How bad is a persons eyesight if the prescription is +5.50?!


Question:

How bad is a persons eyesight if the prescription is +5.50?

My son 19 months has to wear a patch over his eye and now has to have eye glasses. What i am trying to figure out is how bad his eye sight is. How does he see things? If anyone in here has +5.50 prescription can you please tell me how bad you see with out your glasses/contacts.


Answers:

this is difficult to explain to parents.

a 19 month old doesnt have fully developed eyes/vision yet so they "see" things totally differently than we do, anyway. generally much blurrier, even in children who dont have any prescription.

but the reason for the glasses and patching is to give the retina the clearest possible image in order to facilitate proper retinal/vision development. if left untreated, a +5.50 child would almost certainly develop accommodative esotropia (crossed eyes) and refractive amblyopia (reduced visual acuity). gotta prevent either eye from "turning in" so that the brain doesnt learn to ignore the image of the "turned in" eye. thats really the main purpose of the glasses IMO in cases like this...to prevent an eye turn.

my son is now 17 years old and he was diagnosed as being +5.00 at age 3. he sees 20/20 at all distances w/o glasses or contacts. he never, ever, ever complains of "blurry" vision. but without the glasses/contacts, his eyes are obviously crossed, and he has to strain a LOT in order to see. its not feisable for him to ever go without glasses/contacts b/c he has to work so hard to see well. so as for how your 19 month old "sees things"...not much differently than any other 19 month old. i seriously doubt he has significantly blurrier vision than other healthy 19 month old.

but as an almost-adult, my 17 year old son is not worried about visual development. his vision is fully developed.

with your son being only 19 months...you DEFINITELY ARE concerned with visual development. he needs to wear his glasses pretty much all the time, and you need to follow the patching regimen religiously. that'll give him the best chance at good vision later...

good luck!




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