I have a friend from high school who has posted pics of her cutie infant son on FB wearing baby glasses! It totally caught me off guard. I mean, I never even thought to have my kids vision checked when they were that little? I asked Zareena about Noah and also asked if she’d like to write a guest post about his vision. Hopefully it helps other new moms look into vision checks for their babies too!
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Babies eyes are so fragile and are developing rapidly in their first year. I decided to have Noah’s eyes check when he was 5 1/2 almost 6 months of age due to a medical condition I could have past on to him that I was born with. His pediatrician suggested it and sent us to children’s healthcare of atlanta. I sat wondering ‘how are they going to do this?’ Of course Noah is not a baby genius and can’t read letters yet.
At his eye exam they had several toys and a cartoon on the Telly to distract him. The doctor put drops in his eyes to dilate them and sent us back out in the waiting room to wait 20 minutes.
Noah!
In the waiting room I kept staring at my son to see if he would be fussy at all with his dilating eyes. He was fine he seemed to be content and not bothered at all. Finally we go back into the exam room and the doctor starts his exam. He turns on the cartoon again and starts putting lenses up to Noah’s eyes, looking to see how Noah’s eyes respond to the different lenses or toys.
The doctor finally diagnosed Noah with near-sightedness in his left eye and prescribed him glasses. You can only imagine my reaction ‘what?! Glasses for babies? Do they even make them? How am I going to keep those things on a baby? How much are they going to cost?’ The doctor told me about miraflex. He said they are softer and can hold up to a baby pulling on them. He also told me that they are usually more expensive.
After I left his appointment I went ahead and looked miraflex up online. They actually make them for babies as young as 3 months! They come in all sorts of colors and a little band to help them stay on baby’s tiny head. Only downfall you can’t get them just anywhere and the website didn’t have prices. The website does let you search to see what places sell them in your area.
After a few phone calls for prices I called mountain view eye associates in Snellville. The staff there are amazing and very helpful. They were able to get Noah’s glasses and get insurance to cover most of it. We paid only $35! They are also the ones that told me about the infantSEE program. My sons pediatrician did not. During the child’s first year of life he/she gets one free eye exam. You’ll just have to call around to find an optometry that can see babies that young. Mountainview associates do.
The infantSEE program was put into place because studies are showing that if parents do eye exams younger, doctors are able to correct or find eye problems before it is too late. Eye conditions usually have no symptoms. Since Noah’s eyes are still developing if I didn’t put him in glasses his brain would eventually shut the eye off.
Noah surprisingly does great with his glasses. They hold up to his death grip and the occasional smears of baby food. He’s had them for about a month now. I would tell moms to take advantage of the infantSEE program. If your baby needs glasses don’t be afraid. I’d rather have a baby in glasses than a child with really horrible eyes or a bad lazy eye. The pictures are priceless too. 🙂
Here are some helpful websites with more information:
www.infansee.org
www.miraflex.info
www.mveyesnellville.com
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He is so adorable in those glasses!