Baby's First Eye Test

[ailbhe]

(I also need to write about Baby's First Sums (Will Add For Food) and Baby's First Dentistry).

Linnea's very first eye test was on Wednesday. We went out to the opticians and we were actually in plenty of time, between one thing and another. Linnea was fairly withdrawn - I am not sure what she expected, though she's been to every eye test I've had since she was born. We went in and first filled in some paperwork, corrected her name in their database, that sort of thing. Then we waited and were called by someone who said "Oh, no, you're only five! We don't need to see you, you just need the other bit." Which was a little confusing. I assume, or infer, or something, that he was operating the exciting machine which shoots air at your eyes and so on, but he didn't say.

Linnea got a drink of water from the water cooler, for the novelty, and played with a bead toy, and then sat down quietly. I went to talk to her and she asked me to leave her be. Several people tried to strike up conversations but Linnea didn't want to talk and Emer couldn't understand that deaf old ladies needed her to speak more clearly and slowly, so it didn't work very well.

When we were called in, Linnea was still very quiet, but got up in the chair as requested. She was asked to read letters off a chart but couldn't speak audibly and being asked to read made speaking at all much too difficult, so they gave her a chart to point to instead. As she relaxed throughout the appointment she started giving her answers orally instead, and proved she could read even very tiny print and see perfectly well at a distance and all those things. She was somewhat confused when the optician joked that she could see Linnea's brains through her eyes, because the structure of the eye is something Linnea's pretty familiar with and I had to reassure her it was a joke and not a terrible calamity, but that was ok.

So she's fine. She should have another test in about a year.

---

Why did I take her for an eye test? I didn't have one until I was 20. But I was reading the NHS website on children's health and discovered that children in the UK are entitled to free eyetests until they are 16 years old, and that they should have one automatically the year they start school - though the ones in schools tend to be better in richer areas, as with everything else. They're entitled to free hearing tests too, I might investigate that shortly, if she seems inclined to get one done.

Not that I have any cause for concern. But this whole free healthcare thing is pretty exciting!

Comments

[supermouse]

I love theyearly eye tests, and that they're expected and everything. I only missed a few weeks of blackboard, and I could have probably gone years before anyone believed that I really *couldn't* see all of a sudden and wasn't just being lazy.

[euphrosyna]

Children in Ireland get free eye and ear tests in school too. It's always so much fun in our school with the kids who have very little English. lol

[ailbhe]

The ones in school are from a nurse, aren't they, like the school ones here, though - still better than "in my young day" but not quite the same (my sister's children have to go to proper opticians because the school service can't provide a prescription). We had a hearing test in school once, when I was little, but not every year. Actually, a real dentist used to visit schools in deprived areas annually, when I was a child - do they still do that?

Here we can just go to a normal opticians and get a full eyetest and no-one mentions paying in any capacity. Same with hearing tests. And dentists. And doctors. I really can't quite get the hang of it at all - I bet there are other things I miss out on because it doesn't occur to me that they'd be available!

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Our school (no idea if this is typical) has the sight & hearing tests in Reception year only. Dentist once a year for all pupils as we're in a deprived area. They only take a look though, they don't offer treatment & they said Holly needed treatment in a letter, so took her to our dentist & he couldn't find anything.

[euphrosyna]

I think it's a nurse - if they show up on that, they go to a proper optician. We don't have dentists any more, I don't think.

UK healthcare sounds amazing.

[ailbhe]

I am led to believe that things in Ireland have improved since I left (don't thank me...) but am still amazed over here - a friend was visiting with her toddler a couple of years ago and needed to get him seen by a doctor; our GP handles private patients so they had a facility in place to do that, but when she took his prescription to the chemist they were really surprised and apologetic, IIRC, that he had to pay - even though he was only a baby!

Also, when I visit Ireland, I take my magic EU/NHS card thing with me and my GP appointments and a lot of my prescriptions are free - they get claimed back later from the NHS. This was INCREDIBLY helpful when I had to go live with Mum for a month while I had post-viral fatigue and me and both children also got horrific chest infections and things.

The NHS has its flaws, and I've been on the cutting end of some of them, but I am still incredibly impressed, amazed and delighted by it.

[iuil.livejournal.com]

You;ve reminded me to chase up on that after the break. My kids' school opened in 2008 and so far the HSE hasn't set foot in the school. My DS is in JI and is due his booster injections as well as his sight and hearing tests.

[clarahippy.livejournal.com]

I've lived in the UK my whole life and still find the free healthcare thing pretty exciting!

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I find free doctors exciting as lived in Jersey for 32 years where they are all private. The hospital was free, but I only ever used that twice as a child & never as an adult.

[ailbhe]

I can still remember confusing people totally 12 years ago by trying to find out who to pay for my contraceptive pill - I got the prescription and the drugs in the same clinic on the same day, and NO-ONE there had any idea of how to charge someone. It was an alien idea to them.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I paid for contraception in Jersey. It was about £20 a month, I used to get a 6 month prescription from the doctor ((paying to see him) & lodge that with the chemist to get a pack each month to save paying £120 in one go. I do now pay £7 something for prescriptions for myself, so try to not be ill too often. My teeny tiny tube of steroid cream for my eczema costs me that, even though I ask for a bigger one each time.

[thealmondtree.livejournal.com]

Prescriptions for contraception are free in the UK even for women who otherwise pay for their prescriptions.

[k425.livejournal.com]

This is the point at which I stop being annoyed that I have to pay for my prescriptions for GF food. I can get a prepayment card, and jeez, Louise, everything else is FREE!!!!

[ailbhe]

I'm still impressed GF food comes on prescription at all! Are children's GF prescriptions free?

[k425.livejournal.com]

All children's scrips are free, including GF. So YB can eat free till he's 18. If I weren't an honest woman, we could manage on his scrip alone but I feel that my annual contribution goes toward the actual scrip subsidy for other people. I still feel bad about getting Calpol on scrip when we can afford to buy our own!

[ailbhe]

We can *only* get Emer's rectal paracetamol on scrip because they don't sell it OTC. I've never tried to get oral paracetamol on scrip - anyway we buy the sachets because we've never used a bottleful before it went out of date.

[clarahippy.livejournal.com]

My doctor will prescribe OTC medications if you don't pay for presciptions to save you money; in fact when telling you to take paracetamol/ibroprofen/E45/whatever he usually asks if you pay for prescriptions.

We are also really lucky in Scotland, our charge is decreasing yearly with the aim that all prescriptions will be free in a few years.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Kate had a free eye test at 6 & 7 & is due another now (must book!) I took her initially as part of her dyslexia asssessment as they needed to rule out sight problems for reading difficulties before doing any testing. The optician at Specsavers (same one each time) was fabulous with her & has children slightly older than my 2. he even claimed to remember us a year later, I'm not convinced by that ... Kate was impressed though.

Holly is having a hearing test at ENT in hospital at the end of this month as failed 2 in school. It seems right for Linnea to have the same free testing available. AFAIK, they tested sight, hearing & weighed & measured if you gave permission, which I did, as my children are average sized, so I didn't expect any comments to be made. All children have an annual very basic dentist check up in school too. Mine go as they like the free mirrors & egg timers that are given out, but we see a dentist as a family every 6 months.

Kate had chosen mickey mouse glasses frames when she was 6, so was disappointed to not be given any.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Do they do hearing screenings for newborns in the UK, too?

Amy got her first hearing test at the ripe old age of three days or so -- someone came in, put some sort of device into her ear, measured something, and said she should be fine. (She didn't need to cooperate at all -- in fact, he said that it was good that she was sleeping since that meant that she didn't move during the procedure.)

[ailbhe]

Yes, and in Ireland, as part of the newborn stuff - even in Ireland antenatal and obstetric care is free for everyone (with the option of private care if you choose). One of my children had a two-part test, a few days apart, and the other had a one-part one, but I can't remember which is which.

[thealmondtree.livejournal.com]

Theo had his second eye test yesterday. I took him to our optician about eight months ago, as his dad is terribly short-sighted and I wanted to be sure that Theo wasn't hampered by sight problems in the way his dad was in the early 60s when the first time anyone thought to test his eyes was when he arrived at public school aged 14. Then about a month ago we got a letter through the post from our health authority (Cambridgeshire and Peterborough) with an appointment for a "routine pre-school eye test", which is supposedly offered to all children at around age four. Although there was nothing picked up by our optician I figured we might as well take this one as it would be done by someone who has significant experience of testing children of Theo's age. They also found his eye sight to be fine and recommended that we get it checked again in about two years time.

[mrs-warwick.livejournal.com]

We were told that schools no longer do eye tests so we would have to make our own arrangements. Rhiannon has had a hearing test at school, and I think she has seen the dentist at school.

We took Rhiannon for her first eye test just after she started school. We want her to be checked regularly because Paul's eyesight is very bad. Both his sisters and his mum have glasses as well. I have congenital cataracts, and although it hasn't affected my vision, both girls have inherited the condition and it could affect their's.

I signed up with an NHS dentist when I became pregnant the first time (free UK maternity care) and I have always taken the girls with me when I have my 6 monthly check-ups. They like to go up and down in the chair. The dentist is really good with them.

[ailbhe]

Schools here do them - also weighing and measuring.

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

Annual sight tests are a really good idea because children who develop short sightedness often don't realise it and it can go a long time causing problems at school without anyone sussing that the issue is sight. Since I was one of them C has been having them for the last couple of years! I didn't know children could get hearing tests, though - do you just mean by going to a GP and asking for a referral, or is there some other mechanism?