Cateracts In Children?!
Question: Has anyone gone through having a child with cateracts..Our son cateracts they did surgery to remove it and now has to wear contacts in one eye and a patch in the other, we just found out that his good eye has a cateract now and have 50% vision but is cloudy....he is only 2....my problem is the patching is so hard for him...does anyone have ideas...
Thankyou...
Answers: Has anyone gone through having a child with cateracts..Our son cateracts they did surgery to remove it and now has to wear contacts in one eye and a patch in the other, we just found out that his good eye has a cateract now and have 50% vision but is cloudy....he is only 2....my problem is the patching is so hard for him...does anyone have ideas...
Thankyou...
I was born with cataracts and I progressively became blind until I had them removed at 17. That was over 20 years ago. They wouldn't give me lens implants in my eyes at the time so I had to wear special contacts which were $255 apiece. A few years later I got the lens implants and my vision is great. It was great prior to the implants, it's just without my contact I was totally blind. We didn't know at the time that I could have had the surgery to remove the cataracts, so I went thru my entire childhood with an unnecessary disability. I wish they could have done something when I was as young as your son. The patch may be difficult for him now, but follow the doctor's orders so that he can have the best vision possible. You can also get a second or third opinion as well. Believe me a patch isn't nearly as bad a blindess. I've been there and I can speak from experience. Growing up with a visual disability will hold him back in many ways. Good luck. 2D
Just do it. Get it done, whatever it takes. What you do now with this child will affect his vision FOREVER.
Ultra violet rays are stronger than ever. This greatly affects our vision and people are getting cataracts at younger ages. One way to help prevent cataracts is to wear sunglasses that are polarized. The problem is since your child is so young it would be hard to keep sunglasses on him. However you can put some tints on your back windshield and shades on the side windows since these windows are not treated to prevent UVA and UVB rays from getting in and the back seat is wear children sit.
This is not what you want for your child, but there's no good way to duck what needs to be done.
(similar to undoing a club foot or a misaligned hip: it's not pleasant now, but if not done, it's going to be a permanant issue.)
The eye's development is still taking place. It would be nice if patching, and surgery, could be left till later, when this "cruelty" could be better explained. But it needs to be tackled young, to get the best chance of a good result.
There are picture books etc. to help explain patching to young children, and help them feel better about it.
(examples below)
A boy may take to the full "Pirate" look better than half-disguised pink patches:
if you're using stick-on patches, try a wild over-the-top pirate one over the top?
Best wishes.