Does anyone have a baby that has glasses? How do they do?

Rab - posted on 04/26/2012

I've just been told my son who's 2 in may needs glasses he's short sighted this is due to him having ROP he was a premmie so now I'm worried how hel manage with glasses. Any advice appreciated thankyou

Glenda - posted on 03/06/2012

My daughter was born at 26 weeks and had ROP stage 3, she had 4 laser eye surgeries, her retina detached on the left eye and lifted on the right eye, and had surgery for strabismus (her eyes were severely crossed). She started wearing glasses when she was 2..she absolutely hates wearing them but I always make sure she does. We went to the doctor last week and heard the best news, she can see normal on her right eye and left eye is improving . Her doctor was so amazed that this is happening because she said that when we went there initially, she didn't think she can do anything for our baby girl because they are considering her left eye to be blind because her central vision has a big scar, blocking most of her vision but it is now improving dramatically. So I think that the frequent use of her eye glasses helped a lot.

Kerry - posted on 03/05/2012

My son got glasses at 18 months. He has ptosis (droppy eyelids) and has acutity and developemental issues. When they told me I asked the doc, "How the hell do you expect me to keep those on him?" He said the same thing as others have said that if he needs them, he will keep them on. Sure enough, he did. I was shocked as he was a very active toddler. We also always had a back up pair because he bent the frames a lot. Now he is 6 and we still need 2 pairs. I go to a place where you can get two pairs cheap since we have no vision insurance.



Good luck!

Trudy - posted on 04/15/2009

My son got his first pair of glasses at 18 months and broke and lost them constantly!2 words sports strap!

Tamela - posted on 04/15/2009

My son got his first pair of glasses when he was about 18 to 22 months.  He was going thru about 3 pairs a year.  I never had trouble getting him to leave them on because he could finally see.  The putting on and taking off is where we had difficulty.  He was constantly stretching them out.  Also getting other children to not play with them and break them was an issue.  Now that he is almost six,  we have downgraded to about 2 pair a year. 

Alie - posted on 04/13/2009

My daughter was born extremely early @ 23 weeks, she too had/has ROP. She's 15yrs old now, got her first pari @ 9months. We didn't really force the glasses on her @ that young age. She is visually impaired, (legally blind) in her left eye because the retina attachment was not succesful...extremely scarred in right eye. However, I'd like to say to take all the doctors "advice, statistics..etc" to heart, but to make your own judgements. I've already seen 2 retina specialists in her lifetime that came highly referred and they both told me she should learn braille. My daughter is an avid reader, not braille, and scores high in anything Language Arts writing. My biggest advice as a mom of a preemie whose lived thru it all....don't make a big deal of it, she's just a regular kid and children adapt to situations and are stronger than we think. Even now all the "visual therapists" argue w/me and insist on her using magnifying glass, changing the computer fonts, etc...but my daughter does just fine and refuses the help. Of course she'll never drive, and has a hard time in new environments w/depth perception...but she likes to do it all on her own....I wish you the best...

Joanna - posted on 04/09/2009

kids get used to things very quickly and speaking as someone who had to wear glasses from a very young age i had my squint straightened when i was four, the worst thing that i did was insist on taking my glasses of when i played in the playground at primery school and put my glasses inside my kneehigh socks to make sure that they did not get damaged!!! i was always having to have the legs of them mended because of it !!!

Liz - posted on 04/04/2009

I have a set of boy/ girl twins who are going to be 10 months on the 8th.  My daughter has glasses.   She has really bad cross eyes and is like two to three times more farsighted than most kids her age are.  So we're hoping the glasses will correct it, otherwise she is going to need surgery.  My son however doesn't have glasses.

It was a struggle to get her to leave her glasses on, and we eventually got kid straps for them to help keep them on. Every once in a while she still tries to take them off, but she's doing pretty well now.  She's had them for about two weeks now.

Meghann - posted on 04/03/2009

my son was born at 25 weeks, had ROP and had to have laser surgery on both eyes to correct it.  At his eye appointment in january, the dr said that he was nearsided and had astigmatism in one eye (just like me.)  We are waitng tll his next appointment to re-evaluate whether or not he needs glasses at this point.  The dr felt that he wasn't nearsded "enough" to need glasses now, but probably would by his frst bday.  Good luck!

Sherilyn - posted on 03/28/2009

My son was born at 25 weeks and developed ROP and had laser surgery on both eyes. When he was 11 months old, (he's 3 now) they gave him contact lenses for both eyes instead of glasses due to the fact that the sight in his left eye is much worse than his right. By having the contacts his brain doesn't differentiate that one eye is worse than the other. Contacts have been pretty good for us, we just put them in in the morning and take them out before bed (he can take naps with them in), the worst part is that he tends to lose them if you don't take them out soon enough. We have found that his tolerence for them is about 8-9 hours per day.

Lindsay - posted on 03/12/2009

my son was a 24 weeker that developed ROP too.  He is nearsighted and got glasses at about 2.5 and i was nervous about him keepign them on.  NEVER A SINGLE DAY has he gave me a problem with them.  They get that they need them and that they can see better with them.  it was incredible!!!!  we are going on about 8 months with them and he hasn't  even broken them yet!

Kandi - posted on 03/11/2009

My son Axten got his glasses when he was 6 months old. He had ROP, a cataract in his right eye and I can't remember the technical term for it, but his eyes wander. It was never a huge issue, like Emily we took his hand at first and told him to leave them on. After a couple of weeks I hardly had to remind him at all to leave them on. He still has his glasses and sometimes willl take them off if he's bored but you learn when the good times to take them off are. The most annoying thing I think is all of the thoughtless questions and comments I get about his glasses. But I think as moms of preemies we need to be able to brush off that kind of stuff because for a lot of us them having glasses is the least of our worries. Don't worry, you'll get use to them and so will she!

Emily - posted on 03/01/2009

Crossed eyed is something that they usualy correct with glasses, sometimes patching or surgery, but that is usualy a last resort.  Morgan has had glassses so long (she's 4 1/2 now and will be getting her 5th pair of glasses next week) that we don't even notice them.  They are just a part of who she is.   Both your girls are very cute!!  And I have noticed most kids have glasses by the time they are in second or third grade anyway, so wearing glasses isn't the big deal it was when we were kids. 

Noel - posted on 02/28/2009

my girls are going to the eye doctor in a week... one of them MaKenna is really crossed eyed, someone said they can correct that with glasses (i dunno if thats true, guess i'll find out) but Morghan's eyes seem to be ok. They were on High Flow in the NICU for a couple months so I'm hoping Kenna wont need them and hopefully her eyes will straighten out. shes cute either way.

Emily - posted on 02/26/2009

My daughter got her first pair of glasses at 9 months old.  It would have been at 6 months, but she wouldn't sit still for the exam :)  She also has ROP, but didn't need surgery for it, as well as nystagimus caused by ocular albinism and has severe myopia (nearsightedness). Her corrected vision is around 20/150 or so. She has the clasic "coke bottle" lenses as her perscription is -15.  We never had any problems getting her to keep her glasses on and her eye doc said "If the child needs the glases, they will leave them on!"  Every time she would grab them we would just take her hand and say "glasses on" she learned pretty quickly.  It's good that your daughter is getting them so young.  I have learned talking with other parents that the older they are when they get glasses, the harder it is to get them to keep them on.    Just one suggestion, if her eye doc hasn't ordered the glasses yet, see if they can get the Transitions lenses in them.  Those are the ones that turn darker in the sun and will help protect her little eyes.  Morgan has them in the pair she has now.  If it's too late for this pair you can get clip-on sun glasses.  Morgan had these for all her other pairs.  I hope this helps and if you have anyother questions feel free to contact me.  :)