Should my 8 year old son with 20/20 vision, but farsighted, wear glasses?

My 3rd grade, 8 years old son has developed a dislike of reading to himself. He has complained that it makes him tired, and he said that it does bother his eyes.

I took him to the eye doctor, who said that my son is farsighted, and that although his vision is 20/20, that it is like lifting a 30 lb weight for my son. He recommended glasses all of the time. The correction is +1.00 in one eye, +1.25 in the other.

I went home and looked into this, and found that farsightedness is common in young children, that it is weak eye muscles, and that it will autocorrect without glasses if given time. It appears to me that the correction proscribed is in that low number range where glasses are not recommended.

I don't think I would have questioned this if it weren't for the fact that he gave my husband a prescription as well "to make things crisper" even though he could read the bottom of the chart. My husband is 36 and has had perfect vision his whole life.

Educated opinions, please.

"I went home and looked into this, and found that farsightedness is common in young children, that it is weak eye muscles, and that it will autocorrect without glasses if given time."

sure. in "young" children. but not at age 8. he's not going to "grow out of" being farsighted at age 8. unlikely.

i like the 30 lb weight analogy, thats one i use myself. just b/c you *CAN* lift 30 lbs doesnt mean you want to carry it around with you all day every day. do you? your son doesnt, either. this is why even tho he can "read 20/20" he has SYMPTOMS (makes him "tired", bothers his eyes, etc)

20/20 is a terrible way to assess vision anyway. people with +10.00 Rx's can "read 202/20". so what? that doesnt mean anything except to the school nurse.

also, comparing your son's vision/complaints to your husband's is also a bad idea. apples and oranges.

if your son has symptoms, he probably needs the glasses.

Well, I am nearsighted. I can only see great up close, but not farther away, and it gets worse the farther I try to see. The funny thing is though that both eyes are the same, so the correction for both of my eyes is -1.00. I need contacts/glasses to be able to see most of time, and prefer to use them everyday. You might be able to talk to his eye doctor about getting a some prescription glasses only for reading and such instead of for everyday/allday use. That way, if he is too self concious to wear glasses, he won't have to wear them all the time.

Since you mentioned the same doctor gave your husband a prescription even though his vision is great, you might want to look for a different doctor to get a second opinion on your son's eyes.

I have worn glasses for reading since I was 7 yrs old. My vision at distance is great and for short term reading I don't need them. I need them for reading for long periods of time. (I love to read). When I became an optician I found out that what I had was called accommodative insufficiency. What happens is that the lens inside the eye focuses excessively to see near objects causing letters to blurr up close. Most kids can and will out grow this but some others have this for the rest of their life. If you do not feel comfortable with the doctor please get a second opinion. I can tell you from personal experience and from working in this career field for the last 18yrs that the faster you get him corrected (if he really needs it ) the better. Hope this helps and Good luck!!

Being farsighted means that the lens system of the eye is sort of 'weak'. Normal people or Emmertropes have a lens system that bends the light and it focuses right on the retina.

In near sighed eyes the light rays are bent so much that they focus in front of the retina.

In farsighted eyes the light bends but doesn't reach a focal point until way behind the eye.

The ability of an 8 year old to accommodate is about 12 diopters. If he's just a 1.00 or 1.25, he's not using very much of his accumulative reserve. You don't need to have him wear those glasses at this age. As he gets older, usually around high school age, where a lot more reading is thrown into the soup, he may want to get glasses. At that time he'll need to work to see at a distance, but also work harder to see even closer and the overall power is high enough to cause fatigue symptoms.....such as headaches, eye aches, tearing, mind wandering, hard to concentrate for any length of time without wanting to lay ones head down and take a little nap....that kind of symptom. It's not that he's lazy (maybe he is, I don't know,) but the eye thing does cause those types of problems.

But if he's having problems now, already, then go ahead and have him wear some glasses. Might try +1.25 over the counter glasses and see how he likes it. If he does, he'll wear them. If he doesn't, as soon as you're out of the room they'll be off. Won't hurt him not to wear them, just makes reading harder.