Comments on: open thread: introductions and updates

By: Ann Z

Ann Z — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:06:14 +0000

Welcome Annette, your story from your childhood just breaks my heart. While Zoe hasn’t run into any taunts from kids (that I know of), she’s still much younger, and I do worry about what she’ll face as she gets older. I hope your son doesn’t encounter the same problems. I do think there are a lot more children of that age with glasses, now.

Please let us know how things go for him. I know there are a lot of kids books that talk about dealing with kids making fun of glasses.

By: Annette

Annette — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:43:48 +0000

Hi, I posted this up in archives, and it wasn’t really the right place… Putting it here now:

My son (aged 5) has just been told he needs glasses – for astigmatism. He was excited initially and tried on some with superman decorations on the wings, but then in the car on the way home asked – What if people laugh at me with glasses on. I told him if they did, it would only be because they were jealous and wished they had them too. However, it struck a chord with me. I remember distinctly the day I got my glasses. I was 5 too. They arrived in a cardboard package. Little pink National Health ones with wire bits for around the ears. My parents marvelled at how lovely I was and I felt like the bees knees… and then I walked into the class to taunts of “Specky four eyes! Ha Ha” and I was heartbroken. I avoid wearing glasses when I can myself because I feel very unattractive in them and have a real thing about them after growing up with horrible glasses until I was 16. I am within the visual limit to drive without glasses – just – so I avoid them. Trying hard to protect my son from a similar experience. I’m worried about how he will adjust. Children can be very cruel….

By: amomofelly

amomofelly — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:46:31 +0000

A friend of ours got 2 pairs – one “metal” frame one and one pair of Miraflex. She is very thankful for the Miraflex pair as they are almost indestructable and great for young kids. I can’t find any insurance that will cover glasses, but we did find a place that is covered by the eye care plan with my hubbies work that will order us the glasses we are looking for. Now that we are on our 4th pair, I will know what to look for. We love the cable temples!

By: Ann Z

Ann Z — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:56:35 +0000

I’ve never had an insurance plan that covers glasses, so I don’t have good advice on that. We did end up buying 2 pair of glasses for Zoe last year, in part because I didn’t want her to go a week without glasses if hers broke. It’s worked out well, and luckily her prescription hasn’t changed, so we don’t have to update the prescription on 2 pair, but it’s not cheap.

There was a discussion of prescription goggles here: http://littlefoureyes.com/2009/07/02/reader-question-prescription-swim-goggles/- most goggles aren’t available in high prescriptions, so you may have to settle for only a partial prescription.

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:53:02 +0000

I am also wondering the same thing…my 16 mo old is doing great with her glasses, but does pull them off on her own and is sort of rough on them-I am considering getting a back up pair b/c her script is +9 and I would feel terrible if she had to go a full week without glasses if she breaks hers! Also wondering what anyone has done about swimming? I have Makenna signed up for swim lessons this winter and also we have a weekend indoor waterpark trip planned…are there prescription goggles out there? Am I crazy to think she needs them? I just don’t think the water park would be much fun if she can’t see anything!

By: Jillian Caci

Jillian Caci — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:43:44 +0000

Hi All,
My name is Jillian, and my son Ronan was prescribed bifocals back in August, just before his second birthday. I found this site through yahoo answers, and am so thankful for the advice on how to get him to wear his glasses. It took almost 2 months, but now he wears them all the time and puts them on by himself if we forget! Our current dilemma is frame destruction. The other day he took the glasses off and stretched the arms so far apart that he ripped one off of the frame. This is the second set of frames in a month! It’s covered under warranty, but we have to wait a week for the new frames to come in.
Also, does anyone here have any experience with getting health insurance to cover glasses as opposed to our eyeglass plan? The plan says it covers the glasses if you choose the ‘insurance’ frames, but there are no insurance frames that fit my son, so we end up paying for everything out of pocket. We have been to 4 of the 5 opticians in the plan with the same results, and we really like the optician we’ve settled on, just would like some coverage. Has anyone else dealt with this?

By: Corrie

Corrie — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:20:10 +0000

Hi April, it sounds like your daughter and our daughter had a very similar prognosis and treatment. My daughter is three years old now and though initally, the doctors were positive that she needed a second surgery, we were recently told that a second surgery was not necessary. We have been patching for over three years and will likely continue to do so until she is ten years old. Aside from giving God the praise for not having to have a second surgery, I feel confident that it was vision therapy and a temporary two months of fulltime patching that helped us avoid a second surgery. I wish you all the best! It is very, very hard going through this with such a young child, but persevere!!!! It does get better! Remember that you are NOT torturing her, but doing it to give her the best possible outcome! If you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask away!

By: April

April — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:14:08 +0000

It’s official. Rylie was prescribed glasses today. 3 weeks post surgery her PO was impressed with her super fast healing. She said the eye was turning back in but on 50% of what it was before surgery. We will give it 6 months and re evaluate. In the meantime patching and glasses. Heaven help me. I hope I can keep them on her.

By: ingrid

ingrid — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:21:25 +0000

Hi,
My name is Ingrid, I have three children, Chloe, 8, Connor, 6 and Paris 2. My older two children have no eye problems however Paris wears glasses for near sightedness in her right eye (-4.5). She has been wearing glasses since she was one and is incredibly cute in them!! We are also patching two hours per day and thank goodness she is wonderful with it. We swear by framehuggers! We are making good progress, however our challenge is the large difference between the eyes. Her left eye is a little far sighted +1 however the PO is leaving that lense plano as children are naturally a little long sighted and it should get less so with time. Paris’s eye does turn out from time to time as a result of her right eye being weaker but it is improving and hopefully we will be able to avoid surgery as the vision improves and equalises between both eyes. This site has been a wonderful source of encouragement and inspiration and thank you Ann for having the wisdom to start it! It is so nice to hear positive stories of improvement, good on you parents for doing the absolute best you can for your childrens vision….they will thank us for it when they are older.

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:31:02 +0000

Hi Amomofelly,
I’ve read your stories and I am so happy for your family and Elly to have come so far from where you guys were. I think I’m understanding amblyopia a little more. Although the glasses may appear to make the eyes straight it doesn’t mean they are using both of them so that’s where Elly had 20/40 in one and 20/1200 in the other because she wasn’t using both eyes. My daughter is, for the most part, so that’s why they are fairly the same, even though Rx is not, right? I just remember when we first started a year ago, the first Dr she saw said no amblyopia but when I asked about patching he said he had no problem with that and kind of left it up to us. Weird, huh? But the other Drs she’s seen said no patching. I still think back to that 1st Dr and wonder why he said that and who is right. But I think I do understand more and I appreciate you and Ann for talking to me.