This comment came in yesterday, and I have permission to re-post it here, as Giri is looking for other parents facing the same situation. – Ann Z
Hello, My 12 month old son got a prescription for glasses, which more of them saying is rare (OD +6.50 +1.0 x90 / OS -7.50 Sph) Dr. recommended to go for Polycarbonate lenses. Any one faced this kind of prescription – having one plus and minus at this age? As am not having any knowledge, checked with few known places and response am getting is differs. Is there a possibility that it will get better when he grows? Also how rare this kind and anything serious with this? His Retina and Optical nerve looks fine. No other symptoms or developmental issues so far.
Any info or experience greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.
Ann here again: I’ll note that polycarbonate is a great lens material for children because it is far less likely to shatter. “Antimetropia” is the term for one eye nearsighted (minus prescription) and the other eye farsighted (plus prescription). Does anyone else have a child with this condition? Any insight or thoughts?
For Little Eyes 
Hi!
Although my daughter doesn’t have animetropia she does have a large prescription difference in her eyes: her right is +5 and left is Plano (nothing). There are a few things that I find important to touch on to help you out. Although the post date is over a month old…I hope you still find this helpful.
First: it is expensive but I highly recomment going with ultra high index lenses (polycarbonate at your childs prescription levels will not only be really thick, it will make the +eye larger and the -eye smaller and since it affects both eyes differently it will be even more noticeable. The higher the index, the thinner the lense will be in the middle having less effect on eye distortion.
The biggest thing we are having to tackle is the development of our daughters sterioscopic(3d) vision. Due to each eye producing different image sizes its very hard to merge those images together (aniseikonia). The high index lenses, being thinner, helps but doesn’t make the images identical in size so glasses will always be an issue (this is due to the lenses having to sit away from the eye). This makes our children top contenders for contact lenses wear and (if it were offered and a healthy choice) lasik surgery. We have had our daughter in glasses for about 7 months and now that we’ve tackled patching, our opthalmologist is wanting to get her comfortable wearing a contact cause its our best hope at developing her vision the best we can.
The third thing is the odds you will be dealing with amblyopia. Possibly even both eyes. Have you found out if patching is needed? Its a hard transition for kiddos so that’s why we avoided contacts with that going on…
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Lindsey
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My child doesn’t have this but my husband has the same thing and has wore glasses since age 6 and he is fine and can even wear contacts. The doctor has even said he is a good if he wants LASIK surgery so I don’t think you have anything to worry about. By the way my husband is 28 now
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Just wondering what you learned/what happened with your son. We found out several weeks ago that my 3-year-old son is OD +4.00 / OS -2.00. We just got his glasses today, polycarbonate lenses in rimless frames. I’m also concerned about the stereoscopic vision issue. Would love to hear how it turned out since it’s hard to find much information on antimetropia in general, much less in children.
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I am a 47 year old and have had the same condition all my life, Everything has been fine by wearing either contact lenses or usually glasses. Recently however, due to my age (which happens to everyone) I have struggled with reading and therefore require my normal glasses which I then have to swop when reading glasses for close work , or wear contact lenses and then put reading glasses over my contact lenses for close work.(different prescription. I am thinking of laser surgery which will mean I will still need glasses but only for close work (which is the same for everyone my age or older). Bit of a faff at present alternating glasses but see very well when wearing correct glasses, no headaches or blurred vision.
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Leaving my experience here, since there doesn’t seem to be almost any info online for children with antimetropia.
I was diagnosed at age 2 in the 90s (along with amblyopia–lazy eye). Treatment included a variety of lenses and wearing an eye patch for a certain % of the day from ages 2-7. I do have occasional overlapping vision if I deliberately relax my eyes, but it’s only in the center of my vision and does not impact my ability to navigate the world or handle objects. As a child I thought that I might have x-ray vision, because this type of double vision makes it look like you can see right through the middle of an object. I did struggle with ball-based sports (the feeling of objects coming right at you at speed with this kind of vision is unpleasant, and I wish my parents had not put me in those kinds of sports.) I can see well enough to drive with corrective lenses.
Overall my life is fine, and the antimetropia only comes up when I see a new eye doctor (they think it’s a treat to encounter patients with this because it’s rare) or when I order glasses online (most automated ordering systems will flag a +- prescription as a possible error. Be prepared for them to call you to confirm.)
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Thank you so much for sharing your experience, JM!
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