Astigmatism - Uncorrected
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J and J:
Sounds right. This is similar To what My friend (mentioned above) told me. But just wondering, the drug is to relax the eye muscle, not to dilate?
A registered qualified optometrist is allowed to do refraction/eye check on children below 7 years old, that's stated in the regulation. Even in the Hospitals or Singapore National Eye Centre, the one who check the refraction is an registered optometrist instead. Of course, your child is reviewd by an ophthalmologist for eye health check after the refraction done by the optometrist.ngl2010:
Children below 7 years old MUST go to Singapore National Eye Centre (not SNEC. Some company used the abbreviation but they are not the Singapore National Eye Centre). That was what we learned from optometrists when our son has to wear glasses when he was in kindergarten. I think it is a government regulation. How come your optometrist can check him? Maybe you can go to KKH also but I am quite sure that optometrist that checked your son's eyes violated certain government rules.
Singapore National Eye Centre monitored our son's eyes regularly until he was about 7 years old. After that, we just bring him to optometrist every time he needs new glasses.
The difference of the optometrists in Hospital / clinic setting and the outside optical shop is your child's vision will be checked under putting in the eye drug which helps to relax the eye muscle to measure a more reliable degree of the eyes. This drug is not allowed to be used by optometrists practice out of the clinic/hospitals. Not all children require this eye drug, only those very young and not so cooperative children or children with special eye condition do.
So even you get the referral letter from polyclinic, you may probably to be referred to the refraction clinic in KKH and seen by an optometrist.
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Imami:
Sounds right. This is similar To what My friend (mentioned above) told me. But just wondering, the drug is to relax the eye muscle, not to dilate?[/quote]Apart from relax the eye muscle, the drug also dilates the pupil as well. The strength depends on the types of drugs they use. For children, they may use the drug with stronger eye muscle relaxation effect, while for the adult, they use the drug with mild eye muscle relaxation but fast acting dilation effect to make the pupil larger for the fundus (internal eye) examination.
A registered qualified optometrist is allowed to do refraction/eye check on children below 7 years old, that's stated in the regulation. Even in the Hospitals or Singapore National Eye Centre, the one who check the refraction is an registered optometrist instead. Of course, your child is reviewd by an ophthalmologist for eye health check after the refraction done by the optometrist.J and J:
[quote=\"ngl2010\"]Children below 7 years old MUST go to Singapore National Eye Centre (not SNEC. Some company used the abbreviation but they are not the Singapore National Eye Centre). That was what we learned from optometrists when our son has to wear glasses when he was in kindergarten. I think it is a government regulation. How come your optometrist can check him? Maybe you can go to KKH also but I am quite sure that optometrist that checked your son's eyes violated certain government rules.
Singapore National Eye Centre monitored our son's eyes regularly until he was about 7 years old. After that, we just bring him to optometrist every time he needs new glasses.
The difference of the optometrists in Hospital / clinic setting and the outside optical shop is your child's vision will be checked under putting in the eye drug which helps to relax the eye muscle to measure a more reliable degree of the eyes. This drug is not allowed to be used by optometrists practice out of the clinic/hospitals. Not all children require this eye drug, only those very young and not so cooperative children or children with special eye condition do.
So even you get the referral letter from polyclinic, you may probably to be referred to the refraction clinic in KKH and seen by an optometrist. -
jeudesprit74:
My kid had the same astigmatism problem (100+) at the beginning of K2. However, we were told that glasses weren't necessary for him. Reason being at such young age, the eyes are still developing, hence the astigmatism problem. Furthermore, he had no myopia. True enough, by P2, his astigmatism problem was gone.My 4 YO son has been referred to refraction clinic after his eye check-up in CCC. I brought him to an optometrist recently and from the test derived that he has a high astigmatism on left eye (100+?) and slightly on the right eye. My hubby is not keen on him wearing glasses though.
Does anyone know of what are the consequence of uncorrected astigmatism in kids?
TIA!
If you are worried, you might want to call HPB up for an eye appointment. Mine had his eye checkup there when he was a preschooler. -
J and J:
j and j, you sound very knowledgeable in this aspect. An you share with us, what/how should we do if we suspect our children are shortsighted or having some sight issue which require glasses?
Apart from relax the eye muscle, the drug also dilates the pupil as well. The strength depends on the types of drugs they use. For children, they may use the drug with stronger eye muscle relaxation effect, while for the adult, they use the drug with mild eye muscle relaxation but fast acting dilation effect to make the pupil larger for the fundus (internal eye) examination. -
Please bring any child below 7yo to an eye specialist, not an optometrist. Only the eye specialist can administer the eye drop that dilates the eye for a 99% accurate reading. And please don’t go to any so-called "specialist child optometrist" that charges $100 per consultation. The reading from that optometrist was way off from the reading by the eye specialist. Gave me a heart attack for nothing.
My preschooler has astigmatism but with intervention, the condition stabilised or improved a little over the months. I thought she could do without glasses during our 1-week holiday last year and when she last did a check, there was no improvement and I was forced to patch her eyes to prevent lazy eye and squints. So these kids really need their glasses! Don’t procrastinate. -
Imami:
Hi Imami, I assume you refer to the preschooler. I attach the following US website, it states the sign and symptoms if the child (preschooler 2-5 yo) has vision problems and some advises to parents to follows.
j and j, you sound very knowledgeable in this aspect. An you share with us, what/how should we do if we suspect our children are shortsighted or having some sight issue which require glasses?J and J:
Apart from relax the eye muscle, the drug also dilates the pupil as well. The strength depends on the types of drugs they use. For children, they may use the drug with stronger eye muscle relaxation effect, while for the adult, they use the drug with mild eye muscle relaxation but fast acting dilation effect to make the pupil larger for the fundus (internal eye) examination.
http://www.aoa.org/x9450.xml -
Doc said all kids have some mild form of astigmatism when born. The condition corrects itself later on. But if more than 100 degrees, it is not that mild any more. I have astig of 125 degrees in one eye and already I see halos and light glare at night. Numbers don't appear clear etc.
If your child seems to lose interest in reading or counting, it could be due to the fact that he/she can't see properly. Some think it is an attention problem but it could actually be due to eyesight. -
cherrygal:
Yes it may be related to poor eyesightDoc said all kids have some mild form of astigmatism when born. The condition corrects itself later on. But if more than 100 degrees, it is not that mild any more. I have astig of 125 degrees in one eye and already I see halos and light glare at night. Numbers don't appear clear etc.
Agreed. all children are born with astigmatism normally more than 200 degrees, and some children will out grow of it when they reach school age but some do not and stay as higher as 200 - 300 degrees or above. With such high degrees, the child is highly possible to develop lazy eye and if this happens only in one eye, it may lead to squint too.
If your child seems to lose interest in reading or counting, it could be due to the fact that he/she can't see properly. Some think it is an attention problem but it is actually due to eyesight. -
J and J:
Agreed. all children are born with astigmatism normally more than 200 degrees, and some children will out grow of it when they reach school age but some do not and stay as higher as 200 - 300 degrees or above. With such high degrees, the child is highly possible to develop lazy eye and if this happens only in one eye, it may lead to squint too.
J & J, with this possibility of the astig self-correcting, should kids be wearing corrective glasses or not? There was mention by someone earlier that a boy's astig went away by itself at P2 (assuming no glasses were worn at all).
My preschooler is wearing her glasses now but I worry that the astig may never go away totally since her eyes now \"depend\" on the glasses for clearer vision. Advice? -
Unfortunately my kid has 350 for both eyes since kindergarten.
Lately, she starts to develop myopia of 100 each.
We are correcting on her reading habit but can’t imagine her eyes deteriorate so fast.
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