# Yesterday, I met an infant who was wearing glasses. How does that work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 4, 2019, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472 "2019-05-04T17:14:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/1 "2019-05-04T17:14:44Z")
I got to meet a little boy yesterday who was about a year old. He was cute as the Dickens and was wearing a tiny pair of eyeglasses. I wear glasses/contacts, but when I go to the ophthalmologist, I can tell her when things are blurry or clear. An infant cannot do that. How might a doctor have determined that the child had trouble seeing? Once that determination was made, how did the doctor arrive at a prescription for glasses? I was curious, but the situation wasn’t right to ask the boy’s mom. It is, after all, not really any of my business. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/2 "2019-05-04T17:31:26Z")
I’ve wondered about this myself. I haven’t worn glasses since my laser surgery almost 20 years ago. But I do get my eyes tested annually. There is some device they have me put my face into that takes some kind of measurements of my eye digitally. I wonder if this is something they use for little kids until they get older. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/3 "2019-05-04T19:04:49Z")
WHIle my eye doctor does have me read the charts and tell him which lens is better. He also can get very close simply by shining a light into my eyes and seeing where it focuses with different lenses in front. I assume that’s what they do for an infant. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/4 "2019-05-04T19:06:40Z")
There is a computerized system that will measure your eyes without any input from the patient. Getting babies to wear contacts would be the hard part. Thus the glasses. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/5 "2019-05-04T19:52:33Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > WHIle my eye doctor does have me read the charts and tell him which lens is better. He also can get very close simply by shining a light into my eyes and seeing where it focuses with different lenses in front. I assume that’s what they do for an infant. I got my glasses when I was about 2. Since I couldn’t say which lens was blurry and which one was clear, I assume that’s what the eye doctor did, shine a light in my eyes and see where it was focused. This was 60 years ago, so no digital equipment existed at that time to compute my prescription. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/6 "2019-05-04T20:45:28Z")
Could be[amblyopia (lazy eye.)](https://www.lazyeye.org/fix_lazy_eye_treatment.html) > [@](#): > > Treatment involves glasses, atropine drops, eye patching, and/or vision therapy, which includes eye exercises, visual-motor processing activities and neurological therapies. Maybe the infant kept trying to tear off an eye patch, but tolerates eyeglasses. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/7 "2019-05-04T22:19:12Z")
I’m surprised the kid wasn’t wearing prescription goggles … that’s usually what kids under 5 wear these days you can basically tie them on and they don’t break as easily … But i think like others have said they’re trying to correct something since they used to not give glasses until the child was at least school age ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/8 "2019-05-05T03:20:08Z")
I was an optician for many years and helped fit a few infants with glasses. It was always to try to correct strabismus (esophoria/esotropia or exophoria/exotropia) without surgery. Strong plus power lenses are prescribed, not to help with focusing but to “pull” the eyes forward. > **[Exophoria: Definition, Treatment, and How It Compares to Exotropia](https://www.healthline.com/health/exophoria)** > > Exophoria is a condition of the eyes. When you have exophoria, there’s a problem with how your eyes coordinate their movements. It occurs when your eyes tend to drift outward or one eye drifts away from the other. Learn more about exophoria,... ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/9 "2019-05-05T03:37:13Z")
I’m quite nearsighted, and have been wearing glasses since I was six. I probably needed them when I was a year old; but, back then, nobody tested preschoolers unless they were running into things, so it didn’t get picked up until they tested everybody in first grade. – of course, if glasses had been strapped on me at a year old, I don’t suppose I’d remember that astonishing moment when I walked out of the eye doctor’s office with my first glasses on and looked up at a tree. Not a green blur. Every individual leaf, with the sun pouring through them. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/10 "2019-05-05T03:45:59Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > I was an optician for many years and helped fit a few infants with glasses. It was always to try to correct strabismus (esophoria/esotropia or exophoria/exotropia) without surgery. Strong plus power lenses are prescribed, not to help with focusing but to “pull” the eyes forward. > > [Exophoria: Definition, Treatment, and How It Compares to Exotropia](https://www.healthline.com/health/exophoria) My immediate thought was strabismus too. My son had strbismus, but we didn’t catch it when he was a baby, so he had to have the surgery last summer. Had we picked up on it sooner, he probably would have got glasses for it. His vision acuity is fine. Just, one eye drifted off to the side. The surgery seems to have done the trick. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/12 "2019-05-05T15:32:56Z")
When I’ve been to the ophthalmologist and they go through the whole “Is this (A) better or is this (B) better?”, it always seemed subjective to me. At some point I don’t see a difference. So why don’t they use those automated machines routinely? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/13 "2019-05-05T15:49:44Z")
Nvm ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/14 "2019-05-05T18:50:00Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Could be[amblyopia (lazy eye.)](https://www.lazyeye.org/fix_lazy_eye_treatment.html) > > Maybe the infant kept trying to tear off an eye patch, but tolerates eyeglasses. Nope- treating amblyopia may involve glasses and patching the eye but it’s not either/or. The glasses and the patch serve different functions - I had glasses ( to correct the vision in my “bad” eye ) and an patch ( to force me to use my “bad eye”) A child wouldn’t be given glasses because he tore the eyepatch off - I think atropine drops would substitute for the patch, as it is used to blur the vision in the “good eye”. ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/15 "2019-05-05T19:55:43Z")
Perhaps they’re clear lenses and the kid just wants to look cool for the babes? 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2019, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/16 "2019-05-05T20:04:27Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > When I’ve been to the ophthalmologist and they go through the whole “Is this (A) better or is this (B) better?”, it always seemed subjective to me. At some point I don’t see a difference. So why don’t they use those automated machines routinely? Because the information from the patient is in the end what’s important. Lasik didn’t correct my astigmatism, but after having it I was glass-less for ten years: as soon as I got one quarter of a diopter of myopia again (an amount that optometrists used to whine I “couldn’t be noticing!” - you may be in that immense majority of people who don’t notice it), I needed glasses again. Other people wear glasses for astigmatism only. In the end, what matters is the patient’s experience and ability to function, and that’s not something a machine can judge. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I’m quite nearsighted, and have been wearing glasses since I was six. I probably needed them when I was a year old; but, back then, nobody tested preschoolers unless they were running into things, so it didn’t get picked up until they tested everybody in first grade. > > – of course, if glasses had been strapped on me at a year old, I don’t suppose I’d remember that astonishing moment when I walked out of the eye doctor’s office with my first glasses on and looked up at a tree. > > Not a green blur. Every individual leaf, with the sun pouring through them. “THE TREE! IT’S GOT LEAVES! One leaf, one leaf, one leaf, one leaf…” (would-later-be-Nava, age 10) ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/17 "2019-05-06T13:17:53Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > as soon as I got one quarter of a diopter of myopia again (an amount that optometrists used to whine I “couldn’t be noticing!” - you may be in that immense majority of people who don’t notice it), I needed glasses again. I don’t know how anyone could not notice a quarter of a point. When my prescriptions get bumped down a quarter I rejoice. I can see clearly again! ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/18 "2019-05-06T14:18:58Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I don’t know how anyone could not notice a quarter of a point. When my prescriptions get bumped down a quarter I rejoice. I can see clearly again! How noticeable a quarter diopter is changes with age. Young children can accommodate large differences in power - as much as 15 diopters. That’s why little kids can try on daddy’s glasses and see fine. As we get older, our eyes become less flexible - to the point that around 40 we start needing help reading. Even with adults how big a change a quarter is depends on the prescription. Someone with a low power will notice a quarter change more than someone like me with a fairly high minus power. > **[Accommodation (vertebrate eye)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_(eye))** > > Accommodation is the process by which the vertebrate eye changes optical power to maintain a clear image or focus on an object as its distance varies. In this, distances vary for individuals from the far point—the maximum distance from the eye for which a clear image of an object can be seen, to the near point—the minimum distance for a clear image. > Accommodation usually acts like a reflex, including part of the accommodation-convergence reflex, but it can also be consciously controlled. > The mai... ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/19 "2019-05-06T14:29:54Z")
Yet another way in which I was middle-aged since birth, then, along with waking up damn early no matter what time I went to bed. I’ve never had a particularly high prescription, though; I expect if I’d been my Aunt Matilde (who at one point couldn’t see cars unless they were moving and a not-too-asphalty color) I wouldn’t have noticed one diopter up or down. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/20 "2019-05-06T14:50:26Z")
My sons both have had to wear glasses since a pretty young age- about 3 for the older one, and closer to two for the younger one. We first noticed that our older son had one eye that would turn in, so we got him checked out by a pediatric opthamologist. He used a technique called “retinoscopy”. > **[Retinoscopy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinoscopy)** > > Retinoscopy (Ret) is a technique to obtain an objective measurement of the refractive error of a patient's eyes. The examiner uses a retinoscope to shine light into the patient's eye and observes the reflection (reflex) off the patient's retina. While moving the streak or spot of light across the pupil the examiner observes the relative movement of the reflex or manually places lenses over the eye (using a trial frame and trial lenses) to "neutralize" the reflex.\[citation needed\] > Static retinosc... where he basically used his instrument, and held up sample lenses in front of it to determine which ones best corrected the problem. He turned out to have something called “accomodative esotropia”, and glasses fixed it, since it’s related to being very farsighted. Younger son basically just got checked out since he was at the appointments anyway- we figured that it was probably just better to get them both checked out at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472/21 "2019-05-06T15:24:26Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > . . . > “THE TREE! IT’S GOT LEAVES! One leaf, one leaf, one leaf, one leaf…” (would-later-be-Nava, age 10) This must say something about the human condition. Although the way my son described it, “I looked out and there were all these trees!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-i-met-an-infant-who-was-wearing-glasses-how-does-that-work/833472.md?page=2)