Ok, one of these is far more fun than the other, but I wanted to share both.
Eye drops
Sheri at Stewart Snippets posted a video of her son, Adam, who is 2 1/2 getting eye drops. I thought it was a wonderful demonstration of how to get eye drops in to a young child’s eyes. (Zoe has never been good at this).
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Glasses cake!
Stephanie posted this link on the Little Four Eyes facebook page, it’s instructions on making a sunglasses cake from the Optical Vision Site. Of course, it could just as easily be a glasses cake, and you could decorate the cake to match your child’s glasses.
It’s a question that has torn families apart, ended friendships, started feuds. Ok, not really. But the question seems to come up a lot. Do you prefer wire frames or plastic frames for your child? What have you found to be pros and cons of each? If your child has worn glasses for a while now, has your preference changed with your child’s age?
We started Zoe with a pair of wire-frame glasses. I loved how they looked, and while they did get bent out of shape, they were easily re-shaped (I know some of the flex frames are designed to not get bent out of shape as often). The saddle bridge kept them up on her nose, and they rarely slid.
Zoe's first glasses - wire frames
Since then, we’ve always gotten plastic frames. We couldn’t find metal frames that had the saddle bridge on the nose piece, and we worried that frames with nose pads would have the pieces break off or cause discomfort – her sunglasses have nose pads, and they’ve never fit right on her nose, no matter how many times we’ve taken them in for adjusting. Her plastic frames need a lot fewer adjustments, and seem a bit more sturdy. But they slide down her nose a lot more, and when they are sitting on her face correctly, they sit closer to her eyes, and so get brushed by her eye lashes more often. (I’ve noticed this with my latest pair of glasses – also plastic that sit right on my nose – these things get dirty all the time – usually with eyelid prints on the inside of the lenses. If mine get so dirty so often, I assume that Zoe’s are dirty all the time).
Zoe's plastic Lafont frames
So where do you fall in the question of plastic vs metal frames?
Just did a massive catch-up on photos and added 13 new pictures to the photo gallery, and we now have over a hundred photos! Take a look! As always, let me know (ann@shinypebble.com) if you’ve sent me a photo that I somehow missed.
Many thanks to Melissa for sharing her story about growing up legally blind. I hope you enjoy it, and find it as helpful as I did. You can read more of Melissa’s writing at her blog, Wisdom from the Other Side. – Ann Z
I went through it all as a kid. I had my first surgery at 18 months to correct my crossed eyes, my second at 5 years to try and correct a nystagmus. At different points in my childhood I wore glasses, contacts and a patch. Growing up legally blind never stopped me from pursuing my dreams. For those moms out there raising legally blind or visually impaired kids, I want you to know that even though your child may have to work a little harder in other areas then sighted kids they are capable of doing anything, and being anything!
I was born legally blind with crossed eyes, cataracts, nystagmus and severely underdeveloped optic nerves. My vision is only slightly correctable. I’m nearsighted as all get out. During eye exams the only thing I can see is the big E which makes my vision un-measurable. My vision can be corrected up to 20/800 in my good eye, but with glasses I have to give up seeing anything up close for a small amount of distance vision. A trade off that just isn’t quite worth it when I spend all day in front of a computer.
the author, at age 20 months.
Having been where a lot of your kids are now I want you to know that growing up, I never knew that I had a disability. I never felt different from other kids and I’ve always known that I could do anything I set my mind too. I knew I had to do things differently than other kids, but what set me apart also made me special. I can only imagine what it must be like to be a parent raising a legally blind or visually impaired child – but from the point of view of the kid it’s all perfectly normal. I’ve never been able to read subtitles, or see the chalkboard from the front row. I’ve always had a pair of glasses or a monocular with me. My life isn’t any more or less difficult because of my vision, it’s just different.
I spent the entirety of my K-12 education in a regular classroom. I did the same assignments and was given the same expectations as the other kids, with some modifications as needed; I was also given special Orientation and Mobility (O&M) instruction. My O&M instructor taught me how to go grocery shopping, read traffic patterns and ride the bus – all the skills I would need to move out and go to college.
I truly believe that part of the reason I’m a successful adult is because of my vision. Not being able to see something was never an excuse for not doing it. I might have to do things differently than other people, but it still gets done. I know that I can do anything, and I have. I earned a Masters degree, I work full time in a position of responsibility and best of all I’m the mother of a wonderful baby boy. I’ve completely mastered my disability, and I’ve been able to turn it into an asset.
There are a lot of resources available to legally blind children, including tuition assistance for college. Most states have a Department of Services for the Blind that offers vocational training. If a legally blind child wants to pursue a vocation that requires a bachelor’s degree, the Department of Services for the Blind will cover part, or all of the tuition. State departments for the blind also offer orientation and mobility instruction, equipment and a network of individuals in similar circumstances. They are a wonderful resource!
To any mom who has questions about what did and didn’t work for me growing up, please feel free to e-mail me at Melissa@wisdomfromtheotherside.com.
I’m sure you’ll agree: glasses are exceedingly stylish these days! Below you’ll find Exhibits Y and Z–just a couple out of many, many pieces of supporting evidence. The old ideas about “geeks in specs” are way outdated. Glasses are now an “it” accessory. After all, celebrities and hipsters have been wearing vanity frames for a while. I wore them for a month or two when Stella got her frames. They were big, bold and white, just $2.99 from Forever 21, and even they got rave reviews!
Perusing J.Crew’s kids’ section is always fun, because you so often see a kid in one of the stylish frames they offer, which can be used for prescription lenses, but the frames only come in one size, which is unfortunately limiting.
J.Crew sells frames and proves that glasses are cute as can be
I hate to support gossip websites but I’m making an exception here. The blogosphere’s reaction to Violet Affleck’s new glasses was a collective sigh in admiration of her overwhelming cuteness. One blogger featured pictures under the heading “Violet Affleck: Pink Glasses Gorgeous!” and it showed up in fashion feeds. My reaction? “I need to find out who makes those frames!” She’s got at least two pairs and they’re undeniably chic. (For those who don’t have guilty habits like occasionally visiting gossip sites, Violet is the five-year-old daughter of megastars Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck.) Here is People Magazine’s note about this news, which probably got more coverage than most ongoing conflicts in the Middle East: “Spotted: Violet Affleck and Her Fabulous Frames.”
Concluding thoughts ala Andy Rooney: As parents we still can’t help but worry a little bit about potential teasing, but if it’s not glasses, it’s something else, and the only way to protect them from all that is to instill an authentic sense of confidence in one’s self. I think that we parents in The Little Four Eyes community do such a great job of embracing glasses, and celebrating them. So if teasing ever does occur, our kids will be able to brush it off. My anxiety about perception is almost nil at this point, because Stella gets compliments on her glasses every day. She is only two and usually shy in public, she doesn’t reply–but at home I do hear her say that she likes her glasses, and she is pleased that they are purple. I hope she’s taking in those kind words from strangers and friends and building a very positive and confident view of her lovely lenses. I’m so glad that positive references to glasses are now everywhere. More and more differences are being celebrated as unique and attractive, and it’s wonderful to see.
I know Ann has done some great posts about reactions to glasses. But looking at the gushing headlines about little Miss Affleck made me want to ask everyone: What is the best or most heartwarming reaction your child has ever received? Or one that somehow really made your child feel good?
The time has come and my 10 month old is needing glasses and even though I live in the big city, I am having a horrible time finding glasses that are reasonable and will work. Most places just shrug and tell me that they have a brochure, but I want to be able try them on… Plus, I don’t want to have to pay $400 and then replace them in a few months. I contacted the company Baby Banz because they make these GREAT sunglasses and turns out you CAN get a RX for them !!! I just ordered a pair and when they arrive, I will take them in to get Danny’s RX in them (and then report back). I’m just wondering if anyone else has done this (and if they have…did they get the polarized lenses?).
I know there are other companies that also sell their frames online, so parents order them and take them to a local optical shop to have the prescription lenses put in. I believe that Tomato Glasses, and Specs 4 Us also work the same way (edited to add after Mel’s comment: Solo Bambini is another example). I’m sure there are others that I’m missing, too.
Who has experience getting glasses for their children this way. Any pros or cons? How easy was it to figure out the right size frames for your child? Any other tips or comments?
So I originally intended to give Zoe more freedom to choose her new glasses, but it ended up being much more of a collaborative decision (that sounds nice, doesn’t it?). How about you?
Zoe just went through quite the growth spurt. This led not just to outgrowing her pants, but apparently also to a significant prescription change for her astigmatism (from 0.75 to 1.75). And it means that her frames are no longer fitting her well. I’ve noticed that she’s been taking them off a lot more often recently, there’s red marks on her nose, and she’s said they hurt.
farewell to the "rainbow glasses"
I’m sad. I love those glasses, but they’ve lasted over 2 years, so we’ve definitely gotten our use out of them. And Zoe was pretty excited when I told her we’d look for new glasses. Though she’d never said anything about it before, she told me on Friday that she didn’t like people calling her glasses “rainbow glasses” and she wanted ones that were just one color, rather than multi-colored. Dots, stripes, or other patterns would be ok, though.
The last time we picked frames, Zoe had just turned 2. She was talking, but only a little, and rarely in public, so Chris and I did most of the picking. This time around, Zoe is 4 1/2, and definitely has some ideas about what she wants, and isn’t afraid to let everyone know. Before going to the glasses shop, I was pretty excited for her to pick her frames. But on our way to the shop and started having second thoughts. Zoe has her own sense of style, that’s for sure. But it can change day to day, and what if I hated her choice of glasses? We let her choose her outfits each day, but she’s choosing from clothes that we’ve bought, and her craziest outfits are only for one day. She is going to be wearing these glasses every single day. I know I recommend letting kids have a say in their glasses, but when it came down to it, I’ll admit, I was feeling a little hesitant. It’s much easier said than done.
Then we pulled up the the shop, and Chris turned to me and asked if I had the prescription. I think I stared at him blankly for a good 3 minutes as my mind furiously raced through the events of the previous day. I remember getting the prescription – heck, I remember the exact prescription – but I had no idea where it was. How could I forget to keep track of the prescription?!? I ran home to look for it (thank goodness we live near by) and finally thought to look in the bag of books and games we’d taken to the exam to entertain Zoe during the waits. By the time I got back to the shop, Chris and Zoe had narrowed the frames to ones that she liked, and thankfully, most were ones that I liked, too. There was one pair that was a bright pink that didn’t look good with her coloring. I tried to talk up the other frames, but she kept going back to those. And I just couldn’t stomach spending the money for frames that I really didn’t like on her face (they were cute, but not on her). So I went against my recommendations and pushed a bit harder for some of the other frames. The optician caught on, and had Zoe try a few more on while we moved the bright pink frames a little further away. She finally settled on a pale purple pair – that have lots of flecks of different shades of purple, and a second of dark brown frames.
The new glasses should be here in a week or so. I think Zoe was disappointed she couldn’t take them home that day. She’s planning to bring in the pictures of her in her new glasses to school tomorrow for show and tell.
these are actually much more purple in real lifethe second pair
I know not everyone ends up with cute little neighbors in glasses (and patching) like we did, but I am thankful every day for their friendship. Glasses are not an issue, just a part of who they are. For the last year and a half, we have had many playdates – most on bicycles or dancing (Zumbatomic). We joke that between all 3 they can see perfectly! Sometimes we even run into them at the PO’s office (always a fun surprise) Surgery is a shared experience and the kids can relate to vision issues. The best part though, is really for me, as a parent, having someone to talk to about glasses and vision. If you don’t have a neighbor with a young kid in glasses, I strongly recommend reaching out to someone in your community. Often PO’s have the names and numbers of parents who are also looking for other families to connect with. The park or library is also a great way to meet other families!
Have you made friends with other families that have young children in glasses? Where did you meet? And how has this benefited your family?
(this post was originally meant as a Monday morning link round up. Life happened, and now it is neither Monday, nor is it morning. So while I was at it, I dropped the link round up part, too, as I think it stands on its own as a regular post).
It’s likely that if you’re reading this, your child has had an eye exam, and you understand the importance of catching and treating vision problems early. But a 2009 survey by VSP and Prevent Blindness America found that almost two thirds of American children under the age of 6 have never had an eye exam by an eye doctor. I don’t know what the numbers are for other countries, if anyone has numbers, I’d love to see them.
Given the number of questions that I’ve fielded from complete strangers about Zoe’s vision and her glasses, I think those of us with young kids in glasses are in a great position to get the word out about the importance of eye exams and treatment for our children. Simply talking to other parents about why our children wear glasses, and how eye exams work for young children can help others see why they’re important.
Recently, though, I’ve come across a number of examples of larger organizations helping parents to get the word out to a wider audience.
InfantSEE, a program run by the American Optometric Association, provides free eye exams to infants age 6 – 12 months. Suzi, whose son Emory’s cataracts were caught at an InfantSEE appointment, has given interviews to a local newspaper and news station (her segment is right after the part about car seats, about 1 minute in to the clip) about the InfantSEE program and importance of catching vision problems early. Other parents who have experience with InfantSEE and who would like to share their story are encouraged to email JMMahoney @ aoa . org (remove the spaces) with their story.
Children’s Eye Foundation, the foundation of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, is dedicated to eliminating preventable childhood blindness. They have a “Little Ambassadors” program to help raise awareness for early detection and treatment of vision issues. The current featured video is Jack’s story (Jack’s mother, Lindsay shared her son’s journey with us this past October, and she blogs at Jack’s Journey). Children’s Eye Foundation is also happy to help other parents create ambassador videos to share their stories.(and I’ll pause here to take a moment to note the cuteness of both boys featured in those two links above)
Vision First Foundation – The Vision First Foundation is committed to children’s eye and vision examinations. They are looking for short stories (125 words or less) that they will post on their website. Go here for more information.
Little Four Eyes – and I’ll just do a little self promotion here. We are always happy to publish your story about your child’s vision, in fact, I love sharing our stories here. And I know that people find our stories here when searching the web for information about children and vision issues.
Many vision issues are hereditary, which can add to the calculations families go through when deciding if and how to add to their family. For those of us who have minor vision issues in our family, it often just means that we need to be diligent about making sure that all of our children are monitored so that we can catch and treat any issues quickly. But for parents with more serious vision issues, the possibility of passing along those traits is much more difficult to face. In some cases, eye diseases can leave their children blind or with serious visual impairments.
A reader who is facing this situation recently wrote to me asking that I open a conversation about vision and genetics, especially for those who have learned that they carry hereditary visual diseases. She and her husband first learned that both of their children have a rare eye syndrome leaving them with a long list of associated vision issues. They then learned that both of them are carriers of a rare mutation that causes the syndrome. They are now pursuing IVF with PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis – embryos are tested for mutations before they are transferred to the mother) so that they can transfer only embryos that do not carry the mutation.
For those of you whose child’s eye problems are hereditary, how has that impacted your decisions to add to your family?
It always amazes me with how many children are in glasses, how few characters are in glasses and how, I feel, glasses on kids are under-represented in books and magazines. I think children in glasses are beautiful and would love to have them see that message from the media. Thankfully, more companies are getting on board! I LOVE the fact that the American Girl Dolls company now has beautiful girls and dolls included in their magazines. I have also noticed that more magazines are starting to feature children with glasses – one of my parenting magazines had 8 kids with glasses in their feature stories and one was even a full page! This weekend, we met the first (and probably only) Disney Character that wears glasses! Now if only I could get one of the princess to wear them too!!!
This weekend, we had a family vacation to Disney World. Although I had no interest in going to Hollywood Studios, the Beauty and the Beast Musical was of interest to Elliana, so we went. It was fabulous, but what was even better was the 3D Muppet Movie. No, it hasn’t changed since we saw it on school band trip in high-school and is still quite boring, but I didn’t really watch the movie this time. I watched my four-year old sitting in her chair with those silly looking glasses reaching out to touch everything that came towards her. SHE WAS SEEING 3D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My heart was so happy, that YES, the Muppet Movie made me cry!
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!)
First, Amomofelly sent me three more coloring pages! They’re very sweet. I’ve put them up on the Gear page, check them out. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’d love to have some of these pages after they’ve been colored. Send photos or scans to me (ann @ shinypebble . com) to help celebrate our 3rd birthday.
Second, the Children’s Eye Foundation just announced the start of their third annual “I Care for Eye Care” photo contest. The theme this year is “visions of home.” The 12 photos with the most votes receive a digital camera, but more exciting for me is that photos are also chosen to be published in their 2012 calendar. I feel strongly that this calendar should include pictures of kids in glasses. And I also strongly believe that we have a lot of beautiful kids here. The last two years, we’ve had a lot of photos end up in the calendars. If you do submit a photo, let me know, and once voting starts, I’ll post links to our submissions, so we can support each other. Full rules for the contest are here.
The best part though, is really for me, as a parent, having someone to talk to about glasses and vision. If you don’t have a neighbor with a young kid in glasses, I strongly recommend reaching out to someone in your community. Often PO’s have the names and numbers of parents who are also looking for other families to connect with. The park or library is also a great way to meet other families!
For Little Eyes 