Eyes: checked!
The kids had their eyes checked today.
Apparently there’s this study on ‘Strabismus, Amblyopia and Refractive Error in Singapore Preschoolers’ and our home was one of the selected ones.
Anyway. I thought it’d be interesting to find out the condition of the kids’ eyes too. And so we went to the Medical Centre and participated.
Other than me getting interviewed on our family’s ‘eye history’ and how the kids usually spend their day, Anya went through the whole process (and she took it quite well too, to my surprise!).
From reading alphabets from afar, identifying ‘coloured dots’ (to check for colour blindness), to getting the ‘inside’ of her eyes checked and examined too (using state-of-the-art machines, of course!)
To get the best results when examining the eyes, they apparently had to ‘enlarge the pupils’ and ‘relax the eye muscles’. And they do this by applying different types of eyedrops.
The kids’ vision will afterwards be affected for a period of six to twenty four hours! (read: blurred vision, unable to ‘read’ and sensitive to bright lights).
[Frankly I was a bit concerned about the eyedrops and its effect. But then the friendly doctor assured us that there’s no side effect. I also found out that there were 1006 other kids who have gone through the same procedure. And so I felt better about it]
And oh, Vai had eyedrops applied to him too when he’s napping (he was already SO sleepy when we arrived). But as expected, he wriggled and woke up after a few drops.
Btw, for kids his age, the study obviously cannot be as detailed. It was tough enough to get him to sit still and ‘look’ at the ‘shining light’ from the doctor’s ‘tool’ (sorry for the totally ‘non-medical’ terms. Heh)
Anyway. Here are the results for both Anya and Vai.
>> No Amblyopia (lazy eye) nor Strabismus (cross-eyed, wall-eyed)
>> No spectacles needed
And specifically for Anya’s case:
>> Long-sighted on both eyes (the power: + 4.00 and + 3.50)
Basically for kids her age, this is normal, and the power will slowly go down as Anya grows up.
>> She has astigmatism! (the power: – 1.50 and – 1.00)
She’s just like me! And it came as a surprise because I never knew kids her age can already get astig. And apparently, this condition will not get better. She may need to wear spectacles later on when she starts driving. Hmmpff.
And oh, a few other interesting findings from today’s check up were:
Anya’s now 94.8 cm high and 14.2 kg
Vai is now 85 cm high and 12.2 kg!
[note: no shoes worn when weighed and measured]
Anya’s measurement was as expected, but I was honestly surprised when it was Vai’s turn to get on the scale. I even lifted him off and let him stand on it again a couple of times to make sure the numbers were right.
Vai’s mealtimes have been much tougher these past two weeks. He’s not that interested in eating. He’d look the other way and push the spoon away. And so I sort of expected the scale to go down. Not up. Hmm. I guess ‘some things’ are just beyond our understanding.
Anyway.
I feel so blessed that the kids are in good health.
Can’t thank God enough for his blessings.
