Glasses
Just some background...
When Sam was about 6 months old we had him seen by a Pediatric Ophthalmologist for a blocked tear duck on his right side. While examining him the Doctor found his vision was more far-sighted in his right eye than his left. Now all babies are far-sighted to some degree, this is often even on both sides and will resolve itself in the first year to year and a half of life. At one year Sam had surgery to probe his tear duct and again his eye exam showed improvement in his left eye but not his right. At 18 months he got his first pair of glasses. We were also supposed to patch his good eye to force his weaker eye to work harder. Well after many, many attempts this has not happened. So here we are now. As of his last appointment ( Thursday the 2ND ) his sight in his right eye has worsened even more. His new glasses came in on Wednesday and so the battle begins ( again )! First battle, trying to convince Sam he should wear his glasses. I let him pick out new frames, his old ones had temple cables around the ears and that really bothered him, also his old ones were getting to small for his big melon head. :) He picked out Sponge-bob glasses... not my first choice but oh well. As a side note: We are not huge sponge bob watchers. The boys got a toy from Grandma that giggles like sponge-bob and they have a game. The glasses really don't show sponge-bob, there's a small picture of him on the ends that face his head on the back of his ears. I can live with that. Here's what's worked. The first day I set a timer for 15 minutes at a time and every time it went off if he had his glasses on he got a M & M. After about 2 hours I started to move the timer to longer periods of time. We are now at every hour. He's doing great and much to my surprise he looked for them this morning and when he put them on he said " there now I can see " ... hmmm not sure about that as his good eye normally does all the work but I'll agree and go with it. I will still keep my supply of M &M's close at hand :)
So here the hard part. In order to strengthen his bad eye he really needs to wear a patch over the good one for 6-8 hours a day. Try telling Sam that! It's not happening. So there are drops that will blur his vision in his left eye. It will last about a day and a half every time I put a drop in and he will have to wear his glasses. My reasons for not wanting to do this were: A) Of course I don't want to blur his vision. How scary for him and what if the glasses don't provide as good of vision for him. and B) What if I damage his good eye? Well the answer to A is mama being protective. Am I really doing what's best for him. He may not understand that what I'm doing is in his best interest. That the goal is to give him better vision overall. It's my job to make those decisions for my children when they can't make them for themselves. When he had his eye test it broke my heart to cover his good eye and have him not make it past the first line of objects, yet with his other eye he can see even the smallest objects. What if he damaged his good eye in a accident.. then what? After the age of 9 studies show this will become irreversible. It really boils down to a pride issue as I don't want to be the "bad guy". As far as B goes, the doctor told me he used this method on his own child and in clinical test the results were the same with patching with the cover up method or "patching" with a drop. The advantages to the drops is it's once a day and it's over. Nothing to adjust or worry about coming off. The fight is over as it can't be removed or messed with. Sounds easy huh?
So tomorrow morning Rick and I will start the drops. That way we have the weekend to see how it's going to go. If he really hates it maybe he'll hate it enough to convince him to wear his patch. When I get my albums updated you'll have to check out a picture of his new specks. Pretty handsome :)
When Sam was about 6 months old we had him seen by a Pediatric Ophthalmologist for a blocked tear duck on his right side. While examining him the Doctor found his vision was more far-sighted in his right eye than his left. Now all babies are far-sighted to some degree, this is often even on both sides and will resolve itself in the first year to year and a half of life. At one year Sam had surgery to probe his tear duct and again his eye exam showed improvement in his left eye but not his right. At 18 months he got his first pair of glasses. We were also supposed to patch his good eye to force his weaker eye to work harder. Well after many, many attempts this has not happened. So here we are now. As of his last appointment ( Thursday the 2ND ) his sight in his right eye has worsened even more. His new glasses came in on Wednesday and so the battle begins ( again )! First battle, trying to convince Sam he should wear his glasses. I let him pick out new frames, his old ones had temple cables around the ears and that really bothered him, also his old ones were getting to small for his big melon head. :) He picked out Sponge-bob glasses... not my first choice but oh well. As a side note: We are not huge sponge bob watchers. The boys got a toy from Grandma that giggles like sponge-bob and they have a game. The glasses really don't show sponge-bob, there's a small picture of him on the ends that face his head on the back of his ears. I can live with that. Here's what's worked. The first day I set a timer for 15 minutes at a time and every time it went off if he had his glasses on he got a M & M. After about 2 hours I started to move the timer to longer periods of time. We are now at every hour. He's doing great and much to my surprise he looked for them this morning and when he put them on he said " there now I can see " ... hmmm not sure about that as his good eye normally does all the work but I'll agree and go with it. I will still keep my supply of M &M's close at hand :)
So here the hard part. In order to strengthen his bad eye he really needs to wear a patch over the good one for 6-8 hours a day. Try telling Sam that! It's not happening. So there are drops that will blur his vision in his left eye. It will last about a day and a half every time I put a drop in and he will have to wear his glasses. My reasons for not wanting to do this were: A) Of course I don't want to blur his vision. How scary for him and what if the glasses don't provide as good of vision for him. and B) What if I damage his good eye? Well the answer to A is mama being protective. Am I really doing what's best for him. He may not understand that what I'm doing is in his best interest. That the goal is to give him better vision overall. It's my job to make those decisions for my children when they can't make them for themselves. When he had his eye test it broke my heart to cover his good eye and have him not make it past the first line of objects, yet with his other eye he can see even the smallest objects. What if he damaged his good eye in a accident.. then what? After the age of 9 studies show this will become irreversible. It really boils down to a pride issue as I don't want to be the "bad guy". As far as B goes, the doctor told me he used this method on his own child and in clinical test the results were the same with patching with the cover up method or "patching" with a drop. The advantages to the drops is it's once a day and it's over. Nothing to adjust or worry about coming off. The fight is over as it can't be removed or messed with. Sounds easy huh?
So tomorrow morning Rick and I will start the drops. That way we have the weekend to see how it's going to go. If he really hates it maybe he'll hate it enough to convince him to wear his patch. When I get my albums updated you'll have to check out a picture of his new specks. Pretty handsome :)
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