DD needs glasses

[Pammym]

I found out last week that my 5yr old DD needs glasses. She is very long-sighted in one eye and a bit in the other but the problem is that her stronger eye is taking over and the weak one is not developing as it should. After the initial shock and a bit of upset over it, we have chosen some lovely Barbie glasses which should be ready next week. I am not sure how to prepare her for wearing them to school as she is a bit apprehensive. Should I let her wear them at home for a bit first or just start as we mean to go on and say it is full-time from the day we get them? Also, not sure if she might need an eye patch in a couple of months depending on how she gets on with just glasses. She does not have an obvious squint but you can just detect a slight laziness in her weak eye when she is tired. Does anyone have any experience or advice to offer me on the whole glasses/eye patch thing? Does anyone know how many hours a day she may have to wear the patch for and would this be continuous wear?

Thanks for any help.

Hi, it is a bit of a shock - and upsetting - at first, but thankfully there's no way near as much stigma attached to wearing glasses as there was when I was young (am 43, started wearing them at about 13?)

DS was diagnosed with a squint (very obviously, literally appeared overnight) when he was 2.1yrs. We did have a bit of a battle getting him to wear them (only took 2 weeks but felt like forever) but that was probably more due to his age. DH was particularly upset - even though he wears glasses and I wear contacts/glasses. Now he can put them on himself, likes wearing them, has 2 pairs to choose from each day, and, most importantly, now seems to recognise that they make a difference to his sight

A few of DD's friends (she's 5.5) have glasses and all started wearing them fulltime from day 1 - no hassle/bullying whatsoever, I think they're deemed to pretty cool now Like you, they chose their own (Bratz, Barbie etc ) which really helped.

I wore my glasses a lot more when DS started and when one of DD's best friends started wearing theirs - that helped too. Do you or anyone else wear them?

Re patches, DS was supposed to start wearing one in the summer. We never actually managed to get him to keep one on (again more age related I reckon) but fortunately when we saw the orthoptist 5 weeks later he didn't need one - the glasses are correcting the squint on their own, for the time being at least. If your DD does need a patch, she won't wear one for more than about 2 hours per day. Any longer than that and the good eye would be affected. We were also told that we could split that into 2 x 1hr each day if it was easier.

Again, a girl in DD's class has a patch, wears it at school til morning break, no hassles. I think you can rationalise with a 5 year old about the importance of wearing one if needed. You can get nice patterned ones, so again they can choose one each day.

HTH, feel free to ask any more questions

Just wanted to aagree with AW - DD fulltime glasses wearer since age 3 here (now age 6). No problems at school - many of her classmates wear glasses. I also started wearing my own glasses full-time when DD got hers - and haven't gone back to contacts.
We have been through the patch wearing too - explained why it was important and made sure it was time-limited each day so they knew there was an end to it. DD had to wear hers for an hour each day, while reading or watching TV.
I found the being upset thing hard to deal with - for me I mean. There are much worse things that could happen to children - but it still is upsetting, especially if you have worn glasses since an early age (8 for me) and recall teasing etc - I do think it is very different these days - more children wear them and lovely frames to choose from. But don't feel silly for feeling a bit upset initially - I think you will get over it.

Thanks so much. I got some flack on another forum for being upset about this and I know there are a lot worse things that could happen - am starting to get my head around it all now. Noone else in our family has had to wear glasses until much older and only for reading so it was a shock to be told her eyesight was quite bad and have been looking for ways to blame myself for it of course. I am relieved that if she needs a patch it won't be needed all day.

Stick with this forum then

I kept rationalising that much worse things could happen to a child, but it's still a shock to see your child in glasses. I think DS (and DD's friend) look gorgeous in glasses now

DH is v v long sighted, I'm v v short sighted. I sort of hoped we'd cancel each other out

DD got her glasses at 4 and has had some really funky styles since then!

She did patching for about 2-3 hours a day from 4 to 6. The amount of patching depends, I think, on the orthoptist's/consultant's opinion - some children seem to wear them for longer. DD never objected to wearing a patch because we could do it all at home - I'm not sure whether she would willingly have left the house with a patch - and because they had pink flower patterns on them. (My brother had to have a patch when he was little and hated wearing it outdoors because well-meaning adults would say "hello pirate").

We just went for it from day one and it was OK. She's once or twice experienced some very minor teasing at school and I did have a quick word with the teacher, to nip it in the bud. I know that all children pick up on difference, and it really was low level stuff, but I didn't want to take the risk that the teasing would continue and dd would refuse to wear her glasses, as she too has one weak/vulnerable eye.

HTH

Thanks for the above posts. I really appreciate your support and advice. Might be asking for more help in this area when we actually get the glasses and if/when she moves on to a patch.

dd (6) has had glasses since around 18 months. It was a total shock to us as me and dh dont wear glasses and neither do any of our brothers/sisters. She had a squint and her squinting eye was 'lazy' (had worse sight than the other eye). She had patching for 2 hours per day which dropped to 1 hour as her eyesight in the lazy eye improved. Her eyesight is pretty equal now and has been since she was around the age of 4. She also had an operation to try and correct her squint as it was still noticeable even when she had her glasses on. She had that just before she started school. She has never had issues from others apart from some kids at nursery asking why she had them on. She has cool Hannah Montana glasses at the moment.

One more thing I forgot to add.
We seem to be at the optician getting DD's glasses fixed or adjusted abotu every 1-2 weeks - apparently this is normal. Don't feel embarrassed to keep going back. I did at first but have got over it now.