I wanted to pass this along from Amblyopia Kids. Belle is 5, and does a great job in this video of explaining why she wears a patch. I love the idea of helping kids talk about why they have a patch (or glasses) in their own words, to help them feel more comfortable with it, and to answer the many questions that get asked.
Re-Surgery?
Last month, we got the… “I am very sorry, but we will most likely need to have Elliana go back for another surgery.” Her eyes were turning in. We were doing everything that traditionally helps and it was only making the turn in worse. I was not at all prepared for that. So, they put her back in her full strength perscription and stopped patching.
Well, 2 weeks later, her eyes had shown significant improvement. Go figure. We were all impressed. With a slight turn in of the right eye, we agreed to patch every other day for a couple hours so that her eyes would be given plenty of opportunity to practice teaming, since they are not working very well together.
Then, one day, this…
Did you see the eye turn? Not sure where it came from, but it is back and doesn’t look like it is getting better. We stopped patching and dropped the lenses back a bit, but it is only getting worse. I am feeling SUPER BUMMED.
Open thread: struggles
We haven’t had an open thread in a while.
Some kids use glasses as teethers, some hide or break them, some fight patching tooth and nail, and some of us struggle with the changes that glasses and vision problems can mean for our children, or with rude comments from strangers. What are the biggest struggles you’ve dealt with in having a child in glasses (or contacts, or patching, or other vision problems)?
important safety tip regarding your child’s glasses and water buffalo
This evening, Zoe and I were reading a book about different animals. We got to a page with a picture of water buffalo, and she asked if they were nice. “Yes,” I say, “remember that other story we read where they talked about them being gentle animals?”
“But the water buffalo will break my glasses,” says Zoe.
Zoe has never before mentioned any concern about anything breaking her glasses. Intrigued, I ask her for more details.
“How would they break your glasses?” I ask.
“They are big animals, they could bonk them. Or step on them. Or even knock them off your face. They would break my glasses,” she explains with every confidence.
So, there you have it, and I’m pretty certain you read it here first. Water buffalo may pose a hazard to your child’s glasses. You have been warned.
Reader question: patching 24/7
Nicole just posted this question on the facebook group, and I thought I would post it here in hopes that someone else may have experience or thoughts for her.
I am about to embark on full time eye patching of my 2 year old son, to see if we can gain some improvement of vision in his left eye, this needs to be done 24/7 for one full week. We then have to go for an appointment to the opthamologist and hopefully will see some improvement, as his vision is declining rapidly in his left eye. Not looking forward to this, prior patching for short durations has resulted in tantrums, pulling patches off, wrecking glasses and refusing to open his eye that isn’t patched. Has anyone been through a similar process and have any tips?
what to do with 2 pair of glasses? Backup pair, or two primary pairs?
Jennifer had a question in the comments that’s something I’ve been thinking about recently, too. She wondered whether it was better, if your child already has 2 pair of glasses, to have one pair as the primary pair, and one set aside as a backup. Or does it make more sense to have both pairs as primary pairs, and let your child choose each morning which pair to wear?
For the past 18 months, Zoe has had two pair of glasses, and we’ve let her choose which pair to wear. It’s worked quite well, largely because she seems to like both pair equally, so they get pretty equal wear and tear. The lenses are less scratched, and the frames less beat up, because they’re both essentially getting worn half the time.
That all changed last week when we found out Zoe’s prescription had changed. I had planned to get the lenses replaced in one pair, and then when that pair was back, get new lenses for the second pair. The guy at the optical shop, though, told me that she was likely to outgrow her red glasses in around 6 months, and he didn’t think it would make sense to replace her lenses now, only to need to replace the frames and lenses again in a few months. So once her blue glasses come back with the updated prescription, we’ll have those as her primary glasses, with the red ones as back-up — the prescription change is small enough that the old prescription could be worn as a back up if need be.
I’d love to pick out a second pair of glasses for Zoe so that we can stay with the two pairs for her to choose from, since it’s worked so well. But ordering new lenses for one pair, and then a second whole new pair of glasses just isn’t in the cards for us right now. I guess I hadn’t really thought through the logistics of what happens with two pair when the prescription changes, but the frames don’t need to.
I’d love to hear thoughts on what you all are doing. Do you have a back up pair, or two pair that your child chooses from? Is it working well? What would you do if the money for additional pairs were not an issue (hey, I can dream, right?)
Eye appointments and sunglasses
How to tell Zoe just got out of an eye appointment? Sunglasses and lots and lots of stickers. The eye doctor’s office has a ready supply of both.
You would think that after doing this, oh I don’t even know how many times, I would remember that Zoe will have her eyes dilated and that means I should bring her sunglasses, especially in the summer, but I forgot, and so Zoe got herself a new pair of tiger striped shades (they’re not prescription, obviously, so she probably won’t wear them much).
Speaking of sunglasses, now that it’s midsummer in the northern hemisphere, I wanted to remind everyone of the importance of wearing sunglasses. If you’re not sure what to do for sunglasses for your child, you might want to check out our post from last year where we pulled together a number of different sunglasses options.
Keeping the glasses clean
Sukanya posted on the facebook group about the difficulties in keeping her son’s glasses clean. It made me laugh, only because we’ve had the exact same frustrations throughout the 2 1/2 years that Zoe’s worn her glasses. I feel like every time I’ve looked at her glasses, they’ve been cloudy or dirty or covered in yogurt.
Sometimes I feel like they get dirty sitting on her bedside table at night.
Zoe definitely likes “cleaning” her glasses, and is almost getting good at it, though they still aren’t clean after she goes after them with her cleaning cloth. She’s good at handing them to us and asking us to clean them, and we send a cleaning cloth to daycare, too. Any other ideas of ways to keep the glasses clean? Do you find yourself cleaning your child’s glasses all the time? Have you taught them to clean their own glasses?
Speaking of photo contests…
Thank you again to Amomofelly for running the Princess Peepers contest, to author Pam Culvert, for so generously offering two signed copies, and especially to everyone for submitting pictures, they’re great!
Speaking of photo contests, the Children’s Eye Foundation photo contest is still running. I have 8 gorgeous photos on our page of entries, if you have a moment, please vote for one of our entries. If I’ve missed your photo, let me know and I’ll add it to our page. They are still accepting entries, and voting continues until October 1, 2010.
Princess Peepers Contest Winners
Prince Peerless the brave, nobel, and chunky would like to announce the 3 prize winners were a tie and names needed to be drawn. Your children are ADORABLE!!!! 2 families will each receive a signed hardcover copy of “Princess Peepers,” courtesy of Pam Calvert!!! And one winner will receive a paperback copy of the book – sure wish I had more to send to everyone! Please watch your mailboxes for an e-mail from me with all the details. Thank you to all who participated!!!!
If you have not yet read this adorable book, I strongly encourage you to do so! It would make an awesome gift for a friend when they join “The Glasses Club,” as a thank you to your ophthamologist and as an addition to your home library.
Grand Prize Winners of autographed, hardcover copy of “Princess Peepers”:
Winner of paper back copy of “Princess Peepers”:
Other royalty!!! You all make the most spectacular prince and princesses!!!!!
reader question: farsighted, but eyes turning out
This question came in from Jacqui, who is hoping someone else may have experience with this. -Ann Z
Our daughter Coco is longsighted with both eyes +4. Six months ago our specialist advised us that she did not require glasses because she was coping well and would probably require them later in life for reading and studying. We returned to him after a few months however as we noticed that one eye occasionaly turns out slightly when she is tired or focusing on us when we are close to her.
Anyway the woman who did some testing before we saw the specialist himself implied to us that putting her in glasses may cause the eye to turn in and she was concerned about this.
We went to see the specialist straight after and he made the recommendation that she does wear glasses in an attempt to straighten the eyes. He did say it was unsual that her eye turns out given that she is long sighted.
But now we wonder if the occasional eye turning out is even related to the long sightedness as our older daughter with normal vision had a similar eye that has strengthened as she has got older. I guess we are worried that we have put her into glasses unnecessarily and will that be causing worse problems for her now. i.e an eye turning inwards that can’t be straightened. She copes so well without glasses, staff at her preschool are not at all concerned and we see no evidence of difficulty. She finds Wally quickly!
Princess Peepers Book Contest!
Princess Peepers Book Contest!
Very exciting update! Pam Calvert, the author of “Princess Peepers has just said she’ll kick in 2 additional signed, hardcover copies of the book! Send in your pictures!
If you don’t have this book for your little prince or princess, then we’d love to have you enter for the chance to win a paperback copy of “Princess Peepers,” by Pam Calvert.
Contest Rules:
This contest is open to all… if you don’t live in the USA and are the chosen winner, we may be able to work something out =) In order to enter, you must send me a picture of your “prince” or “princess.” Each picture will receive one point each for the following
- Wearing glasses (three points)
- Wearing a crown or tiara (one point)
- Dressing up like a price or princess (one point)
- Carrying a wand or magic Stick (one point)
- Having something sparkly in the picture (one point)
- An extra accessory such as: a cape, necklace, wings… (one point)
- Parent in the picture with at least 3 of the above items on (one point)
All the entries received by June 19th will be considered. If there is more than one picture with all 9 points, the names will be entered into a hat and drawn randomly for a winner. Of course, by sending me these pictures, you are agreeing to let me post them on our Little Four Eye Website My e-mail is ajrenchin @ yahoo. com (you must remove the spaces)
Disclaimer: I, amomofelly, purchased this book and will be judging the entries. By picking a winner in no way shape or form do I believe that your little one is not “top royalty,” however, I only have one book to give away and therefore must choose based on my own made up rules =)
Princess Peepers Book Review
“Remember, Princess Peepers wants to let you know that you’ll always be a royal princess inside and out, no matter what! Just be true to yourself! “
It is this kind of message that Pam Calvert, author of Princess Peepers write on her website that makes my heart all warm and tingly.
The book Princess Peepers is a great addition to your home library if your pre-schooler or kindergarten girl is feeling a little bummed about wearing glasses, or needing a pick me up on the importance of wearing glasses. In this whimsical little modern fairy tale, the princess has chosen to remove her glasses which leads to a few vision blunders. She finds herself in all the wrong places, but doesn’t realize it because her glasses are not on. Instead of headed towards the ball, she finds herself headed for the tower. In the end, she ends up falling onto a horse, I mean prince. They both put their glasses on and in fairytale fashion, live happily ever after.
Elliana really gets a kick out of this book and has made me read it every day for the last 5 days. I had to explain some of the vocabulary and we talked about the book as we read it. She LOVES princesses and really got the humor in the book. It is a lot of fun to hear her laugh when I read the funny parts!
After reading the book, Pam Calvert’s website http://www.pamcalvert.com encourages princesses (and princes) to send in their pictures for her to post. She also has different activities to make and do; glasses cupcakes and decorate cardstock eyewear. She does visit schools for author talks and lessons – which has me super inspired. I would love to have her present in our city and am going to contact our public library to see if and how I can make it happen.
Your stories – wearing glasses for protective purposes
I asked Karla to write about her experiences with her son wearing glasses for protective purposes: because he has very low vision in one eye, he wears glasses to protect his sighted eye. You can see a picture of her son in the previous post. Many thanks to Karla! – Ann Z
Caleb’s Story
I suspect Caleb’s story of why he has glasses started in a similar manner as that of most little ones with glasses. It really didn’t seem extraordinary, little did I know what was to come. A snapshot of him sitting for the first time at 5 month show his eyes looking a little hinky. A quick visit with our friend and family optometrist landed us at a pediatric ophthalmologist in short order. Quite frankly I was quite unconcerned I figured he had a large prescription or maybe something a little more serious, like strabismus. I figured we would be doing glasses and patching and I was calm because I was sure we would be able to work through it.
Well, I was right Caleb does wear glasses and patch but for reasons very different than most kiddos who do the same. Turns out Caleb has a quite rare condition in which fetal tissue was left in his eye during the 7 month of gestation. He has a small cataract with a stalk of tissue connected to the cataract that goes through his eye and wraps itself around the optic nerve. The diagnosis which we ended up getting from a retina specialist, after consulting with his partner, is Persistent Fetal Vasculature in the past it has also been called Persistent Hyperplastic Primary Vitreous . We were told there would be low to no vision in that eye, but the other eye is just fine. Surgery is not an option because all doctors involved feel that in this situation the risks outweigh the gains.
So why glasses and patching?
Our ophthalmologist told us that recent studies show that people with monocular vision are more likely to be injured in their one seeing eye that those who have binocular vision. She told us that we would need to put safety glasses on Caleb at sometime. She then asked our about our family and when she heard about the young boy domination in our family she thought glasses would be good right away. Another reason for the glasses is many kids with retinal damage stimulate their eyes by pushing on them. The glasses prevent him from doing that. We patch Caleb 2 hours a day to prevent atrophy, to see if we can teach him to use that eye some, and to preserve as much normalcy in the appearance of that eye as we can. We do not patch in hopes to regain vision.
Where we get support
Truthfully, I have not found many on line sources for Caleb’s particular brand of eye problem. There are some on line support groups specific to his syndrome, but his presentation of PFV is not typical. Some general websites I have found helpful are:
- LostEye – Discussion and support for those who have lost an eye to whatever cause or have monocular vision.
- FamilyConnect – For parents of children with visual impairments
- National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments
But, my greatest resource did not come from the Internet, it came from the early education program in our town. First, I had to take a big gulp and call to inform them that I had a child that was visually impaired. Ouch, just saying those words still hurt sometimes. Caleb actually will probably develop just fine but since he is technically visually impaired he can receive services from the early ed program. Caleb has a teacher whose goal is to know exactly what he sees and what accommodations he will need by the time he enters preschool. I have gotten advice on patching, and keeping his glasses on and have been loaned items to make us more successful. Caleb also receives patch samples, as well as all of his glasses and lenses until he is three, through that program. Our ophthalmologist also does clinic there once a month so that she can communicate with Caleb’s team and they can set goals and discuss what they think he sees together. My biggest word of advice for parents of children with monocular vision is to call your local school district or early education program and see what programs they have to offer your child. You just don’t know what you will find, your community may also have an amazing set up for the visually impaired like ours does. I would have never known if I hadn’t called.
Success in Patching and Glasses
How do we keep glasses on a child when he sees no benefit to wearing the glasses? I have no great answer. Somehow, Caleb accepted the glasses pretty readily. I think it helps that we have another glasses wearer in the family. My best advice is to make sure you get something that is very comfy and don’t give up just keep putting them back on. Mimicking his teacher, we always say “Glasses on!” in a cheerful voice while we put the back on. We do the same when we patch we say “Patch on!” as we put it on. We just try to make his glasses a very positive thing. I also have little helpers who have been instructed how to put the glasses back on, so that I am not the only one doing it.
Have you ever been at a show when a person with a large hat sits in front of you and you can see the sides of the show but not the middle? I imagine that that is probably what Caleb sees when he is patched, but fuzzier. Through his teacher we have discovered that his affected eye can see much better when things are contrasting. That means for patched play time we set him on a black mat with light colored toys. When he is patched and eating we place a black colored mat on his tray and use light colored food. We also have a safe place for Caleb while he is patched. A place that he can play in that has been blocked off from all the other wild and wriggly beings in our household. These things have really helped us meet our 2 hours of patching a day. All these tips are simple things that I would have never thought of had it not been for our early education program.
Children with monocular vision will likely grow up and lead productive and healthy lives. It is important for me to continue to remember that as we wade through this time. I am thankful for the support I have while we do it.
when your child suddenly refuses to wear their glasses
Karla recently posted on the facebook group that her 9 month old son Caleb had suddenly refused to wear his glasses that he’d been wearing well for quite a while. It turns out that he had an ear infection, and after a couple of days on antibiotics, he’s back to wearing his glasses again.
This got me thinking about other experiences people have had with their child suddenly refusing to wear their glasses. We tend to worry about how to get them to start wearing their glasses, that I think it’s easy to believe that once they’ve started wearing their glasses, we’re home free. But if my experiences with Zoe are at all typical, kids love to change things up as soon as we get comfortable.
Has anyone else run into a time when their child just stopped wearing their glasses? Did you ever figure out a cause, or work out a way to get them back into wearing their glasses? A couple things that I can think of to check on:
- Are the glasses adjusted correctly? Zoe once stopped wearing her glasses when they were extremely crooked
- Could the prescription have changed?
- Are the lenses very scratched up?
- Has your child been sick or have other health issues? Karla’s story above comes to mind.
What else?
For Little Eyes 