It has been a while since I shared an update on Hadley’s vision. I get questions here and there from other moms who are beginning the journey to glasses for babies and toddlers such as “how to keep glasses on your toddler.” The truth is glasses aren’t talked about a ton in the younger years. If you look around, the majority of kids do NOT have glasses when they are this young. A brief google search will tell you that 1 in 4 kids has a vision problem though.
18 months ago Hadley was diagnosed with Esotropia and Strabismus. The truth is that getting help for her early on was HELPING her in the long run. A lot of people think “How in the world did you get glasses to stay on an 18 month old?” And the truth (in my humble opinion) is that the younger they get them, the more natural it is for them. They grow up not remembering life prior to having to wear glasses. Hadley’s glasses are a part of her (and arguably one of her cutest features). She has owned them from the beginning and as much as I thought I would never want to say this, I can’t imagine her any other way.
Here are our collective tips on how to keep glasses on your toddler!
- They can see better. Wait, what? This is a tip? Yes, stay with me. Automatically we’re programmed to think our kids just will not want to wear glasses. We can’t even keep a winter hat on them–how will glasses stay on? What we fail to think about is the fact that when the glasses are worn, our children SEE better. Our kids don’t realize what they are missing until it is literally right in front of them. Once your child realizes they can see better they are more apt to wear them
- Don’t force it. You want your child to WANT to wear these. Forcing them on is giving them a negative association with glasses. Let them pick them up and have fun with it. Maybe get some sunglasses out and everyone try on fun glasses.
- Distract + occupy them. Once you’ve managed to get the glasses on, distract your toddler with something else! Plan ahead of time to do something fun. Can you grab a special treat out of the freezer? Watch a short TV show? Go on a walk? What excites your child? Find something specific and get your child focused on that so their focus shifts from the glasses.
- Be excited. Your enthusiasm is infectious! Get excited about the glasses and make them the COOLEST thing ever for your toddler!
- Don’t be afraid to start young. As I mentioned in my previous post and above, starting glasses young can be highly advantageous in the long run. It gets young children used to glasses immediately in life but it can also help to prevent serious vision decline in the future.
As far as my sadness of only ever knowing Hadley with glasses, it’s been quickly eliminated. I think it is normal to have serious and potentially superficial concerns. We have a universally unsaid expectation as a parent that your child will be fine. So when something comes along and changes that it is normal to grieve it. But I guarantee you that with time YOU BOTH can be okay 🙂
Does your child need glasses? What are tips you have found that work?
Hadley’s story is almost identical to my son’s. In fact, even my husband had several eye surgeries to fix muscles in one eye when he was under a year old. It was the month before his second birthday when we noticed his left eye moving fully inward. Six months into Everett wearing bifocals and we were also directed to use an eye patch one hour a day. There’s been some improvements but the doctor has said from the beginning he has no way of knowing whether it’ll be a forever thing or if he’ll outgrow it. Your first tip is exactly what I would say to other moms going through it because I think it’s the sole reason he has embraced them from the start and never complained! My other tip goes along with your #3 – “talk it up” before the glasses arrive. We had to wait two weeks and the entire time we made a HUGE deal about it until they came in – “glasses are SO cool!” “Do you want to wear glasses like mommy and daddy?” “Glasses are AWESOME!” That helped with the initial week of adjusting to them. His sweet daycare teacher even wore her sunglasses INSIDE all day the first day he had to wear them to school and repeated the phrase “glasses are AWESOME” whenever he seemed to fuss over them 🙂 It can also help if you have people that your child knows and loves that wear glasses, make sure to show your child them and point out they have cool glasses too! In our family, its basically everyone lol His glasses eventually became part of him and surprisingly he even gets excited about “patch time”! It’s amazing how resilient kids can be and how much worrying and stressing we do as parents lol Thanks for sharing Hadley’s story, clearly Everett is in great company in the toddler glasses club!
thanks for sharing, I am going to be putting my 19 month old in glasses soon and any advise is helpful.
I pray it is a wonderful journey for you guys as well!