Need glasses or a second opinion?

Last week my 6-year-old daughter had her physical and I was told that her vision was 20/30. However her left eye is 20/40.
The doctor insisted that I have her checked next year. I was thinking that I should have her tested again (by an eye doctor).

Any suggestions?
Side bar - I don't want to get glasses too early as she will become dependent on them. On the other hand I don't want her bumping into walls (she already has two left feet ;-D).

If bad eyesight runs in the family I would go ahead and get her eyes checked. Honestly, the results that you get during a physical will likely be different then what your child will see in an optometrists office. The optometrist will be able to tell if your child has an astigmatism or any other vision problems that need to be addressed. And rather than thinking about the potential of your daughter becoming dependent on eyewear that will help her see better, I would think of the good that would come from her getting adjusted to lower prescriptions that could potentially be stronger in the future. Of course, that is if she even has a need for eyewear.

On a personal note, my oldest daughter was 5 when I got about the same results your daughter did during a physical. I took her in to the optometrist I worked for at the time and her visual acuity was 20/50 and 20/40. A little different then during the physical. He prescribed a -1.00 in both eyes. Now 5 years later she is wearing a -4.00 in both eyes. I was glad that I started her so young because then it wasn't such a shock as her prescription increased.

Bring her to an eye doctor. A person, even a child, should be able to see. There's no such thing as "being dependent" on glasses. If her vision gets worse in school, it may cause her grades to drop and her attention span to shorten simply because she cannot see what the teacher is writing on the board. The best thing to do is have her checked by a specialist and see what they think. If they think it's okay to wait a year, then wait a year, but if she DOES need glasses it's better to get her used to them now than wait until she's older and more conscious of her looks.

Your physician is just recommending that you take her to the optometrist or an ophthalmologist (the 20/30 and 20/40 numbers aren't a prescription, by any means). Whether she gets glasses depends on what the optometrist/ophthalmologist recommends. Usually, the pattern is in kids that eye problems get worse as time goes on, until the vision finally levels off at some point. So you will probably end up buying her glasses anyways at some point

I suggest you make an appointment with an optometrist as soon as possible for your daughter (but it is not an emergency thing).

There is no such thing as being too dependent on glasses, by the way. She needs her vision corrected if the doctor recommends it--not correcting the vision could cause her to take a negative attitude about school (like, she doesn't understand that she cannot see, so she thinks that she is dumb when she does things wrong due to the lack of ability to see clearly). .

It's always a good idea to take your kid to an optometrist or ophthalmologist anyways to get a yearly vision test. They can catch problems like lazy eye, which would otherwise go undetected, but could effectively blind your kid in one eye. Taking your child to get her vision screened by a regular physician, like you did, is absolutely not enough. Go to the eye experts.

it is probably best to take her to an eye doctor and get glasses, you dont want her eyes to get worse, even if she does have to become dependent on glasses