little four eyes

This page has links to resources that I’ve found to be helpful. Please leave a comment or send me a note if you know of other sources that would be good additions.  You may also want to check our archives for posts about specific topics.

• Children’s vision and eye problems
• Glossaries and other reference resources
• Young children and glasses
• Parenting kids with health issues
• Children with visual impairments
• Children’s glasses vendors
• Financial aid
• Communities, forums, and listservs
• Blogs

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Children’s Vision and Eye Problems

• Children’s Vision: What Parents Need to Know – a collection of information from All About Vision that covers a whole range of topics on children’s vision. All About Vision is owned by Access Media Group and the pages are written by journalists with experience in eye care. Health related articles are approved by one or more eye doctors on their Advisory Board.
• Your Baby’s Eyes – an overview of vision in infants, how vision is tested and assessed, and common problems. From the University of Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary.
• Common Eye Problems in Children – from the Prevent Blindness America website. Brief explanations of some of the more common vision problems for children.
• Pediatric Eye Conditions – a nice list of children’s eye conditions, with links to information for each condition.  Most links go to outstanding children’s hospitals, with acclaimed eye care facilities.  Originally published by Contemporary Pediatrics, but now available from High Definition Vision.
• Affects of Albinism on vision – from NOAH (National Organization of Albinism and Hypopigmentation), a brief description of how albinism affects vision and links to more information.
• Amblyopia - information on Amblyopia from the National Eye Institute. It includes links to results of research into treatment for amblyopia.
• Pediatric Cataracts – information on pediatric cataracts from the Pediatric Cataracts & Glaucoma Family Association.  You may also want to check their Knowledgebase for more articles on cataracts.
• Pediatric Glaucoma – information on pediatric glaucoma, also from the Pediatric Cataracts & Glaucoma Family Association.  You may also want to check their Knowledgebase for more articles on glaucoma.
• American Nystagmus Network and the Nystagmus Network (European) – information about dealing with Nystagmus.  The Nystagmus Network has two books about nystagmus for children.
• Facts About Retinopathy of Prematurity – a great starting guide from the National Eye Institute, which includes information on the stages and treatment of ROP. Also of note are the sections on how to find more information, particularly on medical studies and medical literature.
• About Strabismus – an easy-to-read site from the Optometrists network about strabismus. Includes links to learn about different types of strabismus and treatment options.
• Children’s Vision Information Network – developed and maintained by the Wichita Vision Development Center and Child and Family Optometry of Wichita, Kansas. This site focuses on binocular vision disorders and advocates for vision therapy treatment. They have a good bibliography of studies supporting vision therapy.
• All Children Have Different Eyes – Resources – resources for parents of children with low vision (unable to see clearly even with glasses or contacts) as well as children who are legally blind (20/200 acuity and below). Compiled by the web site of the book All Children Have Different Eyes.  Also check out their fun page that has downloadable coloring pages with scenes of children with glasses playing and interacting with their friends.

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Glossaries and other reference resources

• Glossary of vision and visual health terms for parents – another page from the Optometrists network with definitions of many of the terms you may run across.
• Glossary of Eye Terminology – definitions of common terms, excerpted from the Dictionary of Eye Terminology.
• Glossary of terms specific to pediatric glaucoma and cataracts – from the Pediatric Glaucoma & Cataract Family Association.
• Dictionary for Parents of Children with Disabilities – originally developed by the South Dakota Special Education Programs.  The dictionary contains terminology used in the fields of testing/evaluation, early intervention, special education, medical services, therapeutic services, family supports, vocational training, independent living and guardianship.

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Young Children and Glasses

• A Child’s Eyes: Children’s Glasses are NOT Small Grown-up Glasses – a fantastic page written by a Master-certified optician who specializes in fitting and dispensing children’s glasses.  This page has links to tips on getting children to wear glasses, explanations of the types of frames and types of lenses, and information on how to know if your child’s glasses fit correctly.  This is essential reading.
• Small Children and Their New Prescription Glasses – tips for making glasses wearing fun and finding glasses for young children. Some of these tips are geared towards kids a little bit older, but there’s still some good stuff here.
• Babies with glasses – A site for parents and families of babies, infants, toddlers, and children that wear or need glasses. Learn from other parents experiences and share your own. Build awareness of the importance of children’s eyesight.  They have a variety of tips and tricks, FAQS and a forum.

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Parenting kids with health issues

• Parenting children with health issues : essential tools, tips, and tactics for raising kids with chronic illness, medical conditions & special healthcare needs - this book comes highly recommended from one of our readers. One of the stories in the book is about a young child who doesn’t want to wear glasses
  • find it at a library | buy it from Amazon
• Early Intervention – Early intervention services are specialized health, educational, and therapeutic services designed to meet the needs of infants and toddlers, from birth through age two, who have a developmental delay or disability, and their families. Children with vision impairment (low-vision, partial blindness or blindness due to an eye disorder) can benefit from early intervention.  It is worth noting that if your child’s vision is fully corrected by glasses, then he or she does not have a vision impairment.
  • Fact Sheet on Blindness / Vision Impairment
  • State-specific information
• Dictionary for Parents of Children with Disabilities – originally developed by the South Dakota Special Education Programs.  The dictionary contains terminology used in the fields of testing/evaluation, early intervention, special education, medical services, therapeutic services, family supports, vocational training, independent living and guardianship.

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Children with Visual Impairment

Visual impairment is a specific term which means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness. (Definition from National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities)

• Fred’s Head from APH – A blog from the American Printing House for the Blind.  This blog contains links to resources, tips, and resources of interest for and by blind or visually impaired people.
• FamilyConnect – is provided by the American Foundation for the Blind and the National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments to provide information for families with visually impaired children.  You can browse information by eye disorder or age ranges.
• 4Sight – an organization that connects parents of children with vision impairments with services and resources.
• LowVision – a collection of resources and information for people with low vision.  This site is not targeted at children, but it does have a lot of helpful information.
• Wisconsin Families of Visually Impaired Children (WIFVI) – an organization dedicated to providing families of visually impaired children, including those with additional disabilities, support, connections, advocacy, and information.  The site includes a directory, a calendar, and a forum.

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Children’s Glasses Vendors

• Solo Bambini - recommended by a reader, these are inexpensive, cute, and indestructible. They may also have the best sizing names: itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, toddler, scout, eagle scout, and scout master.
• Miraflex – recommended by another reader as flexible, not expensive, and lots of cute colors.
• Erin’s World Frames - frames specifically designed for children with Down syndrome.
• Thinking of ordering glasses online?  Check out our guide to ordering glasses for children online.

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Financial Aid

• InfantSEE – a public health program from the American Optometric Association. Participating optometrists provide free vision assessments for children in their first year of life. The site includes information for parents on what to expect at the vision assessments, and a way to search for nearby participating optometrists.

• Financial Aid for Eye Care - a list of links to programs and resources that can help with the costs of eye exams, surgery, and glasses.
• Financial Assistance and Vision Care Resources – from Prevent Blindness America, a list of organizations and resources that provide financial assistance.

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Communities, Forums, and Listservs

• Little Four Eyes facebook group – a group on facebook for this blog!  A space for us to share photos, stories, questions, etc more informally. 

• APHAKIC Support Group – a support group for parents and health care professionals caring for young children who have had cataracts. Stands for Association of Parents Having Kids in Contacts, but “despite the name, glasses-wearers are welcome, as well.”
• American Nystagmus Network – an email support group for those dealing with nystagmus and parents of children with nystagmus.
• Babies with glasses forum – a forum for parents of kids with glasses.
• BabyCenter Community group: Vision Problems – a group for parents with children with vision problems.
• PGCFA (Pediatric Glaucoma & Cataract Family Association) – has both an email support group and a bulletin board forum for family of children with glaucoma and / or cataracts.
• Children’s Eye Foundation Parents Forum – a new forum, with a lot of cool features for parents of children with eye conditions.  Run by the AAPOS.
• Prevent Blindness America Children and Eye Problems forum – mostly focused on strabismus and amblyopia issues for children.
• FamilyConnect Community – provided by the American Foundation for the Blind and the National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments.  The community section includes blogs and message boards.
• Wisconsin Families of Visually Impaired Children (WIFVI) – an organization dedicated to providing families of visually impaired children, including those with additional disabilities, support, connections, advocacy, and information.  The site includes a directory, a calendar, and a forum.

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Blogs

Eye professionals

• Bright Eyes News & Updates – a blog by Dr. Bonilla-Warford, an optometrist in FL, and occasional commenter here.  He posts quite a bit about infant and children’s vision.
• Mainos Memos – a blog with information about eye and vision care of children, developmental disability, and other topics of interest.  Dr. Mainos is a Professor of Pediatrics/Binocular Vision at the Illinois Eye Institute/Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago, IL.
• Prevent Blindness Georgia – don’t be fooled by the title of this blog – this blog has a ton of great information about children and vision that’s useful no matter where you live!

Blogs specifically about children with glasses

• Insights: A 4Sight Blog – A blog about everyday life with a visually impaired child (with bilateral cataracts) by the founder and president of 4Sight.
• Adventures in Amblyopia – a 4 year old little girl’s journey after diagnoses with anisometropic amblyopia. She is so much more than a little girl with glasses and a patching princess.
• Carrots make you blind?!?! – a family’s chronicles of dealing with their young daughter’s cataracts.  Penny was diagnosed with bilateral congenital cataracts at 5 weeks old.
• Christopher’s Eyes: Life’s Difficulties In Dealing With Congenital Glaucoma – the story of a young boy with congenital glaucoma written by his father.
• Our Journey with Strabismus – the story of one family’s experiences with their son’s strabismus.
• Bjort & Co – a blog by the mother of a son with amblyopia.  She is also the creator of “The Eye Patch Kids” DVD.

Blogs by parents of kids with glasses (these will have some posts about glasses, and some that aren’t about glasses)

• Motherhood and Potatoes – L writes about a lot of different topics in her life, including her daughter, C, who has accommodative esotropia.
• SnowDeal – ex machina – posts about his son Odin who was born very premature.  Odin wears glasses for ROP.  This is the first blog I ever read that talked about having a young child in glasses – I was following before Odin’s adventures before we had any idea that Zoe would need glasses.

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