First off, congratulations to the winners of the first giveaway: Heather won the Glasses Parade card, and Andrea won the Glasses Rock card!

For the next giveaway, I have two  shirts.  Both have the text “Everyone can rock glasses!”   The first is a grey, 24 month t-shirt with a bird playing guitar:

The second is a grey, 12 month onesie, with a cat playing drums:

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment with the shirt you’d like to win, and your favorite comment you’ve received from a stranger about your child’s glasses.  Or if you don’t have a favorite comment, what would you like to hear?

I’ll use a random number generator to draw winners for the shirts on Tuesday, April 3

Glasses rock card

The first card features a stylish cat rocking out on the guitar with the words “Glasses Rock!”  The inside message reads, “…and you’re rocking your glasses!”   The card is 5″x7″ (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm).

glasses parade card

The second card is a parade of two children and a bunny, all wearing glasses.  The inside message reads, “Happy new glasses day!”  This card is smaller, 5.6″ x 4″ (14.2 cm x 10.2 cm).

(Both cards are available in both sizes from the store).

So, if you’d like a chance to win either of the cards, leave a comment here, how about, with your favorite color of glasses frames for kids, and include which card you hope to win.  I’ll do two drawings on Saturday, March 31, one for each of the cards.

As far as I can tell, this would be the first such survey, and I’ll publish the results on Little Four Eyes (responses will be anonymous, of course).

But I wanted to ask all of you, are there any questions or topics you’d love to have that I could ask?

Thank you all for sharing, for writing, for reading, and for being a part of this community.

I have some exciting news, changes and announcements that I’ll be sharing this month to celebrate.

The page is a work in progress.  As I hear about or stumble upon other blogs, I’ll add them.  And I’d love to hear from you if you have a blog that you’d like to have listed, or if you know of a blog that belongs on the list.  The only requirement is that the blog have some posts that related to having a child in glasses or children’s vision issues.  The list includes both personal blogs, generally written by parents, and professional blogs, written by eye care professionals or others in the industry.

I had originally written a short blurb for each blog, but the prospect of writing a blurb for each on is a bit daunting, so I’m going to settle for listing the vision topics covered in the blog (eg. amblyopia, cataracts, or optometrist).

Check it out!

I’ve also re-organized the books page. I’ve added a section for books about patching, and I’ve put some links to help navigate the page more easily.

I would love to add more to both pages.  Send me an email (ann @ shinypebble.com) or leave a comment!

Check out the Little Four Eyes facebook group!

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.

(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!)