little four eyes

I’m very excited that little four eyes just passed the 100 posts mark today! I started this blog in mid-March, 3 months after Zoe started wearing glasses, because I just wanted to find other parents of young kids in glasses to talk with, and exchange ideas and tips and just generally connect.  Since then we’ve had 8 authors join the blog, not to mention posts sent to me via email that have been posted.  I’ve learned so much about children’s vision, and the many different struggles that we’ve faced. This blog has had over 16,000 visits since March, and should top 4,000 visits this month alone.

There are 334 comments on the blog so far.  The comments are probably my favorite part (well, the photo gallery might really be my favorite, but they’re a very close second).  I like the feedback, I like hearing other people’s thoughts on different topics.  If you all don’t mind, would you leave a comment to just say hi, and if you’re looking for a reason to comment, I’d love to know what you like about little four eyes, and what else you’d like to see.

To commemorate the milestone, I’m going to share some more photos of kids in glasses.  Sometimes I get more than one picture of a child for the photo gallery, and it’s one of the most difficult things to decide which to use, so I’m happy to get to share a few more.  The pictures are behind the jump.

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I am long overdue to update everyone on Teagan’s post-op strabismus surgery follow-up.  I am happy to report that Teagan is out of her bi-focals!  The glasses are still needed but we know nothing would change there.  Her crossing is now very minor and within normal range.  We will need to keep following up on it and look for any signs that the crossing is getting worse again, or over correcting.  We are not out of the woods with the possibility for another surgery but so far it looks good!  Phew!!

The other update to give is that Teagan is also out of the cast she had from her tibia fracture.  She is a little unsure of her leg right now, it must feel weak, but she is doing great… and smelling better since being able to take a proper bath!

I’d been thinking recently about the extra little things we keep around now that Zoe has glasses that have made our lives just a bit better.

GeorgeB's tools: Top Left: Flat Nose Plier and Wide Jaws Angling Pliers purchased on EBay. Bottom Left: Mini Plier and Screwdriver, and a straight probe from my high school dissection kit. Right: The current miscellany of eye parts are pictured. You can see the break in the frames which is what we experience most often...due to the repetitive stress of straightening bent frames by hand.

Then GeorgeB left a comment on the Collected Wisdom page about the home repair shop that he’s set up:

“… after many a face plant, an encounter with a coffee table, couple of invincible-two-year-old-leaps-of-faith…we’re now the proud owners of several pairs (or parts) of broken or otherwise beat up glasses. (not to mention spare lens or two). My suggestion…become your own optician…at least for those minor tweaks, bends, etc.

“So far I’ve managed to salvage cable temples, nose pads, replace a lens, and even bend, unfold, or otherwise straighted folds that were not, should not, be present…

“Couple of peeks at our optometrists tools…couple of visits to ebay…presto…home-repair-shop.”

. . .

Frog holder for Zoe

When Zoe first got her glasses, we got 4 cases.  One for each car, one for the house, and one for daycare.  We don’t use any except the daycare one now, but they were nice back when the glasses came off a couple times an hour.  My parents picked up a cute frog glasses holder that we keep in Zoe’s room.  She know that that’s where her glasses go, so they’re easy to find after naps and in the mornings.  I keep thinking I should get something like that for myself since I can never find my glasses in the mornings.

We recently bought a couple of big packs of microfiber cloths from the Target automotive department. Not only are they awesome for all sorts of cleaning around the house (I no longer hate cleaning the stove top), but I love having so many microfiber cloths around to grab whenever Zoe’s glasses need a wipe. Which is often.

So what other items have you found helpful to have around the house?

I wrote a guest post for our local newspaper’s (Minneapolis Star Tribune) parenting blog, Cribsheet.  The post talked about how we learned that Zoe needed glasses, and signs for parents to watch out for that could indicate a vision problem.  I wanted to thank everyone for sharing all their experiences here on little four eyes, as I drew from everyone’s stories.  Also a warm welcome to anyone stopping by from Cribsheet!

After getting a response to a blog I posted about McKenna’s Pediatric Ophthalmologist I followed thier link to The Children’s Eye Foundation webpage. This is what I found…

About The Children’s Eye Foundation
Originally founded in 1970 as the National Children’s Eye Care Foundation (NCECF), the Children’s Eye Foundation (CEF) is the official foundation of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS).  The foundation was founded by the late Dr. Marshall Parks, who is also the acknowledged founder of the pediatric ophthalmology discipline. The mission of the CEF is to develop and implement programs that optimize the quality of life of children by eliminating preventable vision loss and eye disease.

CEF most directly combats Amblyopia, a condition caused when one eye receives inadequate use during early childhood, resulting in reduced vision or even blindness. The child’s brain suppresses the poorer quality image, essentially “turning on blindness”. Amblyopia can be caused by several vision disorders, such as:

• Strabismus: misaligned or “cross-eye”
• Anisometropia: uneven vision
• Cataracts: one or both eyes are cloudy
• Ptosis: or drooping eyelids.

Each year, close to four million children are born in the United States. Research suggests that 5%, or 1 in 20, of the preschool aged population suffer from a vision disorder that could eventually result in permanent vision impairment. Vision disorders have tremendous consequences for both the children afflicted by them and for society as a whole.

This is very reassurring to me as a mother, that there are people out there who care enough to devote their time and career to educating themselves and the public about the causes, treatments and cures of childhood eye disorders.

www.childrenseyefoundation.org

the eye surgery gals

Right around the time that we learned that Zoe would need strabismus surgery, my grandma learned that she had put off cataract surgery for as long as was possible, and, as the ophthalmologist put it, her choice was to schedule the surgery now, or by her next eye exam, it would be too late.  The two surgeries are not at all similar, and recovery from surgery at 88 is far different from the recovery when you’re not yet 2.  But still, I like to think there’s a common bond between my two eye surgery gals.  And it was after learning that Zoe would have her own eye surgery that grandma finally agreed to schedule her own.  A totally unexpected, unintended, but wonderful consequence.  Grandma’s first cataract surgery is tomorrow (Thursday) morning.

Although my husband disliked the doctor he is actually very acheived in his field. He is a Pediatric Ophthalmologist and specialized in children with developmental disorders. Our daughter has a Hypoplastic Cerebellum-detected while I was pregnant; this causes problems with balance and coordination. While researching about Esotropia- I found information that said that many children with gross motor developmental defects end up having some form of Strabismus and even more likely to have Esotropia.

Dr. Stephen Glaser has a website with a lot of good information on it www.kidseyecare.com He also participates in and support studies with the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG – a division of National Institute of Health) that further advance the ability to diagnose and treat children with childhood eye disorders.

He also created “Glaser vision” which is a preschool sight screening system. That information is at www.kidseyetest.com

Although I am still processing all of the steps that we may have to take to help my daughters vision, I feel very confident in the doctor that we have in our area.

My husband on the other hand just didn’t like that he made our baby girl cry.

tjmtoms’ post about their first eye exam got me thinking again about how tough these eye exams can be, not just for our kids, but for us, as well.  And I’m wondering if there are things that could make it easier for us.  What suggestions would you give an eye doctor who was going to specialize in pediatrics?  These could be things that your current clinic does really well, or things that you think would make it work better.

But first, I have to start be saying that I can only imagine how difficult it must be to work with such small kids, who really can’t tell you what’s going on, and don’t understand why they are having these exams.  I know I really appreciate the kindness and patience of Zoe’s ophthalmologist.

So here are a few things I can think of that have helped (or would help) with eye exams:

1. It’s really, really hard to focus and absorb what we’re being told when our child is crying.  And unfortunately, eye exams are often upsetting to our kids.  Give us 5 minutes to quiet our child down before trying to explain what’s going on with their eyes, or if that’s not possible, give us a phone number and time that we could call and discuss it when we’re not so distracted.
2. Related to that.  This is often a whole lot for us to absorb, especially at our first exams when we probably weren’t expecting to find out that our child had a vision problem.  Most of these problems aren’t in family health books, and we probably don’t know anyone who’s children had these problems, and the information on the Internet can be pretty contradictory and frankly, frightening.  Giving us as much detail as we can understand, using the correct terminology is so helpful.  In fact, having a sheet or brochure with explanations of various terms and aspects that we could look over later would be extremely helpful.
3. Have a list of local or trusted online glasses providers.  Again, we probably don’t have friends that we can turn to for a referral for glasses for babies.  And our preferred optical shop may not have the frames or the expertise.
4. (This one is a little less serious…)  If you’re going to give our kids small toys as favors after the exam, can they be age appropriate?  Being told to cut out the bead eyes off of the finger puppet is, well, I given that we’re at an eye clinic, I guess it’s fitting, but it still feels a little weird.

So what other suggestions would you have?  And what about for parents taking their child to their first eye exam – any suggestions for parents to make it easier?

My daughter’s pediatrician first noticed a crossed eye at her 9 month check up. But, she only saw it once and thought maybe it was pseudo strabismus. Of course then I started to notice it more and more-then at her 12 month check up they referred us to several Ophthalmologists. We chose the only Pediatric Ophthalmologist in the area and it took over 2 months to be seen.

The eye exam was torture!

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