Should a new glasses prescription cause double vision?

[Apmaddock]

My six-year-old son just got his first pair of glasses. The prescription calls for only minor clarity correction, but adds 2 (degrees?) of prism in each eye–one eye up and the other down. He complains of double-vision with his new glasses and does not want to wear them or often looks over them when he does wear them. Is this part of the process of getting used to his new glasses, or is there something wrong with the glasses or prescription?

Thank you.

[JohnHaganMD]

This is a very unusual use of prisms in a 6 year old. If your son's eye exam was not done by a pediatric eye MD ophthalmologist then I would suggest getting into one ASAP, ask your pediatrician or family doctor to assist you. In the case seeing a pediatric ophthalmologist would be important as oppossed to seeing a general comprehensive ophthalmologist. I suspect you may have seen a non-MD optometrist and many, in my opinion, over-use prisms.  So if you saw a pediatric ophthalmologist call their office and report the problem; if you saw an optometrist non-MD then try and get into a peds eye MD ASAP.  

[Apmaddock]

Thank you.

We did, indeed, see an Optometrist (and, to be honest, we're underwhelmed at the time). We will get a second opinion with a pediatric ophthalmologist just as soon as we can.

Thank the stars for eyeglass return polices!

[JohnHaganMD]

Yes if you can get your money back that's great. The problem with such a small amount of prism is that the eye muscles stop trying to work to align the eye (fusion) and they get lazy and the child is uncomfortable without the glasses and may see double without the glasses. If you have time after you see the pediatric ophthalmologist post a follow up result as a learning experience for anyone happening across this discussion.