{"id":81098,"date":"2016-09-15T02:12:13","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T06:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=81098"},"modified":"2016-09-15T02:12:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T06:12:13","slug":"tell-preschooler-needs-glasses-get-kid-wear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/09\/15\/tell-preschooler-needs-glasses-get-kid-wear\/","title":{"rendered":"How to tell if a preschooler needs glasses and how to get the kid to wear them"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pixabay<\/a>
Pixabay photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO\u2014Angie Illerbrun had no idea her daughter Olivia was having trouble seeing until she had her own eyes checked and the optometrist suggested he take a look at the toddler’s eyes as well.<\/p>\n

While Olivia, then about age 2 1\/2, watched a cartoon in his exam room, Dr. Barry Thienes shone a light in her eyes. His verdict, recalled Illerbrun: her daughter had extremely bad eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was never even a clue that there was anything wrong,\u201d said Illerbrun, a legal assistant in Shaunavon, Sask., southwest of Regina, who also helps work her mother’s farm outside town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she was little, she would watch TV like a normal kid. We would hand her a book and my husband would kind of tease her and put it upside-down, and she would turn it right-side up,\u201d she said. \u201cOn the farm, she didn’t trip or walk into anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it turned out seeing the world up close wasn’t the problem \u2014 it was making out objects at a distance. Olivia was near-sighted and had an astigmatism. She was initially prescribed glasses with a mild correction, which was progressively strengthened every six months until she reached age six.<\/p>\n

Thienes, who practises in Shaunavon and nearby Maple Creek, said there are some signs parents can watch for that indicate a toddler’s or preschooler’s vision may not be optimal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases, they might squint, they might look at things funny, hold things close, sit too close to the TV, rub their eyes a lot,\u201d said Thienes, president of the Canadian Association of Optometrists (CAO).<\/p>\n

\u201cThose would be some of the signs, but a lot of the signs are not very obvious, especially in a very young child between six months and, say, five years (of age).\u201d<\/p>\n

That’s why the CAO recommends that children have a comprehensive eye exam between six and 12 months of age, followed by another between age two and five, then annually throughout the school years.<\/p>\n

Besides having refractory problems leading to near-sightedness (myopia), far-sightedness (hyperopia) and astigmatism, young children may have a crossed eye or out-turned eye. Known clinically as strabismus, it’s a muscle condition in which the eyes are not properly aligned, resulting in double vision or suppression of the image from the affected eye, the CAO says on its website.<\/p>\n

Up to four per cent of children under age six have amblyopia, or a lazy eye, which occurs when there is weak vision or vision loss in one eye. Because the image sent to the brain from the affected eye is poor, the brain will ignore that eye. Over time, few connections will be made between the brain and the eye.<\/p>\n

That’s why amblyopia needs to be treated early \u2014 with vision therapy, eyeglasses, contact lenses or patching the good eye to make the weak one work harder \u2014 as treatment later becomes difficult, said Thienes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don’t catch it early on in life, even though you might correct it when they’re 10 or 12 years old, you still can’t get the vision up because the eye never was used properly during the developmental stage,\u201d he said. \u201cSo even though everything looks healthy, it will never work properly for the rest of their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the diagnosis is out of the way, it may turn out that glasses with corrective lenses are needed to bolster a young child’s visual acuity.<\/p>\n

Then there’s the next challenge: getting an active toddler or preschooler to wear them \u2014 and keep wearing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer you wait, the harder it is to introduce the child to spectacles … because they’re not used to putting any kind of glasses on their face,\u201d said Dr. Josh Josephson, a former optometrist who owns Josephson Opticians in Toronto and is involved in vision-related research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don’t really understand the purpose. You have to work with them and you set an example,\u201d said Josephson, advising that parents start by donning sunglasses, which he stressed that both adults and every young child should wear when outside to protect against eye damage from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.<\/p>\n

For example, he suggested parents try this: \u201c’Look, I’ve got something for you, too. You can be just like Dad or Mom.’ Kids like to mimic their parents and so it can inspire them.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Samantha Levenson’s son Ely, having spectacles like Daddy’s seemed to be the answer to getting the then four-year-old to accept the fact he needed glasses to see properly.<\/p>\n

Ely insisted he wanted to go to the same optician where his father had bought his prescription glasses, the Toronto lawyer recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell those glasses lasted about five seconds. He didn’t want to wear them once he actually got them.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Ely got a little older \u2014 and more style-conscious \u2014 he picked out some \u201ccrazy, fashionable glasses,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was loving people coming up to him and saying ‘Where did you get those glasses? They’re so cool.’<\/p>\n

\u201cEven at that point, he wouldn’t wear them,\u201d Levenson said, adding that it wasn’t until her son was in senior kindergarten that he wore his glasses in school, and then only because the teacher made him.<\/p>\n

Home was a different story. \u201cI’d say put your glasses on and he’d say no.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only after his eighth birthday last year that Ely started wearing his glasses full-time, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe realizes now that he can’t see without them. Now he doesn’t leave the house without putting them on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illerbrun didn’t have to go through that struggle with Olivia, who’s now 12 and a veteran at wearing glasses since about age three.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made it a big event. She got to pick Barbie glasses for the very first time,\u201d said her mom, describing the eyewear as pink with sparkles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just helped her so much. Never once did I have to say: ‘Go put your glasses on.\u201d’<\/p>\n

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