Marianne's got...

GLASSES!

We've been busy the last few weeks. Most of our time was spent trying to get Marianne to wear her glasses!

At the beginning of September, Marianne started crossing her eye inwards. It started to occur more frequently, so we quickly made an appointment with an eye doctor who specializes in children. Marianne was diagnosed with strabismus, in the form of accomodative esotropia...basically, she is farsighted and began to "cross" her eyes in order to focus and see clearly. Left untreated, strabismus can cause loss of vision in the affected eye! Luckily, if you catch it and treat it, there's a good chance Marianne will grow out of her glass and no longer need them when she's about ten years old. Isn't that amazing??

Scenario: Mommy puts glasses on Marianne, she throws them off. Mommy cleans off the now smudgy glasses, and tries again, but Marianne throws them off. Etc.

In the meantime I was desperately scouring the Internet for tips, books, and information to help Marianne learn to love her glasses (unfortunately, there's not much out there). Time stood still for those 10 days as we sturggled with the glasses...I thought we'd never be able to get her to wear them! But with some help from Aunt Kerry, Smarties candies, Mickey Mouse, and finally having Daddy hug Marianne tightly, preventing Marianne from chucking her glasses, we had some success. After that, things started improving everyday, and now she is wearing her glasses all the time. Whew!


Finally, a word to all mothers out there (and dads too): Marianne was most likely farsighted from birth, but we never knew it -- even with all the visits to the pediatrician for wellness check-ups -- until she started crossing her eyes. There's a program called Infantsee, which allows you to take your child to an optometrist for a FREE comprehensive eye exam during his/her first year of life. Go to www.infantsee.org for more information -- I wish I had taken advantage of this, and we would have caught Marianne's farsightedness much sooner.