My Little Four Eyes

How did you know he needed glasses?

This is the question we get nearly as often as "where does the read hair come from?"

And let's be honest, I'm sure some people think the glasses question, but they don't actually ask it. 

One woman recently asked me if the glasses were fake. I kindly replied, with a chuckle, "nope, they're real...I would never do that to my toddler!"

But truly, I can't even count how many people have asked us how we knew Ryan needed glasses! What they're really asking is, how did you know his vision was bad?? I mean truly, how can you even tell that in a toddler?

And the answer is, I had no idea his vision was bad. But what I did know was that there was something going on with his left eye.

So quite often, when people ask the age old question...how did you know he needed glasses? I simply reply by saying...well let me show you his party trick! And I pull Ryan's glasses off his face, and just like magic, his left eye instantly goes inward.

And that's how we knew folks! It didn't happen ALL the time, but we especially noticed it in photos.

Exhibit A.

So when we took him in for his 12 month checkup and when the nurse asked us if we had any questions for the Dr., I  instantly asked, can we talk about his eye?

Exhibit B.



And when the Dr. saw his sweet face, she was like yep, take him to a pediatric ophthalmologist, they'll be able to give you some answers as to what's going on.

So we set up an appointment with Dr. Werner Cadera, a pediatric ophthalmologist at Northwest Eye Surgeons. And a month later, Peter took him in, and they did an eye test by putting random objects in front of him and shining lights in his eyes (I wasn't at the appointment, Peter took him, so I really don't know what all they did!!) - basically they were just testing to see how he responded to stimuli and whether it occurred with near fixation or distant fixation, etc.

And then came the diagnosis.

Esotropia strabismus.

All of this basically just means that his eyes have to work extra hard to focus on things, eventually resulting in his left eye turning inward. And without glasses, his left eye would eventually be rendered useless because his brain would stop attempting to use it.

So with the glasses, we're basically trying to strengthen the muscles in his left eye and retrain his brain to fully utilize that eye. And so far the glasses have done exactly what they'd hope they'd do, they've corrected his eyes and totally aligned them.

And it turns out he does have bad vision. He's farsighted, which explains why he never wanted to read books or do anything that required alot of mind-power to focus. He would just swat things away. And I found out at a later appointment that he also has astigmatism.

He started wearing his glasses at 13 months. So he's had them for nearly six months now, which seems crazy. At first he wasn't too sure of them, but now, he reaches for them, and if he accidentally pulls them off his face, he tries to put them back on himself. It's crazy how much they have changed his world! He notices the smallest of things - the zipper on my coat, the tiny crumb on the ground, the earrings in my ears. He loves them now and it's so strange to see him without them on. 

Peter took him in for a checkup last week, and she said he's doing great, and that we'll know more as the years go on if he'll need glasses forever. But there's a chance that he may grow out of it, which seems like the strangest thing! Only time will tell, in the meantime, he'll remain my little four eyes.