Hi everyone,
I am so confused and I am hoping someone can help me understand something...My son went for his mandatory kindergarten eye exam and was diagnosed with farsightedness. He was given a prescription of +1.75 and told to wear his new glasses all the time. What I don't understand is why a person with farsightedness needs to wear a NON bifocal lens all the time. Won't his distance vision be distorted? I'm a little concerned that the glasses are going to correct the nearsightedness but interfere with his ability to see at a distance.

I would be very grateful is someone could explain this to me...Is my eyedoctor a quack?? HELP!!
Thanks so much,
Kimberly

A little confused here with your post. You mention that your son is farsighted and nearsighted in the same post?! However his rx tells me that he's farsighted. I'll be replying to this post under the assumption that he's in fact farsighted.

It is ABSOLUTELY essential that you follow the dr.s instructions and get your son in glasses NOW!! Uncorrected farsightedness is young children can be highly detrimental to their vision. In some cases leads to amblyopia which is a type of blindness.

My late father was farsighted and went undiagnosed. Consequently, he lost all vision in his left eye at about age 7. Generally, after age 7, little or nothing can be done in a severe case, and blindness is permanent.

Get back in contact with your dr. and make him tell you pecisely how critical your son's eyewear needs are. Don't leave the office or hang up the phone until you feel sure the dr. explained everything to you adequately.

Take your son to a local well respected eyeglass establishment today and purchase 2 pairs of specs. Keep the second pair in a safe place in case the first gets lost or broken. The second pair ensures that there's no gap in wearing in case the first pair is out of commission

Thanks, but I think you misunderstood me. I'm not sure why you thought I was saying that my son was nearsighted...He's definitely farsighted. All I wanted was someone to explain why a person who is farsighted would need to wear glasses ALL the time as opposed to only when close up vision is necessary, ex. reading or computer work. My concern was this...his distance vision is absolutely fine, so aren't the glasses distorting his distance vision as the lenses are essentially magnifying everything. I'm just wondering why he wasn't given a pair of bifocals with his prescription for his farsightedness on the bottom and just a plain lens for distances as his distance vision was perfect. If I take a magnifying glass and try to look as something very small...it helps me see the small item very clearly. However, if I take the same magnifying glass and try to read something at a distance, it would be highly distorted. I hope I've made it clearer!

Thank you for the clarification.

I believe I understand how you reasoned through your concern about his farsightedness. If his distance vision is fabulous without glasses, why do we have to get them? That's logical.

But..............

We have to take logic and flip it on its head. The actual reason is counterintuitive.

We want to have those glasses made. He's getting the good distance vision because his eyes are straining badly. His poor eyesare really working triple overtime in order to produce the clear vision he has. Therein is the concern and the danger.

Imagine a department store parking lot covered in snow, ok? If one person tries to clear it with a hand held snow shovel, they're going to burn out. But, if you put them in a plow you make the device do the heavy lifting instead.

The glasses will do the 'heavy lifting' and take the strain off the poor eyes. He'll still have clear distance vision with the glasses. There will be no distortion. He may initally notice some things look a little bigger than he's been used to, but that's perfectly normal. With contuinual wear, that sensation will pass.

Thank you for the clarification.

I believe I understand how you reasoned through your concern about his farsightedness. If his distance vision is fabulous without glasses, why do we have to get them? That's logical.

But..............

We have to take logic and flip it on its head. The actual reason is counterintuitive.

We want to have those glasses made. He's getting the good distance vision because his eyes are straining badly. His poor eyesare really working triple overtime in order to produce the clear vision he has. Therein is the concern and the danger.

Imagine a department store parking lot covered in snow, ok? If one person tries to clear it with a hand held snow shovel, they're going to burn out. But, if you put them in a plow you make the device do the heavy lifting instead.

The glasses will do the 'heavy lifting' and take the strain off the poor eyes. He'll still have clear distance vision with the glasses. There will be no distortion. He may initally notice some things look a little bigger than he's been used to, but that's perfectly normal. With contuinual wear, that sensation will pass.

Thanks for the explanation. He IS wearing his glasses all the time, but I was just a little concerned that while they were making everything clear close up...they might be making everything ELSE huge and hard to see. He hasn't complained that this is the case and I've asked him many times if they ARE making it hard for him to see at a distance, but he keeps telling me that they aren't. It's just that he's 5 and he really WANTS to wear his glasses as he thinks they're very cool, but I thought that maybe he was telling me what I wanted to hear so he could KEEP wearing his glasses!!
Thanks so much for your help!
Kimberly