All About Kids' Eye-sight

[ZacK]

My son (aged 5) missed his eye checkup session when Health Promotion Board visited his K1. He was given a slip for follow-up at HPB at the SGH compound and I brought him there.


Parents are not allowed into the examination room but I managed to get myself in due to my son being his usual sticky self. I observed the whole process and must say that the optometrist is very professional and good as I think she handles kids on a daily basis.

The outcome of my son's checkup is that he needs to be prescribed with glasses due to extremely high astigmatism (>300 each eye). The optimetrist gave me his presciption which I then went to an optical shop to have his glasses made.

I think there are different schools of thoughts. Some feel that they do not want to put their kids on glasses at such a young age due to getting them \"hooked\" to early.

Personally for me, if there is a problem then we shd have it rectified so that the condition will not deteriorate and not to affect him in other ways e.g. not being able to see clearly in class and resulting in affecting his results to cite as an example.

So my take is if we sense something could be wrong with their eyesight, better to have it checked.

Perhaps can contact the HBP Student Health Centre to enquire if anyone can walk in to use their services? http://www.hpb.gov.sg/hpb/default.asp?pg_id=1007

[ChiefKiasu]

ZacK:

...The outcome of my son's checkup is that he needs to be prescribed with glasses due to extremely high astigmatism (>300 each eye).

Ouch. Did the optometrist say what might have caused that astigmatism? I heard it is due to the distortion of the cornea. In any case, it is good that you discover that sooner because it might affect the learning of your child if not properly identified.

[ZacK]

ChiefKiasu:

ZacK:

...The outcome of my son's checkup is that he needs to be prescribed with glasses due to extremely high astigmatism (>300 each eye).

Ouch. Did the optometrist say what might have caused that astigmatism? I heard it is due to the distortion of the cornea. In any case, it is good that you discover that sooner because it might affect the learning of your child if not properly identified.

I did ask her about it and she said it's very rare for a child his age to have such a high astigmatism (mine after more than 3.5 decades is only abt 200 odd for astig per eye). She attributed it more to his genes rather than external factors.

[corneyAmber]

Astigmatism is usually genetic whereas short-sightedness is really due to poor habits (I see this in my kid!!!)

[MMM]

My eldest girl was also diagnoised with high astigmatism in K1. When they did the review in k2 and P1, she was not asked to go for further review. Hence we kept to the same prescription since K1. She wears her glasses to school and classes. But when she is home, she usually go without glasses. My hubby has fairly high astigmatism so probably it’s genetic.


I called HPB to ask if we can just "walk in" and bring the child for a eye review, they said they don’t entertain walk in. We’ve to wait for the nurses to come to school.

We attended a motherhood fair years ago and sign up for eye review with a paed eye checkup at paragon. I recall that they do for kids at very young age eg. babies. My hubby was sceptical so we didn’t bring the youngest one for the review.

[ZacK]

ks2me:

Astigmatism is usually genetic whereas short-sightedness is really due to poor habits (I see this in my kid!!!!)

Yeap my boy's short-sightedness is almost zero.... But requires glasses to be worn daily juz for astig.

[ZacK]

MMM:

My eldest girl was also diagnoised with high astigmatism in K1. When they did the review in k2 and P1, she was not asked to go for further review. Hence we kept to the same prescription since K1. She wears her glasses to school and classes. But when she is home, she usually go without glasses. My hubby has fairly high astigmatism so probably it's genetic.


I called HPB to ask if we can just \"walk in\" and bring the child for a eye review, they said they don't entertain walk in. We've to wait for the nurses to come to school.

We attended a motherhood fair years ago and sign up for eye review with a paed eye checkup at paragon. I recall that they do for kids at very young age eg. babies. My hubby was sceptical so we didn't bring the youngest one for the review.

Thanks for the clarifications regarding HPB. I feel that babes are a tad too young to need eye check-ups... I guess the earliest age that we can consider would be when our kids are of school going age i.e. from kindergarten onwards. Just my thoughts...

[MMM]

ZacK:

ks2me:

Astigmatism is usually genetic whereas short-sightedness is really due to poor habits (I see this in my kid!!!!)

Yeap my boy's short-sightedness is almost zero.... But requires glasses to be worn daily juz for astig.

I think it's similar with my girl too. She is not short sighted. She just has astimatism. Maybe that's the norm for kids with this condition?

[ZacK]

MMM:

ZacK:

[quote=\"ks2me\"]Astigmatism is usually genetic whereas short-sightedness is really due to poor habits (I see this in my kid!!!!)

Yeap my boy's short-sightedness is almost zero.... But requires glasses to be worn daily juz for astig.

I think it's similar with my girl too. She is not short sighted. She just has astimatism. Maybe that's the norm for kids with this condition?[/quote]Needs some getting use to for my son... But he usually wears his glasses at school and we make it optional for him during play since he does not really need to crystal clear vision during those times

[Luanee]

I received a letter from my girl’s kindergarten when she was in K1 (5+ yrs old) and they did the checkup in school. Same for K2.