Baby Bifocals

I rock these glasses!

I'm coming to terms with Tommy having glasses.  I'm not sure Tommy is getting any more comfortable with them, though!  I obsess about them much more than Tommy wears them, but it is progressing.  Sometimes I think he even forgets he is wearing them!

I think the hardest part for me now is that Tommy's glasses are different.  He has one clear side (no prescription) and one bifocal.  A old-person, big line-in the middle bifocal lens.  But just on one side.  I had someone ask me the other day "Oh, did he crack them already?"  Um, NO!  And if he did, do you REALLY think I'd let him wear them?  Or maybe you didn't think I noticed the big crack in the middle and you felt the need to point it out?  Um no.

Back when I couldn't wait for Tommy to get glasses, I never imagined this bifocal line.  From what I understand, children do better with the visible bifocal lens compared to progressive lenses because the difference in vision is drastic enough to help them learn the right place to look.  You need to learn where to look to optimize the utility of the lens.

The kid loves to pose!

When I first picked up Tommy's glasses, they had made them wrong.  They had put bifocals in both lenses.  It took me asking why for the optomotry assistant to notice.  We sent them back and they were corrected, but I was still unsettled.   I was skeptical that anything was right once we got them.  So when I (with my normal vision) looked through the glasses, I was convinced they had done them wrong.  The bottom part of the lens is for close-up vision. When I look through Tommy's, it magnifies thing.  This made sense.  However, when I looked though the top part, which is supposed to correct for distance, it made things smaller.  I was convinced that there was an error.  In my mind, I thought, "no WONDER he won't wear them!"  I was wrong.  I still can't explain it, but I did a lot of research to try.  I was hoping to read up and study and post an earth-shattering educational session on baby-glasses.  Well, I read up, I studied... but in the midst of that, I stumbled upon this.  Little Four Eyes "Understanding your Child's Glasses Prescription".  Super cool site, super-cool post.  Maybe you'll just be impressed at my research skills.  Or more likely, you read that post before you found mine.    I do hope you read this post... and really hope that you check out this link:  What your child's vision might look like without correction

I haven't figured out this glasses thing.  We are still working on it.  I will tell you that it takes a lot of work to get cream cheese out of the bifcal lens line.  I suggest removing glasses before serving anything messy.  I look forward to the day when he chooses to wear them... when they help him see.

Tommy and his big sis!