Refer me to a source?

[BeetleMama]

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Hi there, please forgive my intrusion on your board, can you point me in the right direction to find out about this quote I came across yesterday? I thought you would be the people most likely to know of correct journals/sites/articles for me to search.

As babies grow, the cornea flattens and the eye becomes longer so that by 12 months, eyesight has generally significantly clears and between 5 and 10 years of age, most children have normal vision.

Studies with monkeys would suggest that if children get corrective eye wear too early, it may interfere with their eyes' normal growing period. So make sure you see your eye doctor to find out how best to take care of your children’s eyes. If children are only mildly farsighted, you might do better not to monkey around with their vision!

I was prowling round the internet looking for info on young children and eye correction, as my four year old has been told he has to have glasses due to hyperopia (His prescription is: R: Sph +1.00 Cyl +1.00 Axis 0.95 L: Sph +1.00 Cyl +0.75 Axis 0.90), I have only found mention of this research in one place and I want more information if possible. Do you know of any journals or articles that cite this or refer to this research so I can read it for myself please?

 

[cunikki]

basically what that article is saying is that when you are born most people are hyperopic (farsighted) and as your eye finishes developing usually most of the population normalizes to emmetropia (no correction needed) or a little bit of correction. there have been studies saying it goes both ways; some say that if you correct the eye then they will not grow fully and they will end up always needing a prescription and some say that if you do not correct the eye then they will end up amblyopic (meaning they will not be able to see 20/20 because they never got correction when their eye was growing) personally you should talk to a doctor you feel comfortable with to find out what you want to do.
in all honesty, based on the rx you wrote, you obviously saw an opthalmologist and not an optometrist, and i would rely much more on an optometrist for an opinion, but that is just me. the amount of correction that you wrote down is not really huge, so i dont konw why they said he needs glasses. is it just for reading? is he having problems?? i dont really know what benefit not correcting him would have since he is 4 and his eye is pretty much adult size by this age, but he might not wear that correction unless he is having problems because hyperopes usually can see clearly, and their correction is often to make seeing more comfortable

 

[BeetleMama]

based on the rx you wrote, you obviously saw an opthalmologist and not an optometrist, and i would rely much more on an optometrist for an opinion

I'm in England, I'm afraid that a lot of the time we fall into the category of "get what you're given". Everyone would go to an optometrist unless there was a specific problem already identified by an optometrist - which would result in a referral.

the amount of correction that you wrote down is not really huge, so i don't know why they said he needs glasses. is it just for reading? is he having problems?? i don't really know what benefit not correcting him would have since he is 4 and his eye is pretty much adult size by this age, but he might not wear that correction unless he is having problems because hyperopes usually can see clearly, and their correction is often to make seeing more comfortable

Is he having problems? hard to say. He's four, he can't read yet anyway, but we don't want him at any disadvantage. I'd rather have them then not have them as long as they are doing no harm. The reference to the monkey study there concerned me since what I know about eyes, you could probably write on the back of an eyeball. I am very grateful for your advice, thank you.

 

[r_salis]

SDN is not a source for medical advice. If anyone has information about a source the OP can read about pediatric visual development, please post, but please no more specific discussion about this specific case or this thread will be closed.