r/BeAmazed • u/jvm999 • 26d ago
Science Baby gets his first glasses and sees clear for the first time!
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u/ilovekittysmeow 26d ago
I’ve always been curious, how do they get the prescription right for babies if they can’t speak to describe anything ?
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u/Zhaus77 26d ago
The real answer is a technique called retinoscopy. Instead of a subjective test called a refraction (1 or 2 over and over again), the pediatric optometrist or ophthalmologist will basically shine light through a series of prescription lenses into a fully dilated patients eyes, and using the reflex (shape of reflection of the light from the back of the eye) manually adjust the lenses to obtain an objective measurement of the prescription. This can technically be done for all ages, but adults don't necessarily want their objectively correct prescription, they want what feels best, thus we get a standard subjective refraction (1 or 2).
Source, I work in pediatric ophthalmology.
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u/abacus1784 26d ago
Can I as an adult request my optometrist do a retinoscopy on me instead of refraction?
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u/Zhaus77 26d ago
You can, but there isn't a good reason to. You'll always prefer your subjective refraction. Also, the technique requires practice and skill, so even though all optometrists learn it in school, they are not all equal at performing it.
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u/blisstaker 26d ago
the last couple times i went i found that the subjective kind still requires the doctor to know what they are doing. i got someone else than my usual guy two years ago and had to go through a year’s worth of contacts that were less than ideal. got my regular guy back again this past time and my prescription changed back to normal. at least i assume that’s what the difference is. all im suggesting is that it doesn’t entirely come down to the preference of the patient
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u/TopShelfTrees4 26d ago
I just had a similar experience, I feel I wasted a ton of cash on glasses that don’t work for anything but reading. 🤦🏻♂️ could have bought some readers and saved 400$
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u/TomKazansky13 26d ago
Did you buy reading glasses? Even if they're $400, reading glasses will only work for reading. If you want far and near you'd need a bifocal or progressive. Cheap OTC readers will work but only if you have minimal distance prescription. If you need glasses for distance Rx readers will often be needed ar near. For example because I'm nearsighted my reading power is -3.00 which isn't found in cheap pairs.
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u/Rolder 26d ago
I'd also imagine the subjective technique is faster and cheaper too.
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u/BaconCheeseZombie 26d ago
Can't speak as to the speed (I was only ever an optical assistant (basically a shop keeper) and now just a patient) but cost-wise it works out the same in most high-street opticians - at least in Poland, Slovakia and here in the UK. :)
Regardless of where you are, there's no harm in asking when you go for your next eye test - retinoscopy is also good for those of us who struggle to articulate thoughts / feelings or who have other issues (e.g. we had a lot of patients with dementia who'd get a double whammy of automation and checking if they're happy with the prescription if possible). Also also it's faster so if you struggle with sitting for long periods or don't do well during medical examinations it may be a better option for you.
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u/hopefullynottoolate 26d ago
when i read this i was thinking they could go to a pediatric optometrists that has more experience with it. and then it reminded me of when i went to my hometown optometrist when i got out of the military and realized he was mainly a kids optometrist. i was the only adult patient in the waiting room.
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u/MesoamericanMorrigan 26d ago edited 26d ago
I have a visual processing disorder, I see visual snow, phosphenes, strong afterimages, streaks, strobing/flashes etc constantly that makes it really really hard for me to decide what’s better or worse when doing a normal eye exam. It’s so frustrating. I end up with a wildly different prescription each time
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u/Zhaus77 26d ago
Yeah that would qualify as a good enough edge case to ask for retinoscopy as an adult. You could call up a pediatric optometrist and ask them if they'd be willing to see you.
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u/Killer-Rabbit-1 26d ago
Oooh ok so I have amblyopia in my right eye and the subjective tests are really frustrating for me, too, because the visual field in my right eye is so messed up. My eye doesn't look "lazy" but I can't focus with it so, if my good eye is covered or the bad one is isolated at all in an eye exam, I can't read and things are kind of just halfway there.
My eyesight is getting janky with age but the last couple of times I tried to get glasses, the prescription was a bust because all of the "number 1 or number 2" are very difficult for me to tell apart.
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u/dubiousN 26d ago
I've been struggling with afterimages lately, especially while watching TV (home theater being a big hobby). I can look at my tile and the grout lines will leave an afterimage in my vision almost immediately.
Subjectivity is also hard. Bro I don't know what is supposed to look better. Give me the objective answer.
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u/ArticulateRhinoceros 26d ago
You'll always prefer your subjective refraction
Idk, I'm really bad at that test. I can never tell what is "better" and panic and just pick one and so my glasses have never been "right" and I just don't wear them. I don't really understand how to decide which is better or worse because most of them are almost the same. And the last time I went after doing the test the doctor got upset with me and told me I don't need glasses and never did and to stop wasting his time, but I still can't drive at night or read music well without squinting so idk.
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u/S0GUWE 26d ago
Considering I ran around with a prescription that gave me eye fatigue and headaches for 3 years, I'll take the chances. Subjective refraction sucks balls.
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u/Cranky_Hippy 26d ago
My kid needed glasses when they were little, and as an adult now, they say they definitely couldn't see well through their glasses so I have to agree with you. If anything, it made their vision worse with the improper prescription.
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u/S0GUWE 26d ago
Yup
Like, wtf, how am I supposed to know what level of blurry is acceptable? I've literally never had proper vision, I just coped very well until getting a drivers license forced me to make a vision test and get glasses.
And the second I got them, my vision rapidly deteriorated. Until age 17 the biggest problem I had was making out the writing on the board when I didn't sit at front in class, and even then it was fine. When I take off my glasses now it's like looking through frosted glass
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u/nlamber5 26d ago edited 26d ago
No good reason? I know someone that complains every single time they go; they feel so judged by the eye exam. “They make me take my glasses off and then act all surprised when I can’t read the letters.” Honestly, she probably objects to the procedure to impede its effectiveness. She would definitely benefit emotionally and probably benefit practically to use this objective test.
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u/Objective_Economy281 26d ago
They make me take my glasses off and then act all surprised when I can’t read the letters
This lady sounds like an idiot.
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u/Odd_Judgment_2303 26d ago
I have ADHD and am always nervous during an eye exam because I am afraid that I will space out due to boredom and get glasses that are too weak. This would be great for a lot of people, like adults with neurological disorders and impairment.
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u/Available_Farmer5293 26d ago
The last two eye doctor appointments I went to with my son, the doctor seemed almost mad at him when he wasn’t giving the right answers. Some doctors just don’t have great bedside manner.
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u/DrunkGuy9million 26d ago
This was going to be my question too. I hate the “1 or 2” questions. I feel like I always need to ask them to go back.
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u/LessInThought 26d ago
Is this better or is this better? Uhh.. there's no difference?
I'm someone who struggles picking what to eat, stop making me decide my eyesight.
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u/Onyx110Aura 26d ago
As an optometrist I always tell my patients that saying that there's no difference is still a valid answer, it tells me that we should move on to the next stage of refinement or to finish the refraction. Sometimes for people who refuse to say it's the same I can gauge where they are by their reaction if you take 'too long' to give an answer I can judge that we are probably getting close to the point where there's almost no difference.
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u/LessInThought 26d ago
How big a difference is there between the exact prescription from a retinoscopy, and the subjective refraction test in the chairs of trials and decisions?
Because if the difference isn't huge, then you can spare me the chair. Just tell me my prescription in an assertive voice and I'll happily wear whatever you want, daddy.
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u/ICanEditPostTitles 26d ago
IKR I have to live with these glasses for the next couple of years maybe. I am quite stressed out by the whole process.
If there is a machine that can objectively measure the exact prescription that I need, I am very interested in that.
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u/afterparty05 26d ago
Then do so, this is about you being able to see with the right aid. I have them cycle between 1 and 2 for at least three times to make sure it’s right. It’s not a test for which you need to get a good score…
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u/DShepard 26d ago
I feel like a lot of people believe that the optician is trying to trick them, like "Hah that was actually exactly the same you fucking moron!" - so they try to figure out the "game".
Being honest when you think there's no difference or when you think there's a tiny improvement literally means exactly that - that it does or does not affect your vision in a way that you perceive as meaningful.
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u/CrazyQuiltCat 26d ago
I used to stress about this. I was scared that if I screwed it up I wouldn’t see well.
Then my eye doctor explained they were actually looking for the point where you can’t tell which is better.
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u/Gobraves1919 26d ago
It’s kinda like measuring your feet and buying shoes without ever trying them on.
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u/muricabrb 26d ago
That's the machine you look into that has the hot air balloons right? Always wondered why my opthalmologist would always do that test first and then do the eye chart test anyway.
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u/midnight_seal 26d ago
No, that's an autorefractor, which gives a good estimate or starting point for your prescription. The prescription is then fine tuned with the subjection refraction (The "1 or 2?" part of the eye exam)
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u/CoffeeLaxative 26d ago
It is never reliable especially in children and young adults, but it gives a starting point (usually too negative).
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u/GeneralizedFlatulent 26d ago
Asking out of curiosity but why wouldn't adults want the objectively correct prescription?
Now that my prescription is so high, it feels like the "fine tuning" portion and even the reading on the chart portion of the exams are kind of subjective as to what's "better." This could partly be because it's always done in the dark and sometimes my night vision isn't very good, or whatever you'd call it when it's harder to read things off of a bright screen in a dark room than it would be to see in most normal life settings.
Once they got my prescription so wrong somehow that I took a week or 2 to try to "get used to it" since they said "the astigmatism is new and might take getting used to," but it never felt like the glasses made me dizzy - it just objectively made it so when I went in to tell them my vision was really blurry still with them on, I tested at -3.5 or something while wearing the glasses.
How can the exam be that wrong? Wouldn't an objective measure be better than that? Can it be requested?
Ever since then I'm always worried I'll "fail" my eye exam somehow
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u/Zhaus77 26d ago
In this case, it almost sounds like the glasses were made wrong. I don't know all the details of your case, but a 3.5D change in prescription is extremely noticeable and sounds more like manufacturing error than clinical error.
On the other hand, astigmatism is a common change in prescription that adults are just unable to tolerate, and oftentimes you can just ask your optometrist to remove it altogether.
An objective measurement IS usually still obtained using what's called an auto refractor, which performs a crude and fast retinoscopy. The "1 or 2" section is the subjective fine tune.
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u/Representative-Low23 26d ago
Because 'right' doesn't mean comfortable. People have individual preferences about how they're seeing based on habit and lifestyle. I had customers who objectively needed +3.50 add powers (additionally reading power) who felt like they were falling down the stairs trying to wear that much power in a multi focal lens. Or felt like they had to hold things way too close based on what their actual habits or lifestyle was. That goes for distance vision as well though I found near was the most subjective for actual tolerance of wear.
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u/Believe0017 26d ago
Does this guy know how to party or what?
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u/Zaalim043 26d ago
Why ?
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u/Believe0017 26d ago
It was a Wayne’s World reference. Your intelligent and knowledgeable answer reminded of Alice Cooper’s Milwaukee quote and Wayne’s response.
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u/pagerunner-j 26d ago edited 26d ago
It's actually interesting to read this. I got my first pair of glasses when I was 21 months old, so I don't really remember the process!
(In my case I had accommodative esotropia, which was why my parents took me to an ophthalmologist that early. They had to do something for their little wonky-eyed kid. :) Glasses helped; the surgery I had at seven helped a lot more.)
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u/Endorkend 26d ago
Yeah, I had this and found i couldn't wear my glasses for to long and when I did, headaches would always follow.
When I got a prescription to my tastes, I could wear them all day and have no ill effects other than my typical contact rash issues.
Not that my prescription is all that strong to begin with. It's simply to adjust for some eye wear from spending decades behind computer screens. They are meant to retrain my eyes to do their job IRL rather than while looking at a 2D plane 80cm from my face.
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u/PaulblankPF 26d ago
I have really close vision and my wife has really far vision and so naturally I brought my autistic nonverbal son to an eye doctor that specializes in special needs kids. I watched the exam you are talking about and it was pretty cool to observe. In the end my kid has perfect vision he said or close to and not far or near sighted like his parents
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u/njf85 26d ago
I'm pretty sure this is what they did for my youngest, though she was 7. She wanted glasses for some reason, so the optometrist first tested her eyes the usual way but then took her into a dark room where she did all these light tests. I assume she wanted to make sure my daughter was given her accurate answers. My daughter's vision ended up being fine and they sold us a $20 pair of non-prescription pink glasses which my daughter wore for awhile (she told people they were real lol)
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u/GMasterPo 26d ago
You are a fuckin hero. Thank you! I'll never not sing the praises of those in the optical field, a sclera buckle saved my sight in my right eye, and it was the trained hands of 3 ophthalmologists that found the why.
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u/fxrky 26d ago
Interesting! My ophthalmologist (when I was using the machine that does the retinoscopy) told me that it was essentially to "get a baseline" and then my subjective input "makes it more accurate".
Reading what you said, she must phrase it that way because people are stupid, and will placebo themselves into thinking one prescription is "better". Can totally see people arguing about a machine being wrong and that they "know better".
Meanwhile my eyes SUCK, and every time I have to tell her "better or worse" they always look exactly the same. Are you guys just fucking with us sometimes? Do you pretend to change it to see if we are tricking ourselves?
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u/snakes_lil_bandit 26d ago
Came here for this same information! I feel like I am ruining the vision exam when they ask me if "one or two is better" so how do they do it for a baby??
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u/kalabaddon 26d ago
The 1/2 thing is fine tuning, and for thbings the automatic system cant do, iirc they can get 95% close with automated sensors these days.
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u/Sansnom01 26d ago
For real, I just realized how I hate this part. Also the fact that I need to base my choice over 13 letters of helvetica. They should give some nice paiting or some vista picture.
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u/TrippingFish76 26d ago
autorefractor. when you go to the eye doctor they make you look into an autorefractor (where you look at that house or balloon in the distance down a road) and it gives you a prescription.
then they go from there and make small adjustments to see if you like it better and they go with the measurements that you prefer. like when they ask if you can see better with this or this. Often times it will end up being close to what the autorefractor says, but it can be a good bit off. It’s just based on your responses.
you could just go with the autorefractor reading and it would liekly be close enough, it is very technically accurate, people just have different subjective preferences with their eyesight
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u/bubble-tea-mouse 26d ago
I’ve always wondered how they know the baby has blurry vision. I as a child had blurry vision for years and never mentioned it because I didn’t know what non-blurry was to be able to say “my vision is blurry”. It was just my vision. Seemed normal.
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u/paytonsglove 26d ago
His smile is straight out of a cartoon hahaha Pure happiness !
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u/MutteringV 26d ago
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u/onlyforobservation 26d ago
Came here to comment this was exactly my first thought.
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u/TreeLovTequiLove 26d ago
I'm dead lmao, this was my exact thought. Rick Moranis is the man. Stoked for the baby.
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u/Disneyhorse 26d ago
He has such an adorable smile
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u/ToiIetGhost 26d ago
He finally got to see the gentle faces of the two people he loves most in this world 🥺
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u/cowboy_duck19 26d ago
His smile stole my heart
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u/ToiIetGhost 26d ago
The fact that someone downvoted you for this… there are no words 😭 (I fixed it tho)
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u/qgmonkey 26d ago
Turned him into Rick Moranis
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u/ELMACHO007 26d ago
Little homie like “OH, that’s what you guys look like!”. Love seeing these types of videos and the kids expressions/reactions when they see clearly for the first time what their parents look like.
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u/STRYKER3008 26d ago
One of my favourite Vsauce videos told about an experiment where fetuses in the womb seemed to recognise and be interested in simplified approximations of human faces being shone into the womb. It's in our genes it seems
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u/MoaraFig 26d ago
I love how they all fight the glasses being put on, until they look up and realise what theyre for.
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26d ago
I've seen this, personally.
In the early 90's, I worked for an optics business, cutting lenses.
One day, a small boy was brought in that we made glasses for. He had to be 3 or 4 years old.
When we put them on, he stared at both hands, one by one, multiple times, then looked at the ceiling.
The look of joy on his face is something I'll never forget.
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u/Otaraka 26d ago
I was 4 or 5 and very bad eyesight. I still remember it - or think I do. Suddenly I could see things.
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u/Throwinitawayheyhey 26d ago
Man seeing leaves on trees was wild the first time
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u/C7rl_Al7_1337 26d ago
Yoooo, this was my moment too! I walked out of the optometrist's office at like 7 or 8ish I think and I could see individual leaves and blades of grass in the distance instead of the usual blurs and being like "wait... this is what all of you have been seeing this whole time?!", it was like getting a super power. The way that I could see like millions of individual tiny pieces of things that used to be one giant solid shape for me all moving and waving independently... the only analogies I can come up with are like, looking at the bottom of a living sand dollar, or you can see a similar effect on some surfaces while on acid, it was so surreal.
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u/Uhhbysmal 26d ago
living sand dollar
was curious what this looked like so i looked it up. very trippy! here it is for anyone else interested:
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u/Teto_the_foxsquirrel 26d ago
My optometrist had me look out the window in his office with my first prescription. I asked if he had a trick window because I could suddenly see the individual leaves on the trees.
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u/Emergency_Coyote_662 26d ago
my dad recalls seeing power lines for the first time, he didn’t know there was something between the poles
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u/dirtygymsock 26d ago
I do, too. I remember being able to actually see the individual tree branches on the trees at the top of the hills, being able to see sky through them. Before it was just blurry and fuzzy in the distance. I had no idea far away things weren't just blurry.
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u/Suspicious-Lime3644 26d ago
When I was a kid my prescription wasn't that bad, but my astigmatism was terrible (-3 Dioptres with -5 Dioptres astigmatism). I got my first glasses when I was 3 (in the 90s), apparently I could not stop talking about how people looked funny, lol.
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u/yeatsbaby 26d ago
This was my little guy at 3. He had terrible vision and when his vision was corrected he could not get enough of texture. It chokes me up to think about it.
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u/thecrazysloth 26d ago
Getting a diagnosis and correction for that at an age like that surely makes a world of difference in entire life trajectory.
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u/SUPERSHAD98 26d ago
Re-watched it a few times, at the beginning the guy is trying to make his eyes go back in his skull...
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u/Captain_GoodPie 26d ago
I cannot express enough how much I LOVE these videos. The babies with their little glasses and the adorable reactions to being able to see. It's just so good.
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u/its_kunaltanwar 26d ago
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u/Elegantlywastd 26d ago
Yeah there would be no 'wow' from me over the sound of my inconsolable sobbing
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u/KeyAssistant1541 26d ago
Stupid question, but how do you know if the baby needs glasses? It’s such a curious thing to me..
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u/SphinxBear 26d ago
If they’re not meeting certain milestones by age - like tracking objects with their eyes, looking at their parents’ faces, etc.
Not exactly the same but we noticed when our 2.5 year old was a baby that she was looking cross eyed sometime so her pediatrician referred us for an exam with a pediatric ophthalmologist. I had no idea how they were going to do the exam but they had their ways and turns out she just had pseudostrabismus.
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u/_odd_consideration 26d ago
A lot of babies that need glasses were premature. Premature babies have their eye development interrupted and often need treatments that can damage their eyes. Starting from their time in the NICU, they're seen by opthalmologists to monitor them for eye issues. They continue to follow the babies as they grow up so they get can get glasses early.
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u/guitar2adam 26d ago
Cycloplegic refraction. We use a retinoscope and different powered lenses to neutralize the red reflex. There are a lot of great videos on YouTube explaining the technique.
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u/soaring_potato 26d ago
Apparently my left eye was just turned in pretty damn bad. Always.
And then they also tested my little brother since ya know. Bad vision runs in the family.
I know if I ever have kids. I probably need to take them as a toddler..
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u/TheRealtcSpears 26d ago
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u/Q8DD33C7J8 26d ago edited 26d ago
That range of emotions! Unhand me! This sucks what is this on my face? Wait what's that? Wait what the heck? Woah dude! Wow look at all the stuff! (rolls head around trying to see everything)
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u/flowercan126 26d ago
Made me cry and I didn't even have the sound on. That cute little smile creeping in. Adorable.
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u/ASmallTurd 26d ago
How did they know the baby needed glasses?
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u/angwilwileth 26d ago
Probably because he wasn't reacting to things like a kid his age should.
Also a lot of kids who are born premature need glasses very early so they're checked oftener than average.
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u/UponMidnightDreary 26d ago
This is beautiful!!!
I still remember when I walked out of the eye doctor for the first time and realized that trees had INDIVIDUAL LEAVES that you could actually see from a distance! The utter wonderment at their complexity, that they weren't just fuzzy masses. I was probably around 9 years old, but I feel like I know EXACTLY the wonder that this little guy is feeling rn.
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u/morstletruffle 26d ago
Serious question: how do you perform a vision test on a child of this age? Ask them if they can read the progressively smaller string of letters? Let’s be real that kid can’t read for shit
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u/CadyMoring 26d ago
Just curious, how can Eye doctors tell what kind of prescription babies need if they cannot respond to which one looks clearer?
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u/Strontiumdogs1 26d ago
How do they know what prescription to use?
It's great to see his smile.
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u/Farhead_Assassjaha 26d ago
How in the world did they figure out his prescription?
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u/Rotation_Nation 26d ago
Retinoscopy. You shine a light into their eye and the reflex on the retina tells you if you need to add plus or minus power. It’s essentially a physics trick.
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u/Night__Prowler 26d ago
How do you even know, a child that young can’t see and needs glasses?
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u/angwilwileth 26d ago
There's more detailed answers further up in this thread, but basically it's a special machine.
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u/winnybunny 26d ago
This kind of videos makes me sad for the baby
And happy that we have modern madicine to help them.
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u/Malinois_beach 26d ago
So sweet. How many babies are suffering from a lack of vision, and parents have no idea? 🙏❤️🙏
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u/Sudden_Detective7080 26d ago
So I want to know, how do you check the vision of a child that young since they can’t really talk or even understand the difference of blurry and normal? Do they just do an MR or CT?
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u/im_a_reddituser 26d ago
A baby getting emotional being able to see really tugs at the heart strings
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u/ziggystardust4ev 26d ago
I’m so glad this is the last thing I see today. This made me so happy. 🫶❤️🫶
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u/cjp2010 26d ago
So here is a question I’ve always had. As someone who wear glasses j always have to answer “1 or 2” how does a doctor know which one works for someone that young who can’t communicate yet?
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u/xError404xx 26d ago
Okay so when i get glasses i gotta decide if left or right looks better (i dont know!) But when they give a baby glasses that cant even keep up its head on its own they get the strength perfectly? Sus i say!
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fr though how do they do that
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u/the_tygram 26d ago
So judging by the size change of the eyes that baby has pretty bad eyesight. Seeing as it's that bad as a baby I always wondered do babies that need glasses like this usually go blind as they get older?
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u/qualityvote2 26d ago edited 25d ago
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