January 26, 2010

Kids and Glasses

Since birth, my daughters have been seen by an ophthalmologist. Preemies are often born with vision problems, sometimes requiring surgery. While all of the girls had what's known as retinopathy of prematurity, none of them needed surgery. Still, by their first birthday, Roo needed glasses.
I had to scoff at the notion of a one-year-old wearing glasses. Was the ophthalmologist kidding me? I agreed to give it a go, and it was a disaster. Roo hated the glasses and often pulled them off. On the rare instances when I could convince her to wear them, her sisters pulled them off. By her second birthday the ophthalmologist decided Roo was hovering between needing glasses and not needing them, so we went the not needing them route.
About a year ago she had to go back to glasses and will likely need vision correction for the rest of her life. This time around she was excited to wear glasses. For the most part she takes care of her glasses and wears them without prompting.
A few months ago, Tortilla had to get glasses, too. She's not as cooperative. The bridge of her nose is very small and her glasses always slide down. The ophthalmologist put "wrap around" temple posts (or whatever they're called) on the glasses so they stay put, but now I catch Tortilla trying to look over the top of the lenses or even tilt her head up to look under the lenses. I'm willing to prompt and encourage her to wear them properly... what I'm not willing to do is drive to the ophthalmologist every week or two for adjustments.
For some reason, just in the last month, these two girls have been beating up their glasses. It seems that every week one of them is missing a nose piece, which I don't figure out until they have hideous gashes next to their noses. I'm vain. I refuse to buy them plastic frames. I don't like the look of them and, quite frankly, I'm not convinced that they're any sturdier than the metal frames.
So, today after lunch we're headed back to the ophthalmologist to have Roo's glasses repaired. A nose piece is off, once again, and she had to go to school without her glasses this morning. Hopefully we can figure out what is causing the nose pieces to fall off so we can stop making weekly trips to have them fixed.

8 comments:

Sadia said...

Sorry you're having a hard time with glasses! Lucas and his sister both wore them as a child; I'll see if my MIL has any pointers on the nose piece issue. Lucas actually had eye surgery quite young. He wasn't a preemie.

I've finally scheduled a follow-up with the ophthalmologist, and I'm nervous that Mel might need to start patching again. When she's tired, I see her eye start to wander. Jess wasn't diagnosed with amblyopia, so I'm assuming that the results of her check-up will be a routine "She's great!"

Quadmama said...

Tortilla was close to patching, but the glasses seem to be helping with that. I'm hoping at her annual check up she'll be done with glasses since she detests them.

MaryAnne said...

Glasses are no fun - for kids or parents! My 5yo nephew has some metal glasses that look cute and seem to stay on even with all of his wrestling with his brothers. Maybe try seeing if there is a "boy" style that would work on a girl too to see if they are made better?

Another idea is to see if there's a pair that just doesn't have a nosepiece - like some sunglasses. I had a pair like that once that was surprisingly comfortable. Although it was a plastic frame...

Quadmama said...

I looked at the plastic frames when we were at the ophthalmologist but the display wouldn't stay on her nose. Maybe when she grows a bit?

Stephanie Barr said...

I hate plastic frames, too. Never used any but the wires, so I have no advice.

Becky said...

even big kids are hard on their glasses....sorry. BUT, as The Boy got older our trips for repairs lessened.

Quadmama said...

I know I'll deny I ever said this when they're older, but I'm almost wishing they were old enough for contacts!

Jacqueline Miller said...

I can't even imagine my boys with glasses - they are sooo rough on everything. But I bet things will get easier for you once they get a little older. Hang in there!

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