I woke the kids early this morning to get to the eye doctor by 7:00 am.  Both kids were getting routine exams.  Elise needed one just because it is recommended for kids her age so as to catch any eye problems before they began schooling.  Will needed one because we were noticing some crossing of his eyes and we knew if there was a problem it needed to be treated as early as possible.

Elise went first.  She let them do the automatic reading on her eyes as well as take a picture of her eyes.  Then she got to cover each eye and tell the doctor’s assistant what certain pictures were.  She passed that test without a problem.  The doctor came in and after doing a quick look with the microscope, put some drops in her eyes to dilate her pupils.  He said that they always do that the first time a child comes in because at their age their focusing muscles are so strong that it is easy for the doctor to miss some far-sightedness.  Elise had done fine until the drops began stinging her eyes.

Then Will got the same stuff in his eyes, though his were diluted so he didn’t even fuss.  Then we had to sit in the waiting room while the drops took effect.  Before long both Will’s and Elise’s pupils began to widen significantly.  The doctor had warned that this would cause Elise’s vision to blur close up.  Once she was not able to see the toys she was playing with clearly she started to cry.  She still let the doctor take another look at her eyes though, even though at first she said she wasn’t going to.  I tried to explain that this is the way that some people see all the time and that she should be thankful her eyes are healthy and strong.  The doctor said he was glad that she was upset that her vision was blurry as that meant she normally has clear vision.  He checked her eyes and took another reading on them.  The result is that she is 4 points far-sighted.  This, according to the optometrist, is perfect.  He explained that our eyes tend to get more near-sighted as we grow, meaning that Elise’s eyesight will get better over time, rather than worse, at least for the beginning of her life.

Will was very cooperative for the doctor, following the light just as he should and letting the doctor look in his eyes.  He is even more far-sighted than Elise, but being younger, that is not bad.  He could not get his eye to wander at all, so he said even if we are seeing a wandering eye at times, as long as his are working together a good portion of the time they will develop correctly.

So that was good news.  Elise’s eyes will remain dilated all day, perhaps longer because she has blue eyes (which are more effected), but she seems to be accustoming herself to it now.  She told me she can already see better than she did, but still needs her sunglasses outside.