It’s been a while since we’ve had an introductions thread and I love learning more about who you all are, so this seems like an easy way to celebrate our 3 year blog-birthday. Leave a comment introducing about yourself and your kid(s) in glasses. If you feel like leaving more, I’d love to hear the one tip you’d give to someone starting out with a young child in glasses.
(and a quick note: 3 years, 452 posts, over 3100 comments, and nearly 300,000 views from all over the world. Thanks for reading and commenting and submitting stories and being part of the community!)
For Little Eyes 
Hi there! My name is Sheri and I have a 2 year old (will be 3 in May, 2011) son who was recently diagnosed with bilateral cataracts (they were not congenital, they just developed recently and are considered a genetic issue). He has had a lensectomy and intra-ocular implant completed/placed in one eye and we are scheduled to have the same procedure in a few weeks on the second eye. I plan to take my son shopping for his first pair of glasses (which, for now, will just have a corrective bifocal lense on one side; the second “plain” lens to be replaced with a corrective lens at a later date) tomorrow! Any advice would be appreciated. I plan to ask the optics personnel for advice on frames that will be durable for a very active preschooler and also lenses that will minimize the “bug-eyed” look and I think bifocal lenses come now without that line in the center.
I’m interested to see who else is here 🙂
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Hello fellow little four eye members! My entire family is so very blessed to have found this site and be introduced to the many wonderful people who follow it. My name is Doreen and I have a 2.5 year old daughter, Addison, who has worn glasses since she was 1. We are working to overcome her strabismus and keep amblyopia at bay. This site has been a source of inspiration, ideas and guidance as we run laughing and crying through this journey as a family. THANK YOU!!!
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Hey, all! My name is Sue, and I have a daughter named Elyse who has been wearing glasses since she was 13 months. She’s now 2. She’s farsighted, and we’re hoping the glasses will continue to strengthen her eyes! As for tips, the only one I have is to really master the art of distraction when your little one first gets glasses. I made sure those first few days were filled with extra special activities that seemed to make Elyse forget she was even wearing glasses. For a baby just over a year, those activities were pretty simple and included lots of play time with Mommy 🙂
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Hi, I just wanted to say happy anniversary and thank you so much for being a place where i found solace when most people around me could not understand. Thanks for showing me that there are people on the same boat, or perhaps more accurately, on the same roller coaster 🙂
My little girl is 3 and a half, with hyperopia of 450 and 600 and astigmatism of 350 and 375. We’re working on what could be amblyopia but so far have not had the need to patch.
I’ve been a bundle of nerves and a mess of emotions since she was diagnosed 5 months ago but I’ve found strength in the fact that my precious DD is indeed a super trooper and also in the little four eyes community. God bless us all 🙂
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Hello! I’m Ginger, and our youngest is Sammy (Samantha). She is currently 16 months, and has had her Disney glasses for about 4 months. Being a graphic artist and my husband a photographer, we are extremely visual people… it just about broke our hearts to discover that our baby is extremely farsighted as well as being diagnosed with amblyopia. We started patching about a month ago, although the doctor suggested it about 2.5 months ago. We tried the patch then, but had only just gotten in the groove of getting her to keep her glasses on – with the patch (he gave us one that fit over top of her glasses) on top of the glasses it was a disaster. We couldn’t even get Sammy to wear just the glasses alone for 5 minutes – forget adding a patch into the mix!
Anyhow, we worked on building up her glasses time again until she’d wear them most of the time, then have added an adhesive patch into the mix again. She has to patch her right eye pretty much all day. I bought some of those mini chocolate chip cookies, and I bribe her with one for each hand when she gets her patch put on. Works well for now!
Also – for anyone having trouble keeping their little one’s glasses on, we purchased a Framehuggers strap – it’s great! It doesn’t keep her from totally taking the glasses off, but it helps. Plus it makes it super easy to find them if she lays them down someplace because the leopard print stands out!
Also wanted to thank all of you for your comments and suggestions on the site – it’s been a great resource and a comfort. And I especially love the book and toy suggestions – we’ve purchased several things because of them.
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Hi everyone! I’m Lindsay, and my son, Jack was born with congenital cataracts in both eyes. He was diagnosed at 11 weeks and is now 9 months old! After two surgeries to remove his lenses, Jack now wears contact lenses or glasses to correct his +20 vision in both eyes. He will have 2 more surgeries around the age of 5 to implant prosthetic lenses into both eyes. It has been wonderful finding this website.
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Hi there! My name is Mel and I have three little girls; C is 7.5 and has been patching for strabismus and amblyopia since she was 4–she’s actually scheduled for eye muscle surgery this upcoming April 1st and I’m kind of a nervous wreck about the whole thing. 😉 E is 6, and wears glasses for a pretty wicked astigmatism, but her farsightedness is pretty minor. L just turned 1 and doesn’t need glasses…yet, as our ophthalmologist put it at her first eye visit six months ago. 😉 She does have a crazy case of a blocked tear duct that seems to come and go, but so far, we’re keeping surgery out of the cards.
I typically lurk, but I thought I’d pop in just this once and say hi. 🙂
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Hi everyone, Im Jill and Im the proud Mama of 16-month-old Ava Jolie. I noticed at around 13 months that Ava’s eyes were alternately crossing, but I was hoping it was just my imagination. When my sister told me that she’d noticed too, I made the appointment for the ophthamologist. Turns out that Ava is extremely farsighted (+7 in both eyes). Im so grateful that we caught it so early on. She’s been wearing her glasses for 9 days now. The first 3 days were comical, with me putting them on and her yanking them off. I found that I was able to get them on easier if I stood behind her. Like other Moms said, distraction was key those first few days. I also used Sprout to my advantage. If Sprout was on the tv, the glasses were on. If she took them off, the tv went off. Maybe not the best way to teach her, but it eventually clicked and she now wears them all day. We also make sure to put them in her case at night and say Good Night to them. Thanks for this great site!
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Hi! I’m Liz and my little Grace has been wearing glasses for about 2 months now for farsightedness. She’s 2 1/2 (going on 12) and we’re taking her little sis Olivia just in case in a few weeks to be sure she doesn’t need them too. I’m not sure we’re really used to glasses enough to have much advice to give, though as I posted on FB– just remember that you’re not alone, what you’re feeling is normal, and you’ll feel better soon!
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Hello! I’m Joanna and my cataract/glasses/patching little man is James, who is almost 2.5 years. James had a cataract removed from his right eye last April – so we’ve almost hit the 1 year mark. After a move across the country, new doctors and new lenses, we are finally in a bit of a groove. James wears a daily soft lens with a +17. When he has the lens in he sees 20/50 which is pretty nice. He also has glasses. We started in the fall w/ Easy Twists, but the fit was too loose. He now has a pair of Fisher Price which fit better, but not perfect and will have to do for now. He only wears glasses when we can’t get his lens in, which is about 2x a week. The issue we have now is that he is on a patching strike. He is Houdini when it comes to getting it off. Other than that, all is progressing and I’m so very thankful to have Little Four Eyes as a resource!
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Hi Joanna,
We are keen to move our little one who is 3.5 into a contact lense. She only needs it in one eye for a -5 script. For a number of reasons it would be beneficial for her. I am keen to start but cannot even imagine being able to get a contact into her eye. How did you start, is it easy now? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Ingrid
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Hello Im Vanessa
I have a beautiful active 2 year old daughter who was diagnosed with bilateral cataracts in december 2010 just had her third surgery in february and now wears lens implants in both eyes. She has been so strong throughout this whole process and now the tough part, she just got her first pair of bifocal glasses, which she refuses to wear!! I am going crazy trying to figure out ways to get her to wear them but have had no luck :-(.. I wish i could just give up but i have to be strong for her..
Any advise on getting glasses to stay on a toddler would be apreciated!!!
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Oh dear, the toddler stage is hard. Distract, distract, distract! And just try to outlast her. And yes, I know those are way easier typed than done. I’ve heard some people have good luck at this age with taking their child somewhere interesting, like the zoo or a museum or a park, and then putting the glasses on while their child is distracted by all the other interesting things. That gets them to wear the glasses for a bit to help them get used to them. Would she respond to books about kids in glasses? There are a lot, though I didn’t want to read books that focused on kids not wanting to wear their glasses, which unfortunately, most of the books do.
Did she have glasses before, but just not bifocals? If so, you could ask about reducing the near prescription to see if she handles that better, and then increase the prescription once she’s wearing them more easily. Of course, then you’re paying for more lens replacements.
Good luck and keep us updated
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Wow that sounds like a great idea i think i am going to do that this weekend if the weather permits…Books arent really an interest for her being that she doesnt understand what im saying she just turned two a mth ago so she doesnt talk which makes it harder to communicate with her. She gets what she wants by having huge tantrums and me being the softee give in. I think that is why she wont wear the glasses becuase she knows she doesnt have to. No these are her first pair of glasses and someone also told me to tell that to the doctor which i will when we go see him. Thanks
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Hi Vanessa – sounds like our situations are pretty similar! We got our son, Adam, his new bifocals a week ago tomorrow and LUCKILY he’s had no problem wearing them whatsoever. I don’t think that anything WE did resulted in him being so compliant, I think it’s just his personality to be compliant with something like this. BUT, here are the things we did, just in case any of them spark ideas that might help you guys:
1. We talked up the glasses for weeks beforehand. I wear contacts but have my glasses on in the morning and at night before bed so we told Adam how lucky and cool he was going to be since he was going to get glasses like Mom’s.
2. We let him help pick out the frames he wanted. Ultimately, we had the final decision but he did like the ones we chose.
3. As soon as he put them on, he commented that everything looked really weird. We explained to him that that was normal and pretty soon his eyes would get used to the glasses and things wouldn’t look weird anymore.
4. As soon as we got home, we plunked him and his two siblings in front of the TV and turned on a movie he likes. We wanted him to have an hour or so of sitting quietly and being distracted and getting to use his new and improved vision.
5. I saw a “Patch Chart Book” discussed on the pgcfa.org website (great site if you haven’t been pointed to it yet) that might work for wearing glasses too. Sounds like the idea is that for every day that your child wears their patch (or glasses in this case), they get to put a sticker on their chart for the day and after so long (maybe with a two year old, they get a sticker for every 2-3 hours in a row they leave their glasses on), they get a small reward for their compliance!
Good luck! This has been an emotional and tough road for our family as I imagine it has been for yours.
Sheri
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Hello!! Wow that is awesome that your son is wearing his glasses so well.
He definately must have a calm personality because my daughter is the ultimate drama queen its her way or the highway and shes only 2!!
I wear my glasses too to encourage her and she doesnt seem to understand i guess becuase she likes mine but doesnt like hers lol. And that website is great (PGCFA.Org) Her doctor i think is the founder. I am going to do that buy stickers or little toys and for every time she stays with them on i will reward her hopefully this works because i dont want her vision to get worse…
Thanks for the advise God Bless
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hi! My 14 month old son, Anderson, was diagnosed at 11 months with congenital cataract in his left eye. I was SO lucky that my aunt told me about a program called infantsee that allows parents to take their kids under the age of 1 to the eye doctor for free! He had surgery last month & we are patching 10 hours a day! It is THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVERY DONE! I find myself almost resentful of people who complain about their toddlers who aren’t wearing an eyepatch-that sounds like a vacation. As repetitive as this sounds with everyone else, the only way to keep it on is distraction!! I put it on as soon as he is up, even before he has really opened his eyes. Also, we have stopped calling it the patch because it reminds him of it. We now call it the “cougar”. Weird, but it works! We just introduced glasses in the mix & it is going better than expected. We chose Miraflex, which I highly recommend. I just have to tell myself that I will never worry if I have spent enough time with him because we are holding hands or he is sitting in my lap all of the time!
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Calling it “cougar”, I love it! Ten hours a day patching with an 11 month old? You definitely have my respect for doing what needs to be done! Way to go!
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I’m just now getting to read through everyone’s comments, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for reading and introducing yourselves. I’m amazed at what I learn, and the tips that I pick up from everyone here. (a mini cookie in each hand when you first start patching is pretty genius).
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I’m Heidi, mom to Ben and he was a micropreemie (23 weeks gestation, 22 ounces at birth) and developed ROP. He had surgery on both eyes in the NICU and began wearing glasses at a year adjusted age. We went through countless pairs (I stopped keeping track after he broke his frames for the 47th time) but he’s now 6 and any breaks are only accidental. He has prescription swim goggles for his weekly pool visits, sports goggles for his bi-weekly PE program & soccer, sunglasses (he’s very light sensitive) and a few spare pairs just in case. (We love Zenni Optical!) Because of a discrepancy between eyes (-8.5 and -13.5) we started to patch a couple years ago and it’s from wake up to bedtime. That’s been a challenge but it’s working, his acuity has improved from 20/300 to 20/100!! (Much cheering on our part.) Now that he’s older he wants his glasses and is very careful with them, defending them from younger siblings and requesting the right ones (goggles for PE, etc.) But those first couple years of keeping glasses on a baby/toddler were so frustrating, for all of us. As was patching. Somedays we were all in tears but it is getting better! I hope that helps give someone else hope. 🙂
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My name is Melanie I have 5 children. My son David is my little man with glasses. I had placenta previa with him. Although no one has ever told me if that could/would cause any problems. His speech is very delayed, he shakes when he does fine motor activities and his vision is a +4. He first went to the eye dr because his left eye has Ptosis (eye lid droops). He got his glasses at 17 months and wore them like he was born with them. The only issue we have right now with his glasses are it took 6 weeks for the people to get them (plus they are too big)and we now fight for him to wear them.
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Hi ! My name is Pearl . My 4 year old son , Ron was diagnosed with Accomodative Esotropia and Astigmatism a month back. I still remember the doctor’s visit and the disbelief, concerns , worries that followed. I kept asking myself ” Why him ?” There were days when I would just cry.
Ron got his glasses a week back and I was pretty sure it would be a battle to convince him to wear his glasses all day. However , Ron proved me wrong ! Not only did he wear them all day long from day one but he takes such good care of his eyeglasses. His teachers at school have commented about good he is with his eyeglasses ! I am so proud of my little guy 🙂
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I just found this site today, and am excited to read about parenting a kid with glasses! My three-year-old son was receently diagnosed with amblyopia, and has been wearing a patch all day…he’s adjusted to it really quickly, and we ordered glasses for him this week. I started wearing glasses and patches before I was two, and ended up having surgery to correct my right eye, so I don’t think I’m as overwhelmed with his recent diagnosis as I could be. It’s still hard not knowing if patching and glasses will be enough for him, but I certainly hope so. I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog!
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Hi! I just found this website today and I love it! My name is Amanda and my three year old daughter, Julia, just got glasses on Thursday. She needs to patch her left eye three hours per day, but we haven’t started that yet. I ordered a fabric patch that goes over her glasses from framehuggers.com and it has not arrived yet. She is doing better than I expected with the glasses. We did a lot of talking about it beforehand and I am in the process of making her a photo album of all friends and family members who wear glasses. She loves to look at pictures, so I am hoping this helps. I already had to take her back to get the frames adjusted because she was complaing that they hurt behind one ear. That is better, but now they keep sliding down on her nose. Thank you to all the contributors for the wonderful tips and ideas on here!
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I’m Suzi, mom to 3. My youngest, Emory (age 2) was diagnosed with bilateral congenital cataracts at 11 months (thanks to an InfantSEE appointment). He now wears Silsoft contact lenses, and last Monday, we got his first pair of bifocals for him to wear over the contacts. He’s doing well with them! He KNOWS he’s cute when he has them on!
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I’m Cassandra – my son Parker just got glasses (almost 1 week ago). It’s been a struggle to get a true diagnosis on what was really going on with his eyes! I noticed around his 2nd birthday that he had a “lazy” eye sometimes & that he had some abnormal “jerky” movements randomly as well. He also was starting to have some behavior issues at daycare – taking books from people, running into friends & pushing them down, etc. Turns out he’s got a pretty significant astigmatism. We ended up going to 2 different MDs – the 1st was an ophthalmologist that our pediatrician referred us to (he was pretty worthless & kept telling me I was being “hysterical”; the 2nd is a well known pediatric ophthalmologist in a bigger city nearby – we will be going back to him ;).
Anyways, the peds ophthalmologist recommends miraflex frames for my VERY active child with a small face & they fit very well…BUT he has popped the lenses out a couple of times already. In fact today, he popped both lenses out & I’m not sure how to tell which one goes in which side! They are both pretty thick! I’m going to go to my personal eye MD office tomorrow & see if they can “read” the lenses & compare to the prescription. Anyone have any suggestions on how to “mark” the lenses so when he pops them out again we can easily tell which one goes in which side & make sure we are getting them in there correctly??
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What a great site!!
My daughter (Nava, with T21) was diagnosed with large bilateral cataracts at 5 months, had them out at 6 months and began wearing silsoft contact lenses. It went well for a while, then they kept popping out and she really fought replacing them. The twist for us is we live in Laos, we have to go to Thailand for medical appointments, but they don’t give aphasic kids contacts there-only glasses. (she had surgery and got first prescription in the US).
So now we are back in the US and waiting to see the dr here to get a new prescription so we can order
replacement lenses but I’m thinking we may need to try glasses too! Plus she’s got a lazy eye and I think patching will likely get perscribed sometime soon.
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