When do the glasses come off?

I got this email question the other day from Lisa (I’m a little behind on getting through my emails):

Do any parents whose children wear their glasses full time allow their children to nap with them on? My nearsighted 3-year-old is still in a crib and takes naps some of the time. However, often he just likes to sing or talk to himself, and I am fine with that so long as he is resting and I get a little break. But he can only see clearly a few inches in front of his face, so I am wondering if he’d be less likely to fight this “rest time” if I just let him have his glasses (the backup pair of course, in case he breaks them, but he hasn’t broken a single pair in two years).

It got me wondering about which activities you leave your child’s glasses on for, and when you take them off.  We haven’t had a poll in a while, so here goes (the question is if you leave them on for any of the listed activities):

Are there other times you take your child’s glasses off?

Free Headstrap from Framehuggers.com

In my quest for a perfect patch, I have been introduced to Camille at www.framehuggers.com. Her patch will be featured on one of my future Friday postings. She asked if I wanted to try out a head strap to help keep Elly’s glasses on as well. Thankfully, this is probably the only thing we don’t have issues with, but I know that there are some parents on the site with kids who’s glasses slip. She asked me to post the following as she wants to get parents input and offer a free headstrap to those who will use it.

“Are you frustrated with the battle of keeping your child’s glasses from slipping? You take your child to get the frame adjusted to realize an hour later that their ears hurt but if loosened any … your back to the slide. There may be a solution to help. Camille wants to hear from you…please call 208-860-7237 to request a FREE new eye glasses retainer (head strap) that may resolve your concern. She has many years working as a certified ophthalmic assistant in pediatric ophthalmology and as an optician as well. She had already helped thousands of patients with their patching needs (see www.framehuggers.com) but she is now looking to get honest feedback from parents interest in trying her latest idea; whether you child patches or not. She believes strongly in testing products and altering it when needed before selling them to her customers. She will be giving away eyeglass retainers to the first 24 parents who contact her. She is also interested in hearing from any parents out there that have tried the head retainer from www.inconspecuous.com.au to see if this is another item she may want to stock. You can also reach her by email at camille@framehuggers.com Thank you!”

Camille Workman

Owner/Designer/Seamstress

www.framehuggers.com

208-860-7237 or toll free 877-327-7225 M-F 9-5pm (PST)

Reader question: Patching babies

This question comes from Nicole, whose daughter Penny is 3 months old and has cataracts and possibly strabismus.  -Ann Z

With the possibility that Penny might have strabismus, I’ve been reading a bit more about. I’ve been reading about alot of under-1-year-olds that have been patching until they are 6 or even older. Has anyone ever had relatively immediate success with patching, or is it strictly a long-term treatment? What is the shortest amount of time anyone has had to patch, and have it be successful?

Monday morning round-up (April 20, 2009 edition)

  • New links to the resources page – the Wisconsin Families of Visually Impaired Children (WIFVI) and a link to Nicole’s blog “Carrots make you go blind?!?!” about her baby daughter Penny who has bilateral cataracts.  If anyone else has a blog you’d like me to add, please let me know!
  • Guide to strabismus surgery – The Children’s Eye Foundation has written a fantastic guide that I would recommend to anyone who is facing the possibility.  The guide talks about when surgery is appropriate (in the majority of the cases, it is not), what the surgery entails, risks, and information about the recovery.
  • Calendar contest – Speaking of the Children’s Eye Foundation, keep on voting in the photo contest.  There’s still more than 2 months left, and a new photo (Penny) should be showing up soon.
  • Pediatric vision test – I received a comment about a new test, Enfant Pediatric VEP Vision Testing System, that can be done at a pediatrician’s office to test pre-verbal children for vision deficits.  You can read more here.

The Patch Challenge

I have decided to take this patching challenge on in full force.  At the last visit PO that my daughters vision was worse (they did tell me this could happen and it was ok, but I am still worried) and that we needed to use atropine drops AND patch at least 2 hours a day.  We have tried several adhesive patches from 2 different brands, only to go through 20-50 patches a week.  CRAZY.  She has eaten them, thrown them away, hid them, crumpled them, cut them into many pieces and much more.  We’ve tried the patching princess, a patching tree, even bribing for candy and toy rewards.  Needless to say, we have been very unsuccessful at patching.

 

This site has been a great form of encouragement for us.  Last week, Corrie had made a comment, “Yes!!! I think we as mothers of toddlers in glasses should go into the researching business!” And that got me thinking.  This week I wrote to all the companies that offer patches to young children.  Elly and I are going to try each one for 1 week.  We are going to take pictures and report back to you of our successes.  So far, 7 companies will be participating and I am very excited to find the “dream” patch that will stay on and occlude her vision and help us reach our vision goals.

 

In addition to the length of time that we are able to keep these patches on, what other aspects of each patch would you like to know more about?

Any Zenni Pros out there?

A few people have posted that they have used Zenni in the past.  Since Elly is so light sensitive and we live in the “Sunshine State,”  I wanted to get her actual sunglasses for the millions of hours we spend outside.  2 nights ago we picked and ordered a cute pink pair.  This is the notice I got in my e-mail box this morning.   Should I tell them to go ahead and fill them?  Is there some lens part I can change (pay more) to have the glasses be more balanced in weight?  I’d love your help!

“Before processing your order further, we need to clarify something in your order. The Spherical values for the OD (right eye) -6.50 and for the OS (left eye) 0 are quite imbalanced. So would you please tell us if you have vision in your left eye? If not, we can process the left lens as a balance one in order to have the two lenses match in appearance and weight.

So you are advised to scan and email your original prescription including the PD to us for verification. And if you confirm that the Sph values are correct, we have to tell you that the right lens will be much thicker and heavier than the left one for your glasses. So would you like to go on with this order?

Please email us your confirmation so we may proceed with your order.

Thank you for selecting Zenni Optical for your vision needs. “

Reader question: nearsighted child seeing double with glasses

Tanya posted this question in the archives and I wanted to re-post it here to see if anyone else has run in to this particular problem when their child first started out with glasses for nearsightedness.  -Ann Z

My son is 4 and we had no idea he has any problem with his vision. He was tested at school and we recvd a letter suggesting we have further testing. Well we did and were shocked with the news that he was near-sighted and dbl stig. Stunned I demanded a second opn and was told pretty much the same thing. However the Dr said we should gradually increase the lenses. We got his first pair today and he says he sees double and doesnt want to keep them on…. what do we do?

Activities to do when patching II

Here are some more activities to do when patching.

For Babies:

  • Put a mobile or pictures that contrast with the ceiling and wall
  • Play with bold colored blocks with patterns
  • For tummy time, use a solid-colored blanket that contrasts with play toys

For Toddlers:

  • Memory Game – limit the choices based on the age, we sill just do 6 cards
  • Hi-Ho Cherry Oh game – I like the Target version with 4 different color fruit as we end up sorting the little fruit to their matching tree
  • With Pony Beads (found at most craft stores) or Color Cheerios
    march-776

    1. Stringing beads on a bright colored nylon thread
    2. Sorting by colors into muffin tins
    3. Putting on pipe cleaners to make a rainbow
    4. Picking them up from the floor after they fall =)
  • Feather flying party – we had a blast throwing, blowing and trying to catch feathers
  • Practice drawing or copying basic shapes using Black Felt Tip Pens
  • Make a whole bunch of little circles on a piece of paper and have them put a sticker on each circle

And as always, please add what you are doing with your little ones! It sure makes the patching time go by faster when I have new activities!!!!

True or False: A teacher’s story

Pat writes a humor blog these days and lives in New York City.  She started out as a an elementary school teacher in a rural area and shares one of her best memories from those days.  It’s not just a story about the great difference a single teacher can make in a child’s life, it’s also a good reminder of how important it is to treat vision problems early.  -Ann Z

Sometimes you actually do something good, something that changes things. My first year as a teacher (I only lasted two years, but that’s another story), I had a kid in my fourth grade class named Jimmy. One of the first things that Jimmy told me was that he was “dumb.” That startled me a bit, and when I questioned him, he elaborated: everyone knew he was dumb, he had always been dumb, and he had even been left back in the third grade.

Something about this kid got under my skin. First of all, I knew — just knew — that he wasn’t unintelligent at all. (I discouraged the use of “dumb” in any event.) I didn’t care what the IQ test indicated, or what anybody else said, or how many grades he had repeated. For one thing, he had asked me a question —actually, the question — the question that has no answer. Which is: If God made everything, who made God? I told him that I couldn’t answer this and that he should talk to someone at his church, but come on, a kid who’s “dumb” doesn’t ask something like that in the first place. There were other signs, too, but I had 36 other kids in the class (really!) and didn’t have time to figure out what was wrong.

But one day, something happened that set off a chain of events that would explain it all.

The science books didn’t arrive when they were supposed to, and so I had to read the material to the class from the teacher’s manual and discuss it with them. Afterwards, I gave a simple True or False test. T or F. And guess what, Jimmy answered every single question correctly. 100%. Same story the next time. And the time after that. He was amazed; the other kids were amazed. One teacher even suggested that he had a 50/50 shot each time, and he was just lucky! But when I questioned him about the material, he had understood it very well. I was now determined to find out what the story was.

The story, it turned out, was simply this: Jimmy wore glasses, very strong glasses —but he hadn’t always had them. In fact, when he started school, he could hardly see the words on a page, much less learn to read them. It was only because he was so bright (which a follow-up test showed) that he learned to read at all — after he got his glasses — but by then he was hopelessly behind, and was thought to be slow. When he was in my class, he was reading about a year or so below grade level, and so he couldn’t have handled the science book, although he had no trouble at all with the concepts. But he had bought into the idea that he wasn’t smart, that he couldn’t learn, that he would always be behind the rest of the class, and this had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Looking back, it’s surprising that no one had figured this out. But no one had. Anyway, once I knew what was going on, I contacted his parents, who arranged for tutoring to get him up to speed. By the end of the term, he was reading at grade level, and the next year, he did very well.

One of my most prized possessions is a letter from his father telling me that I changed the course of his son’s life. Well, a little bit of luck didn’t hurt either, but still. When I get down on myself for all the mistakes I make (and I make more mistakes per square inch than most), I think about this episode in my life, and figure that hey, I’m not as dumb as I look . . .

You can read more of Pat’s writings at her blog, I can’t believe I’m not bitter.

Reader Post: Worry over tomorrow

This question comes from Bowenian Mom whose two sons both have extreme myopia (nearsightedness) – Ann Z

How many of the parents on the site are dealing with potentially lifelong or increasingly bad vision problems? With such extreme myopia, my boys have thinning of the retinas and are at risk of retinal detachment–and we all know what the worst case scenario is. Also, their Rxs got so much worse between their first several exams that I just worry so much about rapid decline (though thankfully, we found out yesterday there was no change in my 3 year old between age 2 and 3). Are the other parents here mostly dealing with temporary problems or lifelong ones? I feel I have mastered today: the fact that my children need glasses, the constant comments, helping them to care for their glasses, finding an incredible PO, etc. But I still struggle most with the worry over tomorrow.

adjustments

I feel like my life has revolved around glasses adjustments this week.  One of the unanticipated (for me, in retrospect, it seems obvious) consequences of Zoe having two pair of glasses is that it doubles the number of frames that might need adjusting.

Friday I took Zoe in to get her red frames adjusted, they were sliding down her nose something fierce (adjustment #1).  While we were there, I asked the optician if he’d adjust my glasses, too, since Zoe had commented on them falling down my face that morning.  He did (#2) and we went on our way.  By that evening, the back of my ears were hurting.  By the next day, I could hardly stand to wear my glasses, so I went to my eyeglasses store and got my frames adjusted again (#3).  The woman worked with me for about 15 minutes to get the frames right.  When I left, the tops of my ears hurt a bit but I figured it would pass.  I was wrong.  By Sunday, my shoulders were completely knotted up because the pain was so bad.  I’m now wearing an old pair of glasses – with an old but decent prescription until I can get in for another adjustment.  This reminded me of when I first got my glasses at age 8.  I remember the pain on my ears and the side of my head.  I would try to adjust my glasses myself to make it better.  I think I snapped off the end of my glasses 3 or 4 times, to my parents’ chagrin.  But what can you do, when they hurt it’s unbearable.

On to Tuesday, Zoe decides to wear her blue glasses, which are a little crooked from a recent fall.  I try to adjust them enough to straighten them, and they look ok, so we head to daycare.  When she gets out of the car, I notice her glasses are way down on her nose, I push them up, and she says “No.  Glasses down the nose,” and looks at me over the top of her glasses.  I try a couple more times with the same result.  So back in the car and off to the glasses store (luckily less than 10 minutes away) to adjustment #4.  She’s wearing the glasses just fine now.

I plan to get my glasses adjusted (#5) on Friday.

Lessons: poorly adjusted glasses are bad!  Having an extra pair of glasses is key, not just for when they break, but also when they’re not fitting right.  I need to remember that bad adjustments could keep Zoe from wearing her glasses, or cause her to break them.

Question: do you adjust your child’s (or your own) glasses yourself, or do you normally go to an eye glasses or eye doctor’s office for adjustments?  I feel like the employees at the store where we get Zoe’s glasses adjusted see her more often than her grandparents – though that’s probably only true this week.

Monday morning round-up (April 6, 2009)

  • Study on the prevalence of eye problems in young children – A recent study was just published in Ophthalmology this month, which is believed to be the first comprehensive eye disease study among urban pre-schoolers, “Prevalence of Refractive Error among Preschool Children in an Urban Population: The Baltimore Pediatric Eye Disease Study.”  (Abstract – which is pretty dense, Press release from Johns Hopkins where the study was done).  I had been looking for statistics on the number of young kids (under 5) with vision problems, and hadn’t found any definitive studies.  This study is pretty close to exactly what I was looking for.  According to the article on the Johns Hopkins site, 5% of the over 2000 children examined have significant refractive errors that require glasses, but only 1% were being treated.  I’ve ordered the full article to see if there’s more detail – I’d love a further break down by age.
  • Printable “Welcome to the eyeglasses club” certificates from the Backyardigans.  I think I may make some similar version of a certificate that Zoe can give to any friends that may someday need glasses.
  • Bennett’s got a confession – the title combined with the picture made me laugh.  And not to worry, Heidi said they were able to bend the frames back into shape (memory titanium frames from Zenni).
  • Children’s Eye Foundation Calendar Photo Contest – We have 13 photos from this community submitted, so we can definitely fill the calendar with our kids!  Vote early, vote often! Some of the pictures are doing pretty awesome, though there are still 3 pictures in the top 12 that have nothing to do with kids.  New goal: down with the flowers!  There are a few great pictures of kids in glasses that I love (and vote for) that I don’t know if they’re from this group.  If you’ve entered a picture and you’re not listed on my voting page, can you let me know?  I want to keep track and help you get more votes.
  • Question – related to the point above…Any interest in creating our own Little Four Eyes calendar?

Contacts

Zoe and I re-watched the Yo Gabba Gabba episode “Differences” that I’d written about before.  Previously, I wrote that I was disappointed that Muno got glasses that episode (which has some great songs about wearing glasses), but then he never shows up in glasses again.  Turns out I hadn’t watched the full episode.  At the end, he complains that his glasses always slip, so they give him contacts.  Just like that.  Which isn’t really any better, but at least there was  an explanation.  Still, I wish he’d stayed in glasses, for the whole episode, Zoe kept saying “glasses, like Zoe!”

Then I came across this article “Kids with contacts like their looks better than kids in glasses.”  It’s the result of research done at Ohio State University by Jeffrey Walline.  (If the name sounds familiar, then you have a great memory – he’s the researcher that published a study showing that kids do not think other kids in glasses are less attractive).  Basically, this study looked at nearly 500 nearsighted children between the ages of 8 and 11.  Half were assigned to wear glasses, and half contact lenses.  The kids were asked about their feelings of self worth at the beginning and end of the study.  While there was no difference between the groups in terms of global self worth or their value to society, children wearing contact lenses felt better about how they look, their athletic abilities and acceptance by their friends than did children wearing eyeglasses in a recent study.  The article goes on to make the recommendation that “kids, in consultation with parents, should be able to choose what kind of vision correction they want,” obviously, with maturity and hygeine being big factors in that decsion.

Gah!  It just hurts to read that.  I don’t have strong feelings one way or another about contacts.  I had them from age 13 to 18, and then stopped because my eyes were always bloodshot, and the contacts would cloud up after about 10 hours of wear.  But it just hurts to read that the kids in glasses felt like they were less attractive and that their friends were less accepting of them.  Gah.  Childhood relationships can be crazy enough, without this added factor, and I know I can’t protect Zoe from everything, but I hate the idea that the things that help her see – and that look so freakin cute on her – might make her feel less accepted.

I don’t know if we’ll offer the choice of contacts as early as they did in the study, obviously that depends on what she’s like as an 8 year old.  I know that I’ll do my damnedest to make sure she never feels unattractive because of her glasses.

What are your thoughts on kids in contacts as young as 8?  Will you offer them to your child (again, assuming your child is mature enough to care for them)?

For anyone in Kansas City – free children’s eyeglasses

I just ran across this, and called to confirm. Target stores with Optical departments in the Kansas City area are offering free eyeglasses for kids under 12. There appears to be no catch, they’re trying to promote their optical departments.   You need to bring in a valid prescription for glasses from their doctor and Target will let your child pick from about 40 different frames (probably even smaller selection for really  young kids). They will place their best lenses in the frames which are non-glare and scratch resistant and normally sell for $200.00. There are no income guidelines. Any child 12 or under is eligible. They’re not sure how long the offer will run, but it may end as soon as April 5, 2009.

The person that spoke with me said this was a trial program in the Kansas City area only.  Depending on the success, it may be expanded further.  I will let you know if I hear anything more.

Participating Stores in the Kansas City Area

* Lee’s Summit Super Target – 1850 NW Chipman Rd.
* Liberty Super Target – 9220 NE Barry Rd.
* Olathe Super Target – 15345 W 119th St.
* Overland Park Super Target – 12200 Blue Valley Pkwy.
* Shawnee Super Target 15700 – Shawnee Mission Pkwy.
* Stateline Super Target – 1201 W. 136th St.

Days like this

It has been a long time since we have had a lot of questions and comments about Elly’s glasses. This weekend we took a family get-away to the beach and I feel like EVERYONE had something to say or wanted to know more about how I could tell she needed glasses, was it easy, how does she keep them on, and more…. Then when I opened the Comic Section on Sunday, I just had to laugh… Here is most of what that was featured.
march-929
What are the things that other adults say that make you feel good? Or ones that make you cringe?