For kids under age of 12 parents and doctors should be cautious to determine the prescription and make prescription eyewear for them. Kids with refractive errors, if deemed to permanent, also need to be corrected by using prescription eyewear.
Same as adult, the kid’s vision errors also include nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. The rules for making kid’s prescription eyewear are different from that for adults.
For kid’s nearsightedness, doctors usually pick the lowest possible diopter degrees to get the clearest possible vision. For patients with very high diopter degrees, doctors will recommend to reduce the diopter by 1/3. As long as the kid can read and write after wearing the customized prescription eyewear, it is ok. This kind of prescription eyewear with reduced degrees helps benefit the growth of kid’s eyes.
If the kids before school age are physiologically farsighted without too much vision disorder and strabismus, there is no need to wear prescription eyewear. If the hyperopia kid has the symptom of vision fatigue, then a pair of prescription eyewear is necessary. Kids with farsightedness +3.00 or above, prescription eyewear should be worn, but the lenses power should be reduced by 1/3.
For kids with low power of astigmatism, no prescription eyewear needed. For higher degrees of astigmatism, prescription eyewear will also be made in reduced degrees.