kids adjusting to glasses

[tanyalynn]

We are just back from the ophthalmologist's office, and my 4-year old son is now the proud owner of a prescription for glasses, +5.5 on both eyes. I hope to figure out the insurance enough to go to a store this afternoon and start the process of actually getting glasses (I assume it'll take a week or so to get the proper lenses in the proper size).

The doctor says this is a fairly strong prescription and it's going to take some time to get used to it--headaches and such are possible in the meantime.

Any stories on how the transition has gone for your kids?

My son's actually excited at the idea of glasses--ever since the screening test at the pediatrician's office two weeks ago, he's liked the idea of going to the ophthalmologist and he said something about his eyes being fixed (I explained the possibility was glasses, not just "fixing" his eyes, but he didn't seem upset or disappointed or anything).

At this point, I'm really curious if he could know that his vision is quite a bit different from other kids. He's 4. His vision is a lot worse than mine, but I was closer to 14 when I got glasses, and I really hadn't noticed how my distance vision had gotten fuzzy. I'm assuming his vision has been poor since birth.

Did your kids know that their vision was off before their first pair of glasses?

Thanks.

[Vancouver Mommy]

My dd just got glasses a month ago and she quickly developed a habit of putting them on in the morning and leaving them on most of the day. We don't have to remind her anymore. Her perscription is not very strong - mainly to treat a lazy eye (amblyopia). My brother and sister, however, were both 3 when they got their glasses and had very strong perscriptions. My mom said she had no trouble getting them to keep them on because for the first time in their lives they could actually see things. In fact before my mom realized that my brother needed glasses he used to sneak off with my sister's spare pair (baby blue horn rims circa 1960).

[greenbeanmama]

Well, our seven-month-old gets glasses in a few weeks (+3 for one eye, +5 for the other), but I also have a sister who got glasses around two and a half. She hated them with a passion, but she's also a diva so maybe it was her temperament...

Your son may be picking up on something said at the screening, about "fixing" his eyes - also about whether you're handling this well or not (parents really upset by their toddler getting glasses may mean a toddler who hates them because they're picking up on their parents' cues....works the other way too, right?)

From my understanding, young children's eyes can compensate better than older children's and adults, so although it's a strong prescription, that doesn't mean he's been nearly blind - it means his eyes won't have to work so hard with glasses to get things in focus (that's why, often, there is a turning of one or both eyes when there is really bad vision in small children).

Or he could just realize that people talk about things (details, etc), that he just couldn't see, and after that happened so many times, just assumed that he was different somehow.

He may be excited now about glasses, but that might change when he has to wear them all the time. I've heard some kids take to them really well (hey! I can SEE!), and others fight it horribly. Maybe his enthusiasm will last, and the biggest issue you'll have is what frames to choose!

Good luck with your journey into glasses - I hope it goes well for you and your son!

[tanyalynn]

update--glasses are here

Well, it took a bit longer to get the glasses than I expected, but this is day 2 and DS seems fine with them. He was hesitant for a couple hours when we first got them yesterday, we explained a few times that his glasses are like mine, the kind that you put on in the morning and wear all day and take off at bedtime. After the initial resistance, he wore them all day (8 hours? since we went to pick them up mid/late-morning) and only asked to take them off once, and today he put them on with just a reminder to go get them.

DH says DS says his vision is "fine" either way, but I'm thinking that the big improvement in how he sees things is the reason he's willing to wear them all the time. They really _are_ a strong prescription, it's obvious just looking at them, I was sure he'd have headaches, so either he doesn't, or he does but doesn't connect them to the new glasses, or (less likely) he makes the connection but seeing is worth it. But I haven't seen him rubbing his eyes or anything else that looks like eyestrain/headaches since he got the glasses--and in the past 2 weeks, I realized he does rub his eyes more than DD, I think he had a lot of eyestrain before he got these.

Yippee! Hooray for things being easier than we anticipate!

And in a few more days, assuming everything remains as non-eventful as now, I'll go order a backup pair. If these are ever broken, I don't want him to have to wait 1.5 weeks to get a new pair.

[tanyalynn]

one last update

So it's been 2 weeks since we got the glasses. I love them, I'm thrilled with this whole process. I've seen a lot of improvements, some subtle, some not so much. Among them...

-DS's prescription is +5.5 in both eyes, so pretty strong, but he never seemed to have headaches or really have any sort of adjustment period. But he doesn't rub his eyes anymore (I hadn't really noticed til after his first eye exam) so I wonder if he was dealing with regular eyestrain headaches before this.

-DS does more seatwork, sitting-at-a-table stuff at the same time DD does, and he's participating in outside activities we have (for both kids) that have sitting-doing-something-with-paper components.

-He's more engaged in group activities overall, separate from the sitting parts. He's not a shy kid, not even an introvert, but he had a tendency to go off and not want to participate in group activities, and that's abruptly changed.

-DS is arguing with DD less, especially near the end of the day. It's not a panacea for the 5pm crankies, but it was a noticeable improvement.

-DS helps cleans up (stuff in the bedroom and play room) a LOT better than he used to.

Since he's still in the age when eyesight can improve as a part of normal growth, I tried to do some reading on what would increase the likelihood of normal eyesight (which I'm not pinning all my hopes and dreams on) or at least maximize his personal vision potential.

Traditional Chinese Medicine links vision to liver health. Most of the links I've read have discussed vision health and older people but my HCP described it as a more universal relationship, so it seems like the same principle may apply if mom has TCM-type liver issues pre-existing or during pregnancy. So I guess this whole thing shouldn't have been a shocker given that I've spent almost 3 years now working on my health, focused on different aspects of suboptimal liver function. I'm already working on that with both kids, I'm guessing that's the biggest factor for us (beyond whatever fixed limitations may exist due to prenatal development), but I'll be interested in seeing how his vision changes in the next couple years.

I've read of qigong eye exercises that have been shown to improve far-sightedness in kids in at least a couple studies, but I'm going to wait a bit before even trying to track down someone knowledgeable there.

[tanyalynn]

In case anyone uses the Search function in the future, I wanted to include some links.

The Feb 2007 edition of the journal of the American Academy of Optometry, Optometry and Vision Science, has a focus on hyperopia (far-sightedness) in kids, and, simplifying, whether it's better to fully correct young kids, or leave a gap between the correction and the children's measured eyesight to encourage improvement in vision.

http://journals.lww.com/optvissci/Fu...__Is_It.2.aspx

I haven't read the article below yet, it was one of the first I came across using Google Scholar inputting the name of the journal and the date. I have not found it easy to find good data on the prognosis of hyperopic kids. Is the amount of correction needed stable, does it typically increase or decrease? How much, and at what age? I'm hoping a few of these articles will illuminate the topic for me a bit.

http://journals.lww.com/optvissci/Fu...uestion.7.aspx

[dillonandmarasmom]

Thank you for taking us through your son's exprerience. I just received a letter today from DS's school stating that a preliminary test by the nurse showed a +1.5 (that was the highest she could record on the form, so who knows how accurate) in his right eye. He was tested for lazy eye at 3 and I was told to let it go as it could just be a normal muscle development phase.

Now, 4 years later, I am grateful to have been told of this possibility in him. He is, as I thought he would be, pretty excited about the prospect of having glasses.

We'll see.