I saw this video and just had to share it (with the permission of the parents, of course!). The baby is 6 months old and has just gotten his first pair of glasses for myopia (nearsightedness / shortsightedness) and astigmatism. You can watch the moment he starts seeing everything around him – his pacifier falls right out of his mouth! It is such a stark reminder of how life-changing glasses can be for those who need them. His mother writes:
We found out that our baby needed glasses when he was 6 months old. We were seeing a pediatric ophthalmologist regularly because he was born 8 weeks premature but we had no suspicion of any vision issues. He was diagnosed with severe myopia (-12.00 in both eyes) as well as an astigmatism. On a side note, we felt so fortunate that we were forced to see the ophthalmologist and caught it so early. He developed perfectly with the glasses and I wonder what kind of delays he could have had if he was not seeing properly. By the way, the doctors believe that family genetics are to blame more than the prematurity.
As an aside, not every child takes to glasses so quickly. If your child doesn’t like their glasses at first, don’t despair, you are in good company. Zoe took 2 weeks before she’d leave hers on regularly, and that’s not uncommon. You can read our tips for helping the transition to wearing glasses.
For Little Eyes 
Hi,
I am a mother of a 3year old girl and I just had my kid’s check up for the 2nd time after 6 months. The first time I went to the OP (6 months ago), I learned to my dismay that my daughter is suffering from extreme hyperopia (RE : +16.50/-2.25@180, LE: +16.00/-1.25@35). I went to several to 2 more OPs afterwards just to ensure that everyone is unanimous about my child’s prescription. Everyone told me that my child’s case was very very rare with such a very high prescription at her tender age. However, they told me that normally her dipoters will decrease for sure as she grows up, since her eyes will develop gradually. So I had her wear glasses (which she promptly accepted!) and immediately she could see the difference and everything was like a new world for her!
Now again to my great my dismay, I went to the OP yesterday and learned that instead of having an improvement in my child’s eyes, her new prescription are as follows : RE : +19.00/-1.50@180, LE:+18.00/-1.00@30. Now the OP is strongly advising me to have my child wear contact lenses which will definitely improve her vision acuity. I asked 2 doctors how come my kid’s vision has worsen, however no one had an appropriate answer.
Right now I feel lost, firstly with the very high prescription of my child’s eyes and secondly I am worried my child will not accept wearing contact lenses so easily! (She hates anything coming near her eyes!)
Can anyone please advise or share their experience.
Thanks,
Sam
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Welcome Sam. I’m so sorry that you are going through this. Those are very high prescription lenses. While it’s true that most children do become less farsighted as they get older, it’s not always the case. My daughter’s prescription has also increased though it is not as high as your daughter’s.
I don’t have direct experience with contacts, but it is true that especially with very high prescriptions, contact lenses will provide a much clearer visual acuity. There are many babies and young kids who do wear contacts (generally after they’ve had cataracts removed) — that’s not to say it will be easy, but it is certainly doable. I’m going to recommend a few things:
Jessica at Eye Power Kids Wear (her son wears contacts and glasses) has a fantastic tutorial on contacts for young kids. http://eyepowerkidswear.com/infant-contacts-101/
Juliette Vignola has a daughter in contacts as well, she’s written some kids’ books about contacts that your daughter might enjoy reading. One is Jack Wears Contact Lenses and Glasses…Just Like You! http://juliettevignola.com/?page_id=58 . She also has a rhyming book, My Naughty Contact Lens that will be coming out this fall.
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Hello Ann Z,
First, thanks a lot for your response. I feel I’m not alone by having people like you helping others like me..
Next tuesday, I have an appointment with the OP again. He will do a trial with my daughter and see if she accepts to wear contact lenses without so much fuss. I have only a week to prepare her mentally about wearing contact lenses instead of glasses. I really do hope she cooperates and accepts contact lenses!
Thanks for your help and recommendation,
Sam
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Hi Ann Z,
Have you ever come across with similar cases where children suffer from extreme hyperopia
(RE : +19.00/-1.50@180, LE:+18.00/-1.00@30)?
I’m starting to feel really discouraged with my daughter’s case. The fact is that I come from the island of Mauritius, and it seems no OP has had cases with a toddler of 3 suffering from extreme hyperopia before! And no one knows the real cause in my daughter’s case!!
Yesterday I went to the OP to give him the go ahead to order for my daughter’s contact lenses and showed him how my daughter cooperated while I was putting on the trial lenses.
But now the doctor is saying he is not sure if he’ll get the right contact lenses for my daughter (He normally orders them in the uk!). He said he’ll try, and if he doesn’t get them, I’ll have to wait until my daughter reaches 6-7 years to get her contacts!!!!
I could not believe my ears! I don’t agree at all with what the OP said. I have seen on the internet so many cases of children, babies wearing contact lenses. I can’t understand his reasoning about not finding this kind of contact lenses abroad! It doesn’t make sense to me.
Can you advise please? I don’t feel any OP here in Mauritius are experienced enough to handle my daughter’s case since they haven’t had similar cases before! Unfortunately we don’t have an eye specialist for children here. Do you think I can get into contact with a good OP abroad with whom I can get a medical advice?
How can I proceed further Ann Z? I don’t want to give up so easily because such and such OP are discouraging me for whatever reasons!
Sorry for my long mail,
Sam
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Hi Sam, I’m so sorry you’re having such difficulties. You know, off hand I can’t think of a case of such high hyperopia that wasn’t due to aphakia (removal of the lens due to cataracts), but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen. Would you be open to me posting your story as it’s own blog post here, so that you might hear from others who are facing the same thing?
It doesn’t make sense to me either about the contacts, as I know many babies are in contacts. But I’m not sure that any ophthalmologist would prescribe contacts for a baby without seeing them. Perhaps your ophthalmologist could contact another eye doctor abroad who works with infants?
Don’t give up, please!
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Hi Ann,
Thanks for your mail. Yes sure, please do go ahead to post my story..hopefully in this process, i get response from similar cases..
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