Amblyopia

When I took Riley in for her mandatory eye exam (she needed to have one before she could start school), the eye doctor decided to take a look at Jeremy's eyes. I take the kids to my childhood eye doctor, and he's taken a look at Riley's eyes for the last two years for no charge. It wasn't a thorough exam, but enough for him to have a gauge on her vision. Last year Jeremy went up in the chair for a bit, and the eye doctor did express some concern and told us to keep an eye on him.

I had actually forgotten about the doctor's concern, and after Riley's exam and then mine (both of us are doing well--Riley's vision is still 20/20 and my contacts are super clean now!), the doctor asked Jeremy if he could jump in the chair. And then we got the news:

Jeremy has amblyopia.

It's not the end of the world, but it's something to be concerned with. Basically he has one lazy eye, and the vision in that eye is horrific. His bad eye is six lens powers different than the other; his vision is 20/375. Poor guy. His brain doesn't recognize the vision out of his bad eye because it's so poor. He is really only seeing out one eye. It's a hereditary condition, and my eye doctor knew it wasn't from my side, since he checks my entire family's eyesight, and Phil has the same condition. In order to help Jeremy, we got the little guy fitted for glasses, and here is the guy now:

Jeremy showing off his glasses with Riley.

The good news is that this was caught early. So he only needs to wear the glasses along with an eye patch over his "good" eye while he watches TV. It's to train his bad eye to focus better and to actually work. It's funny, though, because for the first week, we thought J had to wear the glasses at all times, hence a bunch of photos with him and his new glasses.

He does great, wearing them, though. And Riley ensures that he's not "cheating" by peeking or moving the patch from his good eye. We're hoping that since we caught it early his vision will improve. We know that both kids will need glasses at some point due to the horrid vision his parents have, but the longer we can prolong it, the better.
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Me with the little Harry Potter.