pictures of kids in glasses with a strong prescription

· by · in toddlers with glasses. ·

Thank you to everyone who commented on my earlier post about strong prescriptions and sent in pictures of their kids with strong prescription glasses.  I thought I’d make this a new post to show some of the pictures to give people a sense of the distortion that happens with high prescription lenses (hint, it’s really not very noticeable).  Again, you would expect that farsighted (+ prescriptions) will make the eyes look a little bigger, and that nearsighted (- prescriptions) will make the eyes look a little smaller.

~ ~ ~

Josh is a +9 in his right eye and a +10 in his left eye:

picture of a farsighted boy with glasses - prescription +9 and +10

Josh wearing glasses

picture of a farsighted boy without glasses

picture of Josh for comparison without glasses

picture of a lens for farsightedness or hyperopia +9 prescription

Josh's right lens

~ ~ ~

Christina’s daughter is a +7 in her right eye and a +8 in her left eye:

picture of a farsighted girl and her glasses

Christina's daughter and her glasses

~ ~ ~

Bennett is a -8 and a -12:

picture of a nearsighted boy

Bennett

(and of course, it goes without saying, but wow, your kids are all very cute!)

54 responses to “pictures of kids in glasses with a strong prescription”

  3. Hi
    Recently my son who is 4 years old was prescripted +4 eyeglesses in each eye.everyone around is saying that is really strong prescription for his age.How in the world did his eyes got so bad???? If anyone has a similar story or concerns please response because i fell so lost in this.
    Thank You

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    • Hi Karolina, I’m glad you found us! +4 is considered moderate farsightedness, so yes, it’s strong, but not overly high or severe. My daughter is almost 4, and has a prescription in the +4.75 range for both eyes, and can function without her glasses (for instance, in swimming lessons), though she does ask for them every morning now. She started wearing glasses at 14 months, and while it was a struggle at first, it’s gotten far, far better, to the point where I now love her glasses.

      I’m not sure of an answer to how his eyes got so bad, it’s related to the shape of his eye, and is definitely not anything you or he did, just something that some kids are born with.

      Please stick around and let us know how things go, and feel free to ask any

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  4. My 4 year old son Caleb was recently diagnosed with Hyperopia and Astigmatism .. his prescription is a +10 and +9. How bad is this really? The optometrists tend to sugar coat it and I am unsure of the severity of his eyesight. He has adjusted well to the glasses but I feel uncertain about his future .. will his eyesight deteriorate or perhaps improve?

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    • Hi Lindsay, your son’s prescription is definitely very strong, but it is correctable, which is the most important thing. My understanding is that most farsighted kids do become less farsighted as they get older, so his vision will likely improve, though probably not to the point of not needing glasses.

      Best of luck to you!

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  5. Hi i am glad to have found you, my 3 and a half son has had glasses for the past year and a half. His prescription at the moment is +11 both eyes apart that he has a lazy eye. On my visit he immediately said that he is very long sighted, slightly astigmatic and has a lazy eye. I am very worried about his eye sight since it seems to go up in strenght not down and that they are extremely strong for his tender age. I just got him new glasses the thinnest possible which is still very thick in my opinion, and very noticible that he has strong vision.

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    • Hi Claudia, I’m glad you found us. My understanding is that farsightedness can get worse for a little bit at this age, but then begins to lessen until around age 12 when it stabilizes. +11 is a very strong farsighted prescription, I completely understand your worries.

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  6. I just found out that my daughter can barely see out of her right eye. Her perscription is -15.00 in the right eye and -1.00 in the left. This is a significant difference between the 2 eyes and I am wondering how glasses are going to look on her becauase of this huge difference. Everyone I’ve talked to have never seen a prescrition this high and I think the thickness is going to be enormous. I don’t know how her eye got so bad or why it wasn’t caught sooner. Anyone with pictures that show this type of eye glasses would be helpful. My daughter is 5 years old. Any advice on how to help her to cope if the glasses make her look funny.

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    • Hi Yolanda, that is a very strong prescription. I know there are parents here with kids with similarly strong prescriptions, I hope they’ll chime in. I would be worried with such a large difference in prescription between the two eyes – I think that it may emphasize the distortion. I believe I’ve heard of doctors recommending a contact in those cases, in part because the distorion from the lens with the high prescription can make it difficult for the eyes to work together.

      Keep us updated on how things are going.

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    • As an adult, I’ve struggled with one very week eye and one ‘normal’ eye my whole life. I find that I’m better wearing nothing or contacts. Because of the huge difference in prescription glasses just do not work for me. So i either live by my good eye or wear one contact and live in the ‘bubble’ world! (The bubble world is where people with two eyes live in 3D!) lol

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  7. My eleven year old daughter has been wearing a high correction for far-sightedness (hyperopia) since it was discovered when she was 4 and developed a lazy eye. At that time her correction was +9.00 and +8.25. The lazy eye was successfully corrected with many many months of patching which she was very accepting of. I had hoped that her vision would improve slightly with age but, sadly, it has got worse. She now has lenses that are +10.50 and +9.25. At eleven years old she now cares very much how she looks. We have always spent an enormous amount of money on the special lenses that can be made thinner even for high Rx. She prefers plastic frames as these are better at hiding the thickness of the lens, which is still thicker than the frame. Do they magnify her eyes? Yes, but only so much that you would think what lovely big eyes she has: Not what abnormally big eyes she has. So you could put a positive spin on it. The negative side is that the glasses are quite heavy even with the special lenses. But she is used to them and doesn’t complain. The real tragedy in her case is that she is outside the range for LASIK surgery and also outside the range for disposable contact lenses. I have recently read about an implantable lens option which requires surgery and sounds rather extreme. I’m afraid that is likely to be her only option and she will still have to wait until she is at least 18.

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      • Yes, she could wear non-disposable contact lenses. They are not recommended for her age though and do cause more irritation than disposables. We’d all love a perfect solution but I’m coming to accept that there just isn’t one.

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  8. hi my son is nearly six and he has just been diagnosed with +9.25 in left eye and 8.25 in right eye, i was too shocked to ask any questions but now im trying to understand how did his eyes get so bad?? and how did i not notice? im worried about him wearing such strong prescription glasses, could they have got it wrong? hes never shown any symptoms and does not have a lazy eye or squint? im confused and worried can you help?

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    • Kids with strong farsighted prescriptions can still focus on things up close, it just causes a lot of eye strain, and can eventually cause their eyes to cross, though it sounds like your son hasn’t ever had problems with his eyes crossing. Kids are also growing really rapidly at this age, and can have growth spurts that cause their prescriptions to jump pretty quickly, so his eyes may not have been this farsighted the whole time. It is a really strong farsighted prescription, though. Did his doctor dilate his eyes and do an exam with them dilated? That plus having him read an eye chart up close should give an accurate assessment of his prescription, but if you’re at all in doubt, I would see about getting a second opinion. He should slowly outgrow the prescription, though with it being that high, he will likely not completely outgrow the need for glasses.

      Good luck! I know it’s hard to not be worried, but getting him checked and getting him glasses are the best things you can do for him.

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  9. Dear Friends,

    I know how heartbreaking it is to see your little ones with such strong prescriptions, but don’t worry! The power does not matter as long as your kid sees clearly 🙂 I am also a firm believer in Herbal remedies to make eye muscles stronger! I give my son one shot of wheatgrass juice daily, and also try to keep him away from junk and sweets 🙂
    End of the day, what matters is that your kids should be happy and healthy! The moon has spots too, but aren’t we all mesmerized by her beauty? Think of your fellows as the same!!!
    Love and Light
    Neha

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  10. Hello! My son is 2.5 and has been in glasses for about 6 months. His prescription is +8.5 and +7.5. I had never noticed any crossing or other unusual eye movement until about a month ago. Since then I’ve noticed him crossing twice. I know one of the instances he wasn’t wearing his glasses (which is rare). I can’t remember if he was or not the other time. Since then I’ve been really focused on looking closely at his eyes and the movement seems rapid, not holding one position for very long. His doctor has described him as having “two lazy eyes.” I think this is called “bilateral amblyopia” from my internet research, although I don’t recall the opthamologist using those words. Has anyone else noticed changes in eye movement after starting glasses? Anyone else have experience with “two lazy eyes?” Thanks!

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    • Hi Jess! I know that it’s very common for children who have been wearing glasses to cross their eyes even more than they had previously when the glasses are off. Basically, they are used to seeing things clearly with glasses on, so when the glasses come off, they are using their accommodative reflex more to try to see as clearly as they had been, and that often causes eyes to cross. So if the crossing really has just been with his glasses off, then I wouldn’t worry. If his eyes are shifting back and forth a lot, I’d take him in to the eye doctor for that. It sounds like nystagmus.

      As for bilateral amblyopia (that is what I’d call “two lazy eyes”), there’s unfortunately very little research done on that. I just ran across an article that was reviewing studies of amblyopia treatment. They found no studies looking at bilateral amblyopia (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22513928?dopt=Abstract). I hope someone else will post with their experiences, if not, I’ll post this to the main blog and see if anyone has thoughts.

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      • Hi Ann,
        I spoke with the doctor today and actually his diagnosis is accommodative estropia. I guess I should turn in my imaginary medical degree :). Anyway, she advised just as you did – crossing without glasses is common and not very concerning to her. If I notice crossing with the glasses on to bring him in. As for the eye movement she said his age could account for some of it. She just saw him last month so she felt it was likely ok but to bring him in if it worsens.

        Thank you for your reply!

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        • Oh that makes sense. She must have meant that both eyes were turning in by “two lazy eyes”, but that’s frustrating when doctors don’t give the correct terminology, especially in this case when the terminology is so confusing (I’ve heard “lazy eye” refer to amblyopia or strabismus or ptosis).

          Glad you got a good explanation and you’re keeping an eye on things.

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  11. Hi, My son has been in glasses since 18months, he was diagnosed with having +10 prescription in both eyes, it was a shock to all of us as like many of you have said, we hadnt noticed anything was wrong as thought he had perfect vision, we always had a joke that he loved his food so much that he would always find the last crumb. After lots of awful eye appointments with the dilation drops, he is now 3half and they have finally got the best look at his eyes and think he is more like a +11 prescription. He looks great in his glasses, but they are fairly thick, although these have been thinned to their maximum amount, fortunately we have someone that will thin the lenses for us at a reasonable price as he has his own lab, but have been told that in future these would possibly cost us around £180 just for the lenses alone. I have a few questions…… Firstly we are awaiting the new +11 glasses, and at the moment my son rubs his eyes all the time and says their watery, we are hoping this is eye strain and the new glasses will stop this, in the mean time can anyone reccomend eye drops or something to relieve this for now? secondly- can anyone reccomend a goo, strong frame to go for, any website ideas for childrens glasses? thirdly-we are currently looking into goggles for him so he can start swimming lessons.

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    • Hi Lisa, I don’t have a good recommendation for watery eyes, though I think it’s possible that a new prescription in his glasses will help. As for frames, a lot of parents love Miraflex or Solo Bambini, and they’re very flexible and virtually unbreakable. I have however heard they aren’t as good with high prescriptions as the lenses are more likely to pop out, but I don’t have direct experience with that, so maybe someone else can chime in. As for swim goggles, aclens.com seems to be recommended a lot http://www.aclens.com/Accessories/Prescription-Swimming-Goggles/213/Hilco-Z-Leader-Childrens-Prescription-Swimming-Goggles.html They only go to +8.0, but it’s possible that that would be enough prescription for your son to see clearly enough for swimming. Other options for swim goggles with higher prescriptions seem to be by special order only and very expensive.

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      • Thankyou very much for your response Ann, i am very happy to say that we have finally received the new glasses today so will wait and see if the rubbling improves. Many thanks for both the reccomendations for frames and goggles, i will have a look now.x

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    • Hello,
      I am very relieved to have found a parent whos child has the same prescription with my daughter. she is 8 months and diagnosed with +10 and she is now wearing her glasses. they were ready just yesterday. I am very worried for her vision and development. Could you please share your experience with your son? he is doing ok in his everyday activities,school and all?

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  12. Hi i have just been told that my 6 year old son needs glasses permenantly he has a prescription for +4.75, i feel terribly guilty as i only took him for an eye test to stop him from asking to go to the opticians, i hadnt noticed any problems neither had his school or any other family members, do you think if i had taken him sooner i could have prevented his eyesight from getting this bad? X

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    • Hi Gemma, I haven’t read anything that indicates that earlier detection leads to lower prescriptions, so no, I don’t think you could have prevented it. In fact, our kids are going through such rapid growth spurts at this age, it’s possible that his prescription wasn’t nearly that bad until recently. Please, please don’t feel guilty, you did get him check out, and you are getting him in to glasses, and taking care of his vision now, that’s what’s important. (And as an aside, Zoe is 6 and has the exact same prescription as your son!).

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    • Hello! Had to reply as my 4 yr old son has just been diagnosed with +8 and we only found out through school test! I felt awful until doc pointed out that he has always been ths way, doesn’t know any different and because he has learned to cope with it we wouldn’t have noticed. Plus he can read and write so we wouldn’t have spotted it. We are collecting his glasses on Saturday and at hoping he still likes how we all look! He has 4 older sisters with no sight problems and we all can’t believe none of us noticed! Xx

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      • Good luck! It’s so, so easy to miss, especially farsightedness in children. Kids who are farsighted can also focus through some of their farsightedness using their accommodative reflex (it just really strains their eyes). Please don’t feel bad about not noticing – you caught it, and that’s pretty fantastic! Good luck on Saturday with the new glasses!

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  13. dear Ann
    My son is 20 months just diagnosed with accomodative esotropia as his left eye was turning in we had just noticed it 15 days before we took him to the doctor .. the PO said he is +5.25 in one eye and +7.25 in another and ordered glasses..he has a follow up after 2 months..so what should we expect in the coming appt will his power keep going up till 8 yrs as I am reading on line or will it remain the same or a slight change…

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  14. I’ve had glass since 1 1l2 yrs old. I am now 63! Wearing glasses never curtailed me in anything in my life. My prescription has gotten stronger in recent years. I am now +9 and +7. I actually prefer to wear my glasses to my contacts. I guess after all these years, I like glasses!! My parents were always very open about anthing to do with my corrections, surgeries, etc.

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    • Patricia had a few queries as my son has been recently diagnosed with high farsightedness at 20 months….1)What power did you start with and how much did it gradually increase 2) Will he be ok when he starts school in terms of learning 3) did you face any difficulties in driving

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  15. Hi,
    My daughter is 3 years old and we went to doctor to check her eyes because we noticed she was keeping the phone close when watching music. We were shocked to find out she has high hypermetropia and little astigmatisc, she has not eye crossing. Her prescription is +7.5 for hypermetropia and +1.25 for astigmatisc, we are waiting for the glasses.
    We checked with 2 doctors. first one also wrote amblyopia on the prescription but didn’t mention anything to us. When we checked second doctor, she said with this prescription we prevent amblypia but she doesnt have it now, I’m still confused about this.
    We are very worried, what should we expect now? Any estimates on how much it will improve by age or it will be like this all her life?
    Also we are worried the lences will be very thick although they told us from the store they will make as thin as possible. What will be the width for this kind lences?

    Thank you!

    Alina

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  16. I love all the pictures. I too have a little boy, William is 4 years old and is +4 in his left eye and +2 in his right.

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  17. Yu all need to read WHY GLASSES ARE HARMFUL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE on i-see.org

    My 2 yr old was diagnosed with +8 hyperopia in each eye and the idiot optician wanted to fit her with these ridiculous thick glasses. Instead I read the above book which in the last chapters show charts of how severe hyperopic children progress towards NORMAL vision as they grow *IF LEFT ALONE (and how they get worse hyperopia with glasses)

    So I did nothing….and lied to the optomisrtist about her wearing glasses ….now 5 yrs old and her eyesight is at +5 each eye….shes LOST 3+ in each eye!

    Do your children a favor and get informed. Glasses do more harm than good.

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    • It’s actually normal for hyperopic children, with glasses and without, to become less hyperopic as they get older (http://www.iovs.org/content/41/12/3726.full, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.carleton.edu/pubmed/20580093, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18759801, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.carleton.edu/pmc/articles/PMC3223483/#R14 — note, most of these are looking at children with accommodative esotropia, which is simply crossed eyes due to hyperopia), it’s a normal process called emmetropization. There is some evidence that not providing the full hyperopic prescription does more to help children become less hyperopic (in one of the articles I linked to, the study looked at children with high hyperopia, and provided partial glasses correction to half of them, and no correction to the other half. Both groups showed the same decrease in hyperopia. Other studies found a decrease in hyperopia in children wearing glasses but didn’t mention if the correction was full or partial.). It’s quite likely that your daughter’s prescription would have decreased similarly had she worn her glasses as well. The biggest risk in not treating hyperopia is the high likelihood of developing strabismus (eyes crossing), which, untreated will keep children from developing stereovision and can lead to amblyopia (the brain ignoring the visual input from one or both eyes). The other risk is that children with untreated hyperopia must strain their eyes to focus, especially up close, which can lead to deficits in literacy (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18043422).

      Eye care providers do not take the prescribing of glasses to young children lightly. When appropriate and correctly prescribed, glasses do far more good than bad.

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  19. With all due respect Ann, glasses are fit for visual acuity at 20 ft. That means all distances INSIDE of 20 ft the glasses prescription is wrong aka. Too strong! At 10 ft the glasses are twice as strong as the need to be, at 1 ft (reading distance) glasses are 20 TIMES TOO STRONG! If you are truly worried about eye strain, you would never let a child wear lenses fit for a 20 ft distance visual acuity at 1 ft for reading.

    Sadly most optometrists incorrectly over compensate presriptions and refuse to provide various lenses for differing activities (between 6 inches and 15 ft for most daily activities). This get expensive and impractical, so better to just slap 20 ft acuity lenses on the poor child who then requires stronger and stronger prescriptions

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  21. Today my 4 yrs old saw the eye doc and I was told he is severely myopic. She said his sight was 16. I don’t know what that means. My guess is -16 in both eyes. He can’t see clearly unless it’s right in his face yet he runs, plays and does video games with no problem. How bad is his vision? The doc and assistant ordering his glasses seemed shocked at how strong his prescription was and said his glasses will pretty much be coke bottle glasses. He also is at risk for detached retina. I’m terrified. We lost a son to a heart defect last year so health issues with my children terrify me. His 6 yr old brother had the same issue just slightly not as bad. He was premature though yet My 4 yr old was full term at almost 39 weeks. I’m scared for his vision and what this means.

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    • Hugs to you, Nikki. A -16 would be a strong prescription, for sure. But the bigger question is how he’ll see with his vision corrected with glasses. Kids are amazingly adaptable and can do so much through poor vision. Best wishes.

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    • My son is 4 and We also just found out the same news. I wonder the same thing how bad is his vision he does everything that any other toddler does and fine. His prescription is a -16 as well how is your son doing now

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  22. Hello on the December 22 my 7 year old daughter was diagnosed with having optical nerve bruising and was prescribed a +10 prescription for both eyes, can anyone explain to me exactly what optical nerve bruising is, the doctor says it’s hereditary though!!! I’m feeling so guilty that I did not catch this earlier in her life, but she gets all As in school and reads perfectly fine, I just don’t understand, thanks!!!

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    • Hi Karen, I don’t really know much at all about optic nerve bruising. The prescription she was given indicates that she’s farsighted. Kids who are farsighted can often compensate for much of the farsightedness, but it causes eyestrain and fatigue, especially as they get in to grade school and do more close up work.

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  23. Hi my son has +10 in both eyes and has retina problems I’m worried he’s gonna go blind can anyone resurrect me this wnt happen

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  24. Hi, I am an extremely terrified mother of a four year old boy who got diagnosed last week with high myopia of -10 in both eyes with around 2 astigmatism. I simply cant stop worrying about what will happen next…thoughts like will he go blind are killing me. I am sorry to be so scared but I can’t help it.
    Please help me with your advice. hasn’t there ever been a case when such high myopia got decreased (even slightly) rather than progressing?
    Also, how disabling this condition can be? Can my son do well with his glass (prescription -7) and when he is grown up, we can get laser surgery done. Will this give him a good vision?
    I am -2.5 and my husband is only -1.5. There is no history of high myopia in our families. My son was full term and 3 kgs at birth (Indian). We didnt notice anything, but two months ago he strated blinking his eyes. he used to get frequent stye type infection but our pediatrician never referred to ophthalmologist…and suddenly we got this shock. Also two days ago my son told me he can see bright colorful sparks in the dark….I am so confused.

    Please help me.

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    • Hi, it can be so overwhelming and scary to think about our children’s vision, especially when we learn they have difficulty seeing. I’m sorry that I don’t know of cases in which myopia has decreased, but I do know that there is a lot of research being done right now looking at ways to slow the progression of myopia.

      I am worried about your son’s commend that he’s seeing colorful sparks in the dark. I would absolutely contact his eye doctor and see if he should come in. That can be a sign of retinal detachment.

      Please keep us updated.

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  26. Hi my name is brandy my son billy was born with cataracts he had multiple eye surgery’s including having his lens removed because of the cataracts, stretch of the pupils, muscle surgery, etc from 3 months old to two years old. We tried contact lenses when he was little till he was two however after his last surgery he didn’t like them so we went to glasses. His prescription is getting better as he gets older, but we are having a hard time having his glasses made the place where he usually get them made which we went to because it was paid for by Maine care is having a hard time with his lenses this time for some reason. We no longer have Maine care and we pay for his glasses and frames which cost us 308.00 with insurance and they are the cheap ones that they say are “durable” and they brake so easy. I guess what I’m wondering has anyone had any luck with any other glasses place? His prescription is 21+ and 20 + and he has bifocals for reading!!!!! I know his prescription is strong but he can see! He has had a long road and had to listen to people with harsh words :(. Thanks everyone!!!!!!

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