Failing Vision Test

Chill.
Let me put this in perspective. My son had a lazy eye, and my husband was FREAKED out that he was going to need glasses. Well, he didn't need glasses, he had a brain tumor. So, many people wear glasses, he will be fine.

My son has had glasses since he was 9 months old and has had amazing progress thanks to the eye patch. All I can say is this: anything that can help improve their vision is worthwhile!

I don't get it... what's there to freak out about?

Your son might need glasses, and the specialist (probably an eye doctor, right?) will do a more in-depth test to see if that's the case. If it is, well, then, you get him glasses. Millions of people wear them... even lots of kids!

Yes. Do not worry. 20/20 is normal and 20/40 is just a little off. Sometimes it is just what is happening at the moment and sometimes they wear glasses and their eyes straighten out. He will for certain have plain glass in one eye.
My grandson had glasses at age six and by the time he was eight years old he no longer needed the.
Eyes change as we grow and age. I wore glasses for being far sighted from the age of 12 until 30. Then everything was normal. Of course now I wear reading glasses.
If your son were 20/200 you could worry. For now relax and see an opthamologist.

That is so close to normal, and he probably doesn't even need glasses! My daughter passed the "vision test" yet she DID need glasses! In other words - just get the child checked out by a real eye doctor for a real vision test, and see. The pediatrician just does a quickie test. While you are at it, I'd make sure he is taken to **pediatric** optometrist.

Was it his pediatrician who gave him the eye exam? A ped is not really qualified to give an eye exam, just a vision test. They just do a basic test to see if there is any reason to send him to an eye doctor. When you say you were refered to a specialist, I'm guess you were asked to make an appointment with an eye doctor who has the equipment and knowledge to check his vision and possibly give him a presciption for glasses. If the ped estimated 20 40 in one eye, this just means that eye is slightly imperfect. My vision is way worse in both eyes.

Sounds like your little one might need glasses (or not, 20 40 is not too bad at all).

What the heck did you find when you googled?

This is very common. His one eye is only slightly different than the other. He will most likely wear a corrective lense over that eye and just a plain glass over the other.
In our house we all have glasses, it's just a part if life.

Welcome to the world of glasses.
It's not that big of a deal.
If you can purchase a vision plan through your employer, do it. You'll save a ton of money on glasses. We pay $50 per year for the whole family to be on the plan. 3 of us have wear glasses. Our glasses normally cost $350 - $450 per pair, but we only pay about $150 with the exam.
LBC

Don't worry Mom. 20/40 is 3 lines away from 20/20. It's not that bad. I'll bet he has a little myopia or astigmatism. As long as the eye corrects down to 20/20 and in my experience it probably will, then he's fine. You may not have noticed him having problems with the worse eye because he is using his 20/20 eye for everything.

If you are googling vision loss, stop cause you will read about not so good things. If you feel the need to google, then look up myopia and astigmatism. They are not scary at all and probably describe what is going on.

Hi! This also happened to us with our daughter. We though she would go to the optomitrist and be prescribed glasses. We all wear glasses in the family. Instead we found out that she has Myopia and astigmatism. She was prescribed to wear a patch to make the weak eye stronger. Her good eye was so good that it made her other eye very weak and it was not working at all. It's tough for a 6 yr old to wear the patch. It's been a struggle. Her eye is getting better. We are now trying eye drops that blur her vision because she takes the patch off all the time. It was hard at first to hear she would have to wear a patch and that she has an eyesight problem. But we just worked through it. If it does end up being Myopia, I can give you some great websites for kids patches. They have all kinds of characters that make it al little fun to wear. Good luck and if you find out this early, then it can be fixed.

Glasses are not a big deal if you don't make them out to be. My 7 yo got her first pair in Dec. I have worn them since I was 12. Kids today where I live don't tease her about having them. My husband tried to prepare her for that (I am fairly certain he was one who would make fun of kids) and I told him to stop, most people don't care if you have glasses and she looks good with them. Now he has reading glasses and I had to rearrange our living room so he could see the TV clearly. She loved picking out her pair, pink with little bears on the side of the ear pieces. One thing I didn't know was that they dialated kids eyes before finding out their prescription. They say they can get a more accurate prescription doing it this way. Your son is on the border of needing them but he might have a lazy eye or an astigmatism that glasses will help. The world looks like a watercolor until I put my glasses on and I prefer to see it clearly. Make this a positive experience for him.

Just a thought, there are eye exercises kids can do to increase their vision. I don't know if she is still practicing in the OC area, but look for Dr Beth Ballenger.

I doubt there's anything to worry about. I needed my first set of glasses at 5 years old but my vision wasn't bad enough to remember to wear them until I was about 10 years old and couldn't read the chalkboard even sitting in the front row. Before I had Lasik surgery my vision was so bad I couldn't see the big E on the vision chart, even when squinting. It was a light gray blob when squinting. Myopia and astigmatism were my problems, and they are very common. Don't stress.

My son was the same way. He always failed the eye test at the pediatrician, mainly because he was very shy and anxious about standing there reading the chart. I took him to an eye doctor and he is fine. He is now 11 and she says that he might possibly need some glasses in junior high or high school (my husand, 16 year-old daughter and I wear them). We go for an eye exam once a year to keep on it, but his vision is normal.

There are some disturbing but rare things that could be wrong where visual abnormalities are a symptom. However, those things are very rare and he probably just has minor vision issues.
I work for a pre-school where kids have their vision tested by a nurse. Several things can happen so we test them again if they fail. Sometimes, they are antsy, sometimes they give silly answers. Sometimes their eyes water from focusing to hard.
I have also heard that minor vision issues like your childs often clear up on their own.
Still I'd have him checked out by an optometrist and a pediatric one at that. They may have more ways to make it fun.
Glasses aren't that bad and that looks to be the worst thing you are facing.

I don't know what "appointment" you had and I didn't bother reading everyone else's response. However, my personal experience when we went for both of my kids 5yo pediatrician well-check (they're now 7 & 9) was they both failed their pediatrician eye exam. I took them to the pediatric ophthalmologist and they were both fine with perfect eyesight. That doesn't mean you should get your hopes up that nothing is wrong. I'm just saying to stop worrying until you get there and take it one step at a time. Best wishes!

He's fine... Take him to the eye doctor and get him some glasses. monitor his reading as he develops (more of a first and second grade thing) and make sure that he does not have another issue. My daughter wears glasses and the worst thing for the kids at this age are the "playground incidents" that bust your kids glasses. It really does not take much! Get the most robust ones you can find.

If he is 20/20 in one eye and 20/40 in the other he did NOT fail the vision test....he is about as close to "normal" as you can get!!
I am 20/400 so I would be so pleased with 20/40!! Relax....he probably wont even need to wear glasses at this point. But it is good that you discovered the issue early so they can keep an eye on it and start correcting it when they think it is necessary.