Why would glasses make my child's eyes 'straighter'?

There are 3 ways that glasses can help the brain get the eyes properly aligned:

They make things clear - you see the details and your brain has something to lock onto!

A very blurred view of the world sometimes makes the brain 'give up' the job of keeping your eyes straight

They can turn or out, or one eye may drift upwards.

Once the image is sharp from each eye the brain uses all the details to join ("fuse") the image from each eye into one - this is an incredibly strong mechanism to keep the eyes looking together at the same object.

Relax excessive accommodation ("over"-focusing)

The reflex that drives both eyes to turn inwards when we focus up close (accommodate) is often very strong in children

Glasses can relax the need to constantly focus, and so the driving force that is turning the eyes inwards is greatly reduced.

Glasses often help treat amblyopia (poor vision despite the right glasses) 

If one eye has poor vision it will not fixate on objects or fuse with the image from the other eye

It can then drift out of alignment more easily

As the vision improves it becomes easier for the brain to keep the eye doing it's 'job'

:

Why does my child's eye seem to turn more since they started wearing the glasses?

This may seem like the opposite of the question above, but appearances can be decieving.

This is something that often bothers parents of children with an in-turned eye after being given glasses, here's what you're seeing:

• Before glasses the child's eye turned a moderate amount, say about 20 degrees when they looked at something up close. You were used to seeing this, the eyes were crossed, but often didn't look too bad (a quirk of where the child was looking and where you were standing).
  
• With the glasses on the child now has only a small in-turn of 8 degrees up close, and none far away.
• But, when they take the glasses off you see a massive difference between what is almost 'normal' alignment, and the untreated turn they have.
  • This shows you that the glasses are working.
    

Sometimes a child's in-turning strabismus will get worse over a few months. Wearing glasses may hasten the complete 'coming out' of the underlying turn as when the glasses aren't being worn things are so blurry that the brain gives up trying to keep the eyes straight.

How can I afford to get my child glasses?

Do you have a valid Community Services Card or high user's card?

Is your child 16 years old or younger?

Every year this allows the people looking after your child's eyes to charge up to $280 over 12 months for glasses, repairs and visits, with extra funding for visits and supplies required to treat poor vision (amblyopia) and strabismus (crossed eyes).

So if you choose your frame carefully you should aways be able to get at least 1 new pair of glasses for your child each year, which for most children is perfect. And you can often have a 2nd pair funded or included in the price of the glasses, to cope with breakages and losses.

No Community Services Card?

Many families find the cost of glasses very difficult.

This is especially true because poor vision and turning eyes that can only be fixed with glasses often run in families, so that all of your children could need glasses, as well as at least one parent. Often these glasses are for strong refractive errors, which can make lenses very expensive. We want to help you afford glasses for your children and have a number of options for you to try when you visit us.

Many optometrists offer very good deals on a pair, or 2, of children's glasses (for as little as $160), so shop around.

Because we supply your child's glasses prescription you are then free to order glasses online for around $60-70 NZD including shipping for most strengths and frames (and often alot less depending on the frame you choose). The downside to this that you can't try them on carefully for fit beforehand, but all of the good stores offer you a return policy where they will provide another pair if the one you've ordered is not right. You'll have to pay for shipping back. And any repairs will be better to do here in NZ.