My 3 year old has just been given glasses.

Firstly how would you know that a 3 year old is struggling to see properly? The simple answer is I didn’t.

A while ago I noticed that my daughter could go cross-eyed. I’ve never been able to do this so just thought that she had discovered a new skill. However this became more and more frequent and it became clear that it wasn’t intentional. I decided to take her for an eye test.

How do you test a 3 year olds eyes?  Firstly the optician projected pictures onto the wall. The pictures were butterflies, rabbits, planes and fish. The optician asked her what she could see. The only one that she mentioned with any conviction was the butterfly but I couldn’t be sure whether she couldn’t see what they were or was simply being shy. For checking how well she could see close up, the optician had cards with hidden pictures on and she asked my daughter what she could see. She gave her glasses with inter-changeable lenses and shone a light into her eyes. It was quite a long and thorough process and it turns out that she is long-sighted and that wearing glasses should correct the turn in her eye.

We had fun trying on lots of different glasses and eventually chose a Little Miss Sunshine pair.  We picked up the glasses last week and so far I have been surprised at how well she has adjusted.  She is happy to wear them and rarely takes them off.  I have given her a special place on her dressing table to keep the case and when she takes them off she is always careful to put them back in the right place.  We have talked about the importance of not touching the glass as it makes them dirty and she won’t be able to see properly.  She enjoys using the cloth to help me clean them.

We have made a big fuss about how lovely she looks in them and I think her big sister is a little envious as she keeps asking if she can have her eyes tested.  It’s certainly a far cry from the stigma of wearing glasses when I was a child.

We read the Charlie and Lola book about getting glasses, although I was a little disappointed to find that Lola doesn’t end up having glasses in the book. I’m still on the lookout for others.  If anyone has any suggestions for good children’s books about wearing glasses please add a comment. Or perhaps I should write one….