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  2012 Visions of Home calendar

  Children’s Eye Foundation 2012 Visions of Home Eye Care calendar (this link goes to the store, but you can see the full calendar by clicking the “View the 2012 Calendar” link).  This is a beautiful calendar, featuring images of children, many of whom wear glasses.  Children’s Eye Foundation has run a photo contest each summer since 2009 to find photos for their annual calendar, and this year’s calendar is my favorite so far.  Proceeds from the sale of the calendar support the Children’s Eye Foundation.

• VSP Eye Pledge.  VSP is asking people to take a pledge on their website to take care of their eyesight.  For every pledge they receive, they will donate an eye exam and pair of glasses to a child served by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
• Pinterest board – Little Four Eyes.  There’s been a lot of discussion on the facebook group of cute clothes for our kids that are glasses-themed.  Christie has started a Pinterest board of images of such clothes.  Check it out, and feel free to leave links to others you’ve found.
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  "A Book Lover"

  Speaking of cute glasses-themed attire…I just today realized that all of my favorite t-shirts from Threadless were created by the same designer, Lim Heng Swee aka “Ilovedoodle”, and that many of his designs feature animals that just happen to wear glasses (and many of them clearly love reading, too).  You can see all of his shirt designs here.

• Questions for doctors – Stewart Snippets recently learned that her 2 year old son has lamellar cataracts.  She wrote a wonderful list of questions for her son’s doctors.  The questions are worth checking out and keeping in mind for doctor’s appointments, no matter what your child’s diagnosis.
• Red Eye Reflex – Jack’s Journey has a great post – with lots of pictures – about red eye reflex in photos, which can be a sign of cataracts (it can also be a sign of a really good camera with red eye reduction).

• Vision Therapy Video – This is a short video giving a concise explanation of vision therapy, with particularly good explanation of how visual problems can lead to difficulties with reading.  If you’re looking for a quick introduction to VT, this is a good place to start.  Via Bright Eyes News.

• Vision Testing App, iSight Test – There’s a new app available for the iPhone/iPad that allows you to assess visual acuity at home.  The app was developed by ophthalmologists and a pediatric orthoptist.  The app gives parents the ability to track their child’s visual acuity during amblyopia treatment in between  eye doctor visits.  Obviously, this app would not take the place of vision exams, but rather give parents a tool to use in between visits.  Quick note, the app uses and was created by Kay pictures, which were developed in part by Hazel Kay, author of Hoppity Frog has Two Clever Eyes, and a pediatric orthoptist.  Watch for a more detailed review of the app.

The illustrations are simple and cute.  Elliana was excited to see that the pages were in black and white for her to color and immediately began coloring it as a gift  ”for a friend who wears glasses.”  I thought the concept of a coloring book / learning book was great and I wish there were more of these available for parents. (Elly’s coloring of a page below)

Although I love this concept, I did however change the wording as I read it to her.  This book actually hit me hard and made tears come to my eyes.  (I read all books myself before reading them with my children) It is supposed to be a cute story about getting glasses, but in all 17 pages,  Hoppity only wears glasses on 3 pages.  In the end, he has clever eyes, and NO glasses.  My baby will always have glasses and I consider her to be one of the most clever children I know.  Also, it is my personal opinion not to use the word lazy.  In no way shape or form would I ever use that to describe my child and I have chosen not to use the term “lazy eye”  with her.  We use strabismus and amblyopia.  She has worked to hard with patching 6-12 hours a day for almost 2 years and has gone through 2 surgeries and their recoveries to be considered lazy.  I do so wish they would not have ended it with his glasses laying on the ground and his Amblyopia gone.  My daughter will always need glasses no matter how good she is at patching. Due to the author’s choice of ending, I have removed the last few pages of the book and ended it at “Hoppity thinks his glasses are cool.  He is excited to show all of his friends at school.”  We can now enjoy the book and I feel better knowing that it goes along with the message I want to send to my kids about glasses and patching.

I know about it thanks to Stella’s developmental optometrist, who emails relevant vision-related news and helpful educational opportunities and resources to her patients and colleagues. Tonight she shared a link to an engaging discussion between Dr. Press, a developmental optometrist and Board Certified Fellow of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) who contributes to The VisionHelp Blog, and Dr. Granet, a prominent ophthalmologist. Really! They communicated with each other! And did a wonderful job of it, too. Though some of their chat is very expert-level, and therefore hard to follow, I was able to glean interesting points and find references to studies worth checking out. Hope it’s helpful to someone out there!

Dr. Press’ review (on The VisionHelp Blog) of Dr. Granet’s appearance on TV’s “The Doctors“ sparked this online dialog. Dr. Granet should be applauded for taking the time to respond to the (relatively mild) critique of his comments on amblyopia treatment, along with the optometrists who continued to engage him diplomatically yet honestly. You may’ve seen the video segment from the show, in which Dr. Granet tests a young toddler  for vision problems due to a family history of amblyopia. I really felt for the mom and dad, who found out in front of a live audience that their child likely does struggle with her vision. I remember that moment hitting me hard in the privacy of a small exam room. But as pointed out by “The Doctors,” early detection is something to be thankful for, and they’ve got it on their side.

In the comment section you’ll find an interesting conversation in which the disconnect between ophthalmologists and optometrists is taken on directly and in a very civil fashion. I couldn’t help but chime in (possibly coming across like a hysterical idiot parent, but hey, I tried!) and I hope you will, too. After all, it’s been talked about here on Little Four Eyes frequently. The lack of clarity many of us face in making decisions about our children’s care would be alleviated greatly if the two fields could find a way to collaborate or at least communicate. This comment section interaction seems like a step in the right direction. Stella’s doctor thought it was great and I agree.

One last time, here’s the link to the post and ensuing discussion:

Do You See With Your Eyes Or With Your Brain and … What Difference Does It Make?

(P.S. The video seems worth sharing, if only to convince other parents that eye exams are a great idea for all little ones and to show them how accurate testing can be even on babies as young as six months.)

The hearing screening seemed pretty good, not a lot of room for subjective calls by the nurse or for Zoe to cheat on it, though I’ll readily admit, I know a lot less about hearing tests.  The vision screening was another story, though.

The nurse led Zoe to a hallway and had her stand at a mark on the floor and read lines on the Lea chart (square, circle, house, and apple shapes) with one eye covered.  She did fine with her left eye, but when she tried to read the chart with her right eye, I watched her try to cheat by moving the paddle away from her eye, and moving forward a foot or so past the line to see better.  She still couldn’t read the same line that she did with her left eye.  The nurse said nothing and I was not referred to get her vision checked out further.  Now it may well be that the nurse figured that since Zoe wears glasses, she is already seeing an eye doctor and didn’t need a referral, but I was still pretty annoyed at not getting any feedback.  Still, I knew her regular eye appointment was coming up, and thought (hoped) that there was maybe a chance that she was seeing fine.  So I decided to wait until her regular visit to see what her eye doctor thought.

That visit was today.  Sadly, it was again clear that her right eye just wasn’t seeing nearly as well as her left, and according to her ophthalmologist, a stronger prescription wouldn’t do anything to help it.  In other words, we’re now looking amblyopia square in the face.  Zoe did her first patching session this afternoon.  Tonight when we read Fancy Nancy Spectacular Spectacles, she asked whether Bree needed to patch, too.  She’s worried about kids laughing at her at daycare.

Knowing now that Zoe really was struggling to see with her right eye, I’m even more upset by the casualness of the vision screening.  In our case, it ended up not having horrible consequences, we still caught it and we’re treating it.  But what if Zoe wasn’t in glasses and didn’t have regular full eye exams?  What if I didn’t know how to spot her cheating and what that might mean?  Not treating amblyopia has serious implications.  I strongly recommend that all parents get full eye exams (not screenings) for their kids at least before they start school if not earlier, and not rely solely on a screening.

Oh, and I’m happy to take any patching wisdom that any of you have to offer.

So, you may ask, how in the world do you get the eye drops in.  Well, we line up all the babies who are also getting their eyes dropped (for pretend)  Then we practice on them, telling them it will hurt a little and praising them for holding still.  When I get to the end of the line (Elly)  I hop on, hold her arms down with my knees, pry her eyes open with my left hand and drop with my right.  This is all done swiftly and in less than a second all the screaming, huffing, puffing, kicking, thrashing, you name it, is over.  I then tell her how brave she was and life moves on.

She really hated her glasses for about a week and a half until the atropine wore off, was a bearcat in her disposition, and expressed her distaste in the drops.  The good news is that the reading was the most accurate so far and resulted in a prescription changed.

Yeah eye drops and yeah no more eye drops.

First, Ann W sent me a link to the book  The Eye of the Fry Cook: A Story About Getting Glasses (Spongebob Squarepants).  It’s a Spongebob Squarepants story about needing and getting glasses.  Apparently, the reading level is for 9-12 year olds, but I know we’ve got some smart kids, and if your child loves Spongebob, it may be worth checking out.

I also happened to stumble across Nick Jr’s page on visiting the Eye Doctor.  It has:

Put the glasses on Uniqua from Nick Jr

• the Backyardigans stickers about glasses.
• printable put the glasses on the character game – like pin the tail on the donkey, but with less pinning, thankfully, who wants their child to think you have to pin their glasses on? (featuring Pablo, YeYe, Walden, and Uniqua – I have to admit, I don’t know who any of these characters are, Zoe could probably tell me, though).
• a set of printable pretend eye charts (with Dora, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Ni Hao, Kai-lan characters).
• a set of Blues Clues eye exam flash cards.

I love the stickers, and the put the glasses on game could be fun, especially if you threw a party to celebrate your child getting glasses.  The printable eye charts kind of bother me, because they really aren’t any kind of real eye chart (and they don’t claim to be), but it could be a nice way to introduce the concept of eye charts to your child if they’ve never done that before.  The eye exam flash cards go over some of the different things that happen at an eye exam.  I’m not sure how much Zoe would enjoy something like that, but again, it may be a nice way to explain what will happen to a child facing their first eye exam.

In any case, it’s nice to see Nickelodeon creating fun games and activities around glasses and eye exams.  I wish that some of the characters stayed in glasses, though.  As far as I can tell, the characters that are wearing glasses in these print outs don’t wear them on a regular basis.  Ah well.  I’ll take what I can get.

So here, are some questions I can think of, that I wish I’d asked.  For those of you that are experienced at this sort of thing, what other questions do wish you had remembered to ask, or which questions you’re really glad you asked?

• What is the name of the diagnosis for my child’s vision problem?  Can you spell it for me?  Or can you write it down for me? (suggested by Jodi)
• Do you have any recommendations for placed to go for more information on this?
• If I have more questions at a later time, can I get a hold of you to ask them?  What’s the best way / time to do so?
• When should we make another appointment for my child?
• Are there things I should watch out for between appointments?  Should I bring my child in if I see those, or just call?
• If my child requires equipment (glasses, patches, etc), do you have any recommendations for where I could go to get these?
• Do any of my child’s relatives need evaluation?  (Many conditions run in families and it can be beneficial to evaluate siblings and parents in some cases).  Suggested by Dr. Bonilla-Warford.

Is there any way to find out if your child is color blind? Everett is now 2. He can count to 10 in Spanish, he knows his shapes, all kinds of things…but he doesn’t know his colors. It’s really bad – he doesn’t know hardly any of them and it seems like that is one of the first things they learn. I don’t know if there is a test for kids his age so we stop pestering him all the time, or if we just have to wait and see.

From what I could find online, most children are tested at 4 years old.  Has anyone had their child tested earlier?

Updated to add: From the comments, Daniel left a link to a very good article he wrote about young children and colorblindness, including when and how to test.  In fact, his whole site is full of useful information on colorblindness.  In particular, he also has a great article on how to talk to your young child about being colorblind.