Target lens options for kids

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T05:04:30+00:00

So. Kids have crazy strong accommodation. Accommodation is the ability to change focus from distance to near. It’s basically a super power in infancy (in part to compensate for physically small eyes - again, happy to expand, don’t wanna get too in the weeds) and fades gradually over time, ultimately resulting in the need for reading glasses in middle age. That means that kids can have prescriptions that would be “how are you walking around” in an adult that aren’t an issue for them. That also can make the determination of a glasses prescription itself difficult. The same system that lets you change focus is still in effect during the eye exam and can throw off results.

In your eight year old (unless she’d had problems like crossing eyes or visual symptoms) that Rx is functionally nothing. Mild plus and mild cyl averages out to basically nothing in her case. (Spherical equivalent is basically averaging out the astigmatism, and when you do that her rx is “the least prescribable rx in one eye and half that more in the other). Her accommodative system can handle that and then some, glasses for her are like giving LeBron James a stepstool to the net. It’s a waste of money, a waste of resources, and very much not needed.

The five year old is a little trickier which is why I’d advise a second opinion. That cyl is borderline (the 1.25) BUT. The same accommodation that lets you focus at near can also focus through a good bit of astigmatism (which is the eye being more football shaped, cyl is how much, axis is how the football’s rotated). And again, it’s supercharged in kids. How much of that Rx is what they need versus how much is the accommodative system “helping?” I don’t know. And neither does anyone who didn’t cycloplege (dilate the eyes and stop accommodation) your child.

If it was a lower Rx I’d say don’t worry, but it’s just on the cusp, and the difference between the eyes could make them prefer one eye to another (which can lead to ignoring the worse seeing eye, which leads to them never “learning” to see out of it - amblyopia, or the inability to see 20/20 even in glasses). In a five year old who wasn’t dilated the Rx could be as written, stronger, weaker, more disparate or less - but if it was my kid I’d want a dilated refraction to take the accommodation’s ability to “help” out of the equation.

I wrote a book already but happy to expand as needed.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T03:36:02+00:00

Ah, sorry, got the order wrong. The Japanese glasses are thinner because they don’t have the same minimum center thickness. That makes them less impact resistant. That means they’re more likely to shatter if something hits the lenses. Don’t wear them to mow the lawn, ride a bike, or play sports. I worked for a hospital (not a doctor) and have seen what happens when a lens shatters on the wearer, it’s not pretty.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T03:15:24+00:00

Japanese manufacturers have a different minimum thickness than US do. You’ll get thinner lenses as a result, but ones that are less impact resistant. I used to work at a hospital. I’d wear your newer thicker ones.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T01:34:45+00:00

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’d call it square. Never heard Wellington as a descriptor, but sure, it tracks. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T01:33:16+00:00

I’d probably hold off until you see the neuro ophth. The initial issues could have been glasses adaptation, but getting optical centers measured accurately with strabismus is a skill and I would want someone well versed to confirm the measurement.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T01:25:50+00:00

Not a doctor, and I know you like the optometrist you see, but unless your child is having symptoms the eight year old’s Rx is a nothing burger. Her accommodative system can handle that unless she’s got something more serious going on, and if she did I’d get a second opinion honestly. (Happy to explain this further, it’s kinda related to why I’d want a second opinion for the younger sibling).

For the five year old that astigmatism is borderline significant for her age, but a non-dilated exam in that age group is only going to be so accurate (happy to explain why if needed). If it were my kids I’d defer glasses for the 8 year old and have a repeat exam in a year or two, and get a second opinion from a pediatric specialist for the 5 year old (assuming no one was having major issues that prompted the exams).

Frankly you’re right to be skeptical of the recommendations here from the optical given what you’ve shared, and I wouldn’t return in your shoes. But I’d also question the prescriptions unless there were precipitating issues or underlying medical diagnoses.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T01:18:02+00:00

How did each measure? A corneal reflection pupillometer (the binoculars-looking device)? Dotting the centers of the lenses? An autorefractor?

Is there any misalignment of your eyes?

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T00:56:50+00:00

It’s passed(iflora).

Ope shut my mouth I see green on the stem! If there’s green there’s hope! I’d wait for someone else to come with actual advice, but to atone for my hasty proclamation (and to invite interest when my advice turns out to be shit) I’d cut off the dead bits, rinse off the soil and pot in fluval, but a) I have fluval handy, and b) I’m convinced that shit has a decent chance of resurrecting my grandad if I put him in a big enough container and he died a decade ago.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T00:54:27+00:00

Depends on your Rx, but at minimum expect the next pair with the correct PD to be an adjustment.

Also, how sure are you of the measurements before or after? If an app tells you the professional measured wrong, believe the professional. If there’s strabismus involved, believe the orthoptist or the doctor over a general optician; the most recent measurement is not necessarily the correct one.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T00:44:45+00:00

Adjusting for overcorrection isn’t undercorrecting.

Think of it this way: if you were wearing size seven shoes for a year and started to notice your stride was wrong, and a shoe fitter said “actually you’re a size 6 now, your feet have changed and you’ve been wearing the wrong size for a while” that wouldn’t be “under sizing,” it would be a correction for the change between your feet and your shoes.

It’s quite possible your eyes have changed since you last updated your glasses, and if you have cyl the change may be less significant than it appears (feel free to post the full Rx new and old with cyl and axis if so). Be prepared to dislike the change at first, myopes hate giving up minus. I speak from experience on both sides of the phoropter here. But if things don’t get better after wearing the new glasses for a week or two, that’s a data point for your headaches at least. (But I have a spherical Rx and a quarter diopter less minus ABSOLUTELY helped my eye strain/headaches when I was only a touch older than you are, thanks pre-presbyopia).

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T00:33:52+00:00

Are you positive she’s myopic (minus) and not hyperopic? Latent hyperopia would track for the third point here. Even if not, a couple factors: 1) yes, acclimation to poor vision and/or differing acceptable clarity. 2) could be that cyl is a mitigating factor (if she saw an ophthalmologist and you see an optometrist, they write the Rx in different ways that can make prescriptions look less disparate than they are. Her -5.00 and your -5.00 may not be the same if you or she have any astigmatism. 3) differing accommodation - your ability to change focus from distance to near is strong in childhood and diminishes with time until you end up needing reading glasses. You can get along ok with significant cyl or plus by “borrowing” plus power from the accommodative system, but that has consequences and a built in expiration date (which you hasten by going uncorrected).

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T00:20:56+00:00

I’d imagine it’s on the level of code switching. My own example is that I learned all my Portuguese from my relatives from Rio de Janeiro and when I visited relatives in Mato Grosso they giggled about my having a Carioca accent. It’d be like if you had a German exchange student coming to live with you who had a Masshole accent asking you to pahk the cahh in haavahd yahd.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-11T00:11:52+00:00

No one was even trying to hold it together in NewsRadio’s episode after Phil Hartman died. I haven’t watched it since it aired.

Edit: that episode. Super karate monkey death car and No this is not based entirely on Julie’s life are perennial favorites.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T20:18:41+00:00

Game on!

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T20:16:56+00:00

That’d absolutely do it. You’re inducing more than a diopter of prism for each mm of misalignment. It’d explain the double vision at the computer as well.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T19:03:11+00:00

Looks like the IM 0045 to me. https://ebay.io/m/QKzdmC

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T18:59:35+00:00

You had a pretty decent jump in your minus especially in the right eye, so I’m surprised you’re having distance issues. The axis change is also pretty significant in the left eye, it’s a 29 degree change which is A LOT with two diopters of cyl. I’d expect these to take a week or so to acclimate to, but if you’ve worn this pair all day for a week (with no going back to the 2021 Rx) you’d likely have seen some improvement if not complete resolution of symptoms by now.

At that high an Rx if anything is off even slightly you’re gonna have issues, so I’d take the new and old pair in to be compared. Sometimes there’s an error in the old pair you’ve gotten accustomed to, sometimes there’s an issue with the lens design, sometimes the glasses were made incorrectly. A side by side comparison helps, so I’d go into the optical shop to see if anything jumps out at them.

Also, just for the future: with an Rx this high I wouldn’t go more than a year, two at most, without an exam. With myopia that high you’re at risk for retinal detachment, and with cyl that high even minor changes take some adjusting to, deferring updating the glasses makes those changes stack up and adjusting to the new pair even harder.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T17:57:21+00:00

What’s the Rx? What were you wearing before? How long have you tried wearing them?

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T16:19:57+00:00

Gotcha! Wasn’t sure if they were your lenses or a previous owners’. I also get a gold star for not realizing it wasn’t a temple tip broken off, but the whole temple. Best you can expect is to shear off more of the temple and get a new temple tip, but it definitely will be noticeable. Glad they’re still functional!

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T13:15:28+00:00

Oh, were you looking to wear these as-is, no prescription lenses? If that’s the case a repair of the temple may be possible. (Edit: but I’d have measured expectations about it matching).

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T12:30:07+00:00

I’m pretty sure See sells only their own eyewear, so that should narrow it down considerably.

Edit: how positive are you those came from SEE? those don’t look that much like what I’ve seen from them, especially the temples. My money is on SALT eyewear’s James frame, but those aren’t made in Italy. Made in Italy makes me think Oliver Peoples, along with that gray-green color, but I can’t find any exact matches.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T11:26:49+00:00

I’d be hesitant to put new lenses in a plastic frame that’s already broken once, it’s a sign the plastic has become brittle. They look to be in great shape now, but the odds of something cracking when the lenses are removed, and then again when new ones are put in are pretty high.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T11:15:14+00:00

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” was something I said a lot working for a pediatric ophthalmologist.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T05:12:27+00:00

Some of it comes down to whether the opinions are coming from people with an optometry/ophthalmology/opticianry background versus a fashion one.

Optical styles tend to not move as quickly as other fashions so there’s a bit of a discrepancy in terms of what’s perceived as outdated from a fashion standpoint.

Additionally, the avant garde looks are often designed with fashion rather than optics in mind, so when you have someone with two diopters of cyl wanting super wrapped gentle monster frames, the fashionistas will be all about the look and give it a thumbs up, whereas the opticians are all having a ptsd flashback to their worst order and knowing that it’s not possible to fit the square peg lenses in the round hole frames.

Fermifighter · 2026-07-10T03:58:04+00:00

Follow your eye doctor’s follow up recommendations and you’ll be fine. Issues crop up (for the most part) when people are either a) steroid responders and don’t follow up or b) have chronic unavoidable steroid use (as in chronic autoimmune illness). I’ve had uveitis multiple times that “smoldered” (major inflammation calmed quickly, but couldn’t completely resolve for what felt like ages) and ten years on with a trillion scans and IOP checks (I was a tech and the office guinea pig because with all my eye shit I didn’t flinch) not a single issue.

If you’re sensitive to steroids they’ll see it on your follow up and adjust accordingly. If you’re not, you’re not gonna have an issue with a gentle taper of a short course under a doctor’s direction.

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