Glasses again...

[Alice]

Glasses that is one of the painfull topic for, I think, many of us.
It seems to me that every child with DS has glasses.
Am I right?

If you know or have a child with DS and he/she doesn't have glasses, please post here.

Also, if there are almost all children with DS have glasses why Down Syndrome Association make a plan to make a special desinged glasses for our kids.

Just thoughts,
Alice

[Pauline]

Nicky is 16 and has never worn glasses. I know a number of children with DS who don't wear glases.
Pauline UK

[AnnieC]

Raven is 5 & she does not wear glasses. I admit that I have seen quite a few children with DS & glasses, but I have seen some without too.

[Becky]

Justin is three and he has been wearing glasses since he was 5 months old, he is on his third pair due to the script changing, they get better each time we go, he is real good at wearing them at school but we have a hard time with him keeping them on at home, so we tell him if you want to see Barney you have to get your glasses and for the most part he will leave them on then once Barney is over the go flying across the room.
Becky

[meghans_mom]

I don't know actual stats but it seems that the majority of the kids I know w/ DS do NOT wear glasses...Meghan included - out of the 30 kids or so I'm thinking of, there are only a handful, young kids (4 & under) but it seems to become more prevalent as the kids get older - from what I've seen, atleast.

laurie

[christie]

NOPE Alice on this one you are not right, not every child with DS has or will need glasses. I know many young and older with DS that DO NOT need or have glasses. Alice have you ever been to a buddy walk?? Just look around and you will see many with DS that do not have glasses.

Christopher is one that does, at age 4 he got his first pair and if I say so myslef looks very cute in them and never really had any trouble with the frames or the fit.

As with anything, all our kids our different and some may need glasses and some not.

CC

[samanthajosmom_12]

samantha jo is 33 months old. we have to go to the eye doctors in nov for her anaul checkup. i think she might have to get glasses but we will wait and see. but right now she does not where them. sue

[MaggiesMom]

No glasses here. Maggie just has hearing aids!

Now imagine trying to keep track of those which are skin tone and about the size of a quarter!

I can't tell you the number of times she's thrown them away, eaten ear molds, tossed them out of the car, or her favorite...ditching them at Walmart!

Oh the joys of parenthood!

I pray we don't have to get glasses. I can only imagine trying to keep up with both at the same time.

Take care.

Robin M - Maggie's mom

[Emilysmom]

Alice~ I remember when Emily was a baby, I thought that nearly all the kids with Ds I had ever seen wore glasses and I really hoped Em would not require them. She never gave us any signs that her vision was less than perfect until she was nearly 5. At that point, she started crossing one eye; especially when she was looking at something fairly close to her. I, myself had eye muscle surgery at age 16 for a really bad lazy eye and I thought maybe that was what Emily had. We took her to the eye doctor who said that was a classic sign that a child was far sighted and was attempting to focus. She was unable to really cooperate with the vision screening test, so he put her to sleep at a surgery center and tested her eyes. Turned out, she was really pretty far sighted! She wears glasses to read now. I am also far sighted and it's hard for me to wear my glasses all the time.......if I wear them when I'm walking around, I get a bit dizzy. But if I try to read without them, everything is too fuzzy.
At Emily's last eye check up, we were told that glasses can not only help a child to SEE well.....but they can actually improve vision problems. Em's vision was BETTER at this test than it was years before, and he said the glasses had actually improved her vision a bit.
Susan

[Claire]

Adam 6 has had glases since he was 16mths old. But I know lots of DS children who don't need them. You are right, they should invent some kind of glue on glasses for our kids. Heehee!

[Alice]

Oh,
I am glad that I am wrong!
I am very happy that many kids and people with DS do not need glasses, so maybe one day Luke will be free of them too.
Alice

[ashleysmom]

I recently took Ashley to the eye Dr. and she is only 10 months old. They said she will probably need glasses by the time she starts school at 3yrs old. She has mild astigmatisms( I know i cant spell so DONT laugh ;D)..LOL
Hey but thats ok with me if she wears glasses just so she can see well..

[stefflipton]

Olivia is extremely farsighted and has worn her specs since 10 months. The BEST part of glasses was seeing her look thru them and actually SEE up close for the first time. PRICELESS I tell ya.She only seems to have ditched her specs when they didn't fit properly. But man she is GREAT with em. She asks for em in the morning and asks to have them cleaned when they are dirty and HATES to take em off at bedtime. So I dunno but she digs em as long as they fit right. P,S, we ALWAYS get the nose pads changed to a smaller size,They will fit MUCH better.

[TriciaF]

Alice, when you brought this up I thought I had seen stats that showed kids with Ds having a higher percentage of eye issues than is typical. Here's part of a study that was on Dr. Leshin's sight;

The biggest problem with studies such as this one is that these surveys end up being biased toward the group that responds, rather than the group that is solicited in the first place. However, this study had a good base to start with, and a very good response rate to their initial survey request (80%). Also, several of the statistics arrived at in the study match previous statistical reports.

The children studied were ages 5 to 17 years of age. Besides the findings mentioned in the abstract above, here are some other interesting numbers:

33% of children with DS reportedly had a congenital heart defect, with the most common being a septal defect. 17% of the total group required surgery for the heart defect.
18% reported constipation. 0.1% had Hirschsprung disease. 0.1% had celiac disease.
48% had "glue ear," which is thick fluid in the middle ear cavity that won't drain. 10% of the total had documented hearing loss. 46% of all children had surgery for an ear condition, mostly for placement of tympanostomy tubes.
30% of the children had near-sightedness, 27% had "lazy eye" (strabismus). 54% of girls and 40% of boys were prescribed glasses.
14% had disease of the thyroid. 0.1% had diabetes.
Of the 211 children with DS, 3 children had leukemia, 2 had hip disorders and 2 had AAI.

Then there was this off the NCSC web site:

Concern: Ocular problems
Clinical Expression: (1) refractive errors, (2) strabismus, (3) cataracts
When Seen: Eye exam by 6-12 months, then follow-ups
Observed Prevalence: (1) 50%, (2) 35%, (3) 5%
Management: Look for cataract; ophthamologic consultation


So, if this holds true, kids with Ds seem to have greater incidence of needing glasses I would guess. I really don't know the typical occurence, but judging by my older son's class....no where near these numbers wear glasses.

[momofrussell]

Hey, I always thought is was very common for kids w/DS to need glasses too...

I know for Russell, he had cataracts so he has been wearing glasses since birth I HATED the fact that he had to wear them... I CRIED and was SO sad that I had to look at him with those BIG, THICK lenses... he had coke bottle lenses so it didn't seem attactive to me. But after awhile, I got real use to it and once I got a pair that I LIKED LOL, he looked better LOL

Now, he doens't wear glasses anymore

A.