, it appears that children with prescriptions worse than +3 are unlikely to outgrow the need for glasses, same for children that need glasses early. In those cases, however, they still became less farsighted, just never completely outgrew it.

Thank you for replying - it's really helpful to have expectations managed. My 9mth old daughter has just been diagnosed as longsighted (+4.5 and +5: waiting for her first pair of specs to arrive) and I had the same question (was a bit taken aback at the eye exam to have all the right questions to hand ) so have been scouring this site for info!

First post for me but a year ago when we discovered my son needed glasses (discovered at 12 months) this site was a godsend.

To the OP - Teigen had +9 in both eyes. Was great at wearing glasses till about 3 months ago (now 24 months) so at our regular appointment were happy to find out his vision had improved to +7 and the prescription was too strong - which was causing him to remove his glasses more regularly!

We also heard that likely he'll need glasses forever but I'm ok with that. Seems a small price to pay to know he can see.

The warning signs were there - I just never knew what to look for till all of a sudden an eye started to turn at 12 months.

Here he is at 1 year - days after getting his glasses.

Many people actually think that wearing glasses or contact lenses improves their eyesight. Read on to discover that the truth is very different....

Have you noticed your prescriptions getting stronger and stronger each time you visit the optometrist? Do you ever wonder why your eyesight seems to be continually getting worse?
eye drawing

Just like most parts of our body, the eyes are controlled and focused with the help of muscles. If you put a lens in front of your eye to do the focusing work that your eye muscles are supposed to do, then your eye muscles won't do it!
The eye muscles then get weaker from lack of use (known as 'atrophy') and so next time you go to get your eyes tested, guess what? You'll probably need a stronger prescription because your eyes have become worse.

And what does a stronger prescription do? Even MORE work that your eye muscles would normally be doing. Therefore the eye muscles become even weaker and then the next time you go to the optometrist. . . . . . . and so on.