Nana's girl

[harmonious4967]

My grandaughter is 20ths old and has bee diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia we have had a MRI and has a small brain and some fluid and small optic nerves. She was really small at birth 4lbs3oz and 17' long. She is very bright and talking exceptionally early and is close to walking. She has some vision but very low but I think little or nothing straight ahead of her. She looks down all the time and you have to ask her to look up. She is very bright and active. The optomologist says come every 6 mths and there can be some improvement up to 5-8 yrs of age, around 3-4 yrs of age she will be better able to express what she is seeing. I want to know if there is anything outside of the box of modern medicine that we could be doing to help her. I love this child and it breaks my heart to see other children of the same age and I want to know everything possible that I could be doing to help her

 

[Andy]

Good morning Grandma! Your 20 month old granddaughter has a lot of challenges ahead of her. It will also be a challenge as you and the rest of the family have to be even more intuned to her behaviors to figure out what is going on until she is able to communicate with words.

Looking down might mean that she can see straight ahead but not down. She is making sure her feet don't step on anything. She could also be looking for treasures at her feet - toys to play with.

Does she wear special glasses to help out? I hope you have a great opthomologist who will continue to follow her and give her the treatments she needs to get her vision the best it can be.

I would suggest that you can help her learning by getting varioius flash cards with the alphabet and numbers and objects to work with her on (she will think it is fun). Also, maybe those small plastic animals (Target and other stores have) to have her hold and tell you what it is and what sound it makes. Since her vision is impared, you need to bring the learning opportunities closer to her.

Also, look for a forum on vision impairment - look up the diagnosis she has received and see if you can find one - those folks will have more experience in what you are going through on the vision side of this.

Folks here can also help with behaviors. If you have any questions about how she behaves, let us know. We hope she does not have any conduct behavior issues but others here can recognize many things to check out further. So, keep us posted on how she is doing and we try our best to help.

 

[amazeofgrace]

I am not too familiar in this are but prayers for guidance and healing for your grandbaby