in my pretty non-existent blog this winter, I think I may have a few of you wondering where Piper's glasses have disappeared to. Piper has bad eyesight -- as in -8.5. Luckily, her eyes are healthy...she's just really nearsighted (meaning she can't see far away....ok, she really can't see more than a few inches from her face). We see her eye dr. every 6 months to keep an eye (no pun intended) on things. He mentioned contacts a few appts back at which time I almost laughed in his face -- seriously... Fast forward to late January, the eye dr brought up all his reasons for putting her in contacts. She has a bad habit of looking over the top of her glasses so she is constantly straining her eyes. We tried bifocals & she just couldn't get used to it. He showed me studies of how gas permeable (hard) lenses have been shown to slow down the progression of myopia (near sightedness). He said we could try a pair of soft lenses to get her used to wearing them but then transition into the gas perms over time. I agreed to try it, they ordered in a trial (free) pair of soft lenses, she was super stoked to get them in. 45 minutes later, the contact tech still couldn't get them in her eyes. We brought them home & tried all weekend. She didn't fight us, we just simply couldn't get her sweet eyes open far enough to put in what looked like a satellite dish in her eye. After talking to the dr again, he ordered the gas perms "just to try". They came in 2 weeks later, we went in and they immediately got them in her eye. She got this funny look on her face & said "I can see so good!".
It's been almost 3 months & it has been such a wonderful change for her. She has adjusted better than we ever expected. I still put them in & take them out for her every day but think she will be ready to try on her own soon. I know there is controversy over a 5 yr old wearing contacts. We've even had a few people assume it's for vanity reasons (ridiculous!). But as with everything, we weighed all the pros/cons and felt this was the right decision. She now has 20/30 vision with her lenses in and is noticing things she's never seen before.
6 comments:
Wow, what horrible eyesight! I'm glad the contacts are working out well. I cannot imagine putting them in any of my girls' eyes. They wouldn't be able to tolerate it.
That is so awesome! I love that your doctor encouraged this. I wore gas perm lenses for a long time, and would have loved to have been in contacts at a younger age. Thanks for sharing this info.
That's great that she can see better! Don't worry about what others think about your decisions when it comes to helping your daughter to function better.
Our daughter has very poor vision. She has 6 different eye conditions. She sees the pediatric ophthalmologist every 2-3 months. She has to wear a patch 10-12 hours a day to improve her amblyopia. While patched she needs to do activities that will make her eye work to strengthen it. We were told to get her an iPod to use while she is patched. We received all kinds of flak about giving our (then) 4 year old an iPod. She was even called spoiled! At the last visit we were told that some of the progress she had made has slipped. He said she needs to play with her iPod more. How many kids are told to play electronics MORE?! LOL
There will always be someone with an opposing opinion.
As someone who has had vision problems all my life - I can relate! I think whatever works and you all are comfortable with is what you should do for your little girl.
I loved my gas perm growing up and it did help me a lot. There was a lot less eye strain and headaches!
I hope she gets the hang of them soon- but am so glad she is doing well with them.
Oh Poor Thing, i totally know about being 'blind'
I am like a -11.50 in my one eye;( and a a -10 in the other....glad the contacts are working out for her and i hear ya on the potty training, Maia goes in Diaper and then tells me....
Sorry about the PT. :( Thanks for sharing about the eye issue. I had noticed more pics of her without glasses but didn't think much about it---just thought she wore them at school or something. Interesting to hear how well she is doing with them though in case we ever have eye issues!
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