How to Help a Toddler Adjust to Glasses
on May 14, 2020
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If you follow me on instagram you have probably seen that Ruthie now has glasses! She got them about 1 1/2 months ago and the transition has been a lot easier than I expected, kids are so resilient! At the beginning of January I noticed that one of her eyes was crossing to look at her nose, but it only happened a few times. To be careful I made a pediatrician appointment and she said we should see a pediatric ophthalmologist. We went to that appointment and the doctor said she had something called Strabismus. This is where the eye muscles are weak and it can be solved by glasses (if vision to blame for the weakness) or by surgery! She also may have to do some patching depending on how the glasses are working. So far they seem to be helping her but we have seen her eye cross randomly a couple of times since she got them. We have our follow up appointment soon and will see what they think! Either way I know she will be fine and I am so glad we did everything we did to get her comfortable with her glasses from the start. Here are a few things we did to help her out!
I got tons of recommendations and ended up buying two books, one of which she LOVES! It’s call Arlo Needs Glasses. It’s about a dog that needs glasses and there are paper glasses you put on him to test them out and they help him see. Ruth loves it because she loves trying on the glasses too and having all of us try them on.
A great song + you tube video to listen to is by the wiggles and called “I’ve got my glasses on”. Ruthie loves this song now and I think it helps her be proud of her glasses! Another good song is by the Laurie Berkner Band and called “These are my Glasses”!
As for stuffed animals, you can buy little play glasses to put on ones you already have, or go to build a bear and build one with glasses! But I just got a little bear on amazon and we call him sailor sammy!
Luckily Matt and I both wear contacts so we also have glasses we usually wear at night. We made an effort to only wear our glasses the week she got hers and Matt wears his often anyways because he sees better in them than contacts! I also got a matching pair of glasses from Glasses USA. If you don’t wear glasses yourself you can also get a fake pair to wear just to make them not feel so alone in it.
Once she got the glasses we made a big deal to tell her how pretty she looked and how cool they are and how they are helping her SO much! Every night before bed we would take them off and say “goodnight glasses, thank you so much for helping me see!” Then we asked Ruth to give her glasses a kiss goodnight and tucked them in their case. In the morning we would say “YAY it’s time to put on your glasses!!” And get super excited for it. After the first couple days, I woke her up and asked if we should put on her glasses and she would yell YEAH!!! She mimics so much of what we do now, so as long as we are excited, she will be too.
Other than those things, the most important thing is to not stress too much about it! I was stressed and sad she would look different but already she looks like something is missing when she doesn’t have them on. She looks so dang cute in glasses and if you’re toddler needs them, I am sure they will look super adorable too!
Great ….
Thank you so much for this. We are currently two years old and in the exact same situation. I will definitely start following your advices during our waiting for the glasses and of course when they arrive.
Good Luck, you will do wonderful!!
Thank you for sharing this amazing information .