My 5yo DD is going into bifocals soon...

[amelia1]

Anyone have any experience with this? I can't imagine how she is going to adjust to this. I know several adults who couldn't wear bifocals!!! Kids are much more ameniable to change though so hopefully she will be ok. The Dr. wants to try this before surgery to correct her strabismus.

[pepperlc]

I have worn bifocals for 6 years now. I had no problem adjusting. In fact I think my eyes were relieved to be able to see near and far. The only time I had a problem was when the frames were too small. I found I needed a certain size frame. Not sure why.

karen

[amelia1]

I'm glad to hear it. Did you have problems with steps or curbs when you first got yours?

[Laura H1]

i have a 6 year old ds in bifocals... his vision is 20/20, but has "accomodative esotropia"... when he reads or looks at details, he will tilt his head and view normally with one eye and cross the other eye to accomodate the movement...

Which eye is dominant?? we cannot figure as he will switch eyes to do this...

so, bifocals it is...

above the line is clear lens (or necessary correction for someone without perfect vision), below the line is +3 diopters... the opthamalogist (sp???) explained it in this way to us... he is training his eyes to stay above the bifocal line... and when one eye "wanders" into the field of the lower portion of the bifocal, it is supposed to make him uncomfortable and he will self-correct and look above the bifocal line...

we have found this to be TRUE, HOOORAY! We just completed 6 months and are doing another 6 months... we say drastic improvement within 2 weeks...

BUT without his glasses on, he will occassionally revert to the "accomodative esotropia"... so again, we are still in need of the bifocals... not sure how long it will take in the end to make the changes "permanent"... the doctor said a minimum of 6 months... if there was no improvement, we were going to move to "patching"... so far the game plan is to finish out the next 6 months to see where we are...

my ds is on autism spectrum and has a congenital brain anomaly: agenesis of the corpus callosum (missing the natural cabling/communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain)... so pretty sure his vision problems are caused by the brain anomaly... and hoping the bifocals are building new neural connections (without the benefit of corpus callosum)...

steps and curbs??? hmmmm.... he has always been clumsy and OT has helped tremendously with that... to accomodate the bifocals, he WOULD/SHOULD need to tilt his head down more than most to navigate steps and curbs that he is not familiar with...

hope this helps, too...

the only problem with adjusting was having something on his face/head... he hates for his head and face to be touched... we were lucky in that another one of his brothers (triplets) had to have glasses for near-sightedness... so we used him as a "role model"... his teacher also wears glasses and made a big deal of showing them off to him when they wored them the first day...

we also let them pick out "fun" frames".... i.e., red frames, with zebra stripes on the insides... the autism spectrum child is INSANE for red, lol... and we bribed the other one to get the same pair...

now they are in different pairs of frames (due to wear and tear)... GET THE INSURANCE for the glasses!!!! and neither have a problem wearing them now... so far we haven't needed a neck strap or anything...

best wishes!
Laura
ETA: make sure the lens makers know that the bifocal line should be close to midline of the pupil (higher than a typical bifocal prescription)... it should already be written on the RX, but just remind the lens makers of this... pretty sure they call this "Wide and High"

[amelia1]

Oh trust me....we get the insurance. My DD is so clumsy....she drops them and then ends up stepping on them so that they grind into the ground! LOL
She has been in glasses for almost 3 years now. She has strabismus and also farsighted. Now though, she is crossing more at near vision. We've patched for the entire 3 years as well to try and strenghten the weaker eye. The opthalmologist wants to try bifocals and continue the patching before we decide whether to move on to surgery to correct the strabismus. Glad to hear your ds does well with the bifocals. Good luck and post his progress.

[pepperlc]

Not that I can remember. I clearly remember when I got glasses for the very first time in 2nd grade. I couldn't walk because everything was so strange. Not with bifocals though.

Make sure they check that she is looking through the center of the lense. If not the vision will be off especially when you are getting use to a new lense or set of frames.
karen

[amelia1]

Well...that could be a problem! Her glasses now don't stay on her nose. She doesn't have a very prominent bridge on her nose. She looks like a librarian looking over top of her glasses! LOL I'm sure she gets sick of hearing me say "Push your glasses up." They adjust them at the dr's but they don't seem to stay that way long.

[trek]

keep us updated. Good luck

[pepperlc]

You might need those bands to hold them in place like you use when you play sports. Did you get the bifocals yet?

[amelia1]

No...not yet. The Dr. wants to see her in 6 weeks to remeasure the degree of her strabismus, after more aggressive patching, and then go to bifocals at that time.