Does any kid with 20/20 vision need huge glasses?

My son, 6, has been wearing glasses for 20/200 farsightedness since he was four, even though his eyes test at 20/20, because when the doctor dilated them he was darned near blind. She said that this means that the eye muscles have grown too big to overcompensate and that he needs to be eased into a really strong prescription, with his prescription being increased every six months. It's costing a fortune and he keeps losing/breaking his glasses, and now that we have vision insurance which doesn't cover this optometrist I'm wondering how to explain why he's been wearing these huge glasses to the next optometrist, since without dilation his eyes still test at 20/20.

If any of you have heard of anything similar and can offer any suggestions or expertise I'd be very grateful!

It's quite possible , but it wouldn't be the norm.

I'm rather horrified by the answers here which seem to think the 20/20 is some magic totem, and that if some one has that, then everything's OK.
It may be, and there's a fair chance it is, but there can be serious problems in eyes that have 20/20.

The main reason this is likely to occur is with previously undetected longsight.
I've found children carrying 5 and 6 dioptres of longsight by using their accommodation, their reading reserves, to get good distance vision.
2-3 diopters is by no means uncommon.

In some children this will matter little as long as they don't find reading or closework tiring but, as they get older, unless the prescription reduces naturally (it often but not always does) closework difficulty is likely to arise.
But uncorrected longsight is also a predisposing factor to squint, (and the risk of a lazy eye developing) and increasingly so as they start to read more and work more on computers. The likelihood of this in different individuals needs to be individually assessed.
Binocular function and stability are the important things here, not the vision, 20/20 or otherwise, on a letter chart.

Just because a high hyperopic Rx has been found with drops (which give a better assessment of the true Rx) doesn't always mean all of it needs to be given. Deciding how much of the Rx is needed to eliminate any reading fatigue and reduce the risks mentioned above is again a decision to be based on individual assessment.
A child with an assessed Rx of +4.00 on a cycloplegic refraction *might* be rendered safe and happy with a +2.00 Rx, but it might be a poor compromise decision, the full or near-full Rx being needed to avoid the risk of squint.

A good optometrist should be able to talk this through with the parents of young children. The job is not just about the technical skills of measuring an eye.

Optometrist, retired.

Take those glasses off of your son now!

Call a lawyer immediately, this was a huge scam that optometrists were pulling back in the early 80s when I was a kid. Your son doesn't need glasses at all and your optometrist has been billing your insurance out of her own personal greed.

If he has 20/20 vision, then he doesn't need glasses. I can't see well when my eyes are dilated either, that's normal.

Sue the crap out of this poor excuse of an eye doctor, and have her reported to whatever board holds her license. She shouldn't be allowed to treat anyone.

this sounds so weird. i went in to get my eyes checked after i got over lyme's disease a few months ago. I had never really had an eye exam before, except for reading the chart at school. I ended up only needing reading glasses, but after they dialated my eyes my vision was just horrible. I thought that was just what happened when they dialated your eyes.

I guess maybe it's different because he's a kid, and I'm almost 20. To me that sounds really odd, so you may want a second opinion, before you go on wasting more money on glasses he doesn't need.

Go somewhere you're not known, like a Walmart or America's Best eye place. Do NOT let them dilate his eyes. Let them give him the vision tests on the machines. Say NOTHING about him ever wearing glasses before. See how he tests then.

I've gone and have glasses for driving. Dilation is optional and not mandatory. I would think the tests would be far more accurate when one could actually SEE?

If you want to bypass your vision insurance, and get off cheaply, visit America's Best. You can look online at twopair.com . My son (12) has glasses only for when he sits in the back of the classroom (his prescription is similar to mine but milder) and for $70, you get two pair of glasses and the eye exam.

Just like someone else said, get his eyes checked somewhere they don't know you and don't mention him wearing glasses previously.

This sounds like a scam, 20/.20 vision is 20/20 vision. Farsightedness in young kids is usually something they grow out of.

If he ends up actually needing glasses, even though it sounds like he doesn't, get the kind that will not break. They are usually a little more expensive and don't always look as cute but they work. I started wearing glasses at age 7 and after a couple of cheap pair that got damaged due to sports my parents finally got a sturdy pair for me that lasted awhile. Also, get him a neck strap, again not cute but they will at least stay attached to him until he's old enough to keep track of them. He is probably taking them off because it's hard to do things when you can't see. If you wear glasses that are either too weak or too strong it can cause headaches, and difficulty concentrating.

Good luck.

A farsighed child will often see 20/20 without glasses, but the strain of doing so may cause headache, eye turn, blurred vision at near and problems with learning in school.

The next optometrist will discover the farsightedness even without dilation, but may want to use the dilating drops again the first time. Or you can ask your current optometrist to forward a record summary to the new one.