Elora got her first pair of glasses, we knew right off that
we wanted to get her Miraflex. The
majority of albinism kids we know wear them, kids and moms agree they rock!

Elora wearing Baby Lux model
Cute factor
They come in lots of colors and styles to suit any style,
moms know that letting kids have a say in their choices can help get them on
board and you can rest assured that all of these are great choices. They are also designed to fit a baby from
newborn and up so you can find the right size for even the tiniest head.
Durable
They are constructed from one continuous piece of rubbery
plastic. No hinges, no wires, no metal, they are twistable and pliable. Elora has already face planted wearing them
and they are no worse for wear. Other
parents mentioned they are also preferable for rough play that toddlers do
because normal glasses that do break can also be a poking hazard to the child’s
face.
They stay on
Elora’s beautiful moon shaped face’s highest point are her
cheeks not her nose so typical glasses that rely on the nose and ears to
support them do not work for her at all.
Her ears are also so floppy that typical glasses just fold them right
over and they slip off. Miraflex glasses
are more like swimming goggles with an adjustable back strap to keep them
secure on her head, the ears and nose play only a small supporting and positioning
role but the main support comes from the rear band.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Kids with albinism seem to have a huge
spectrum of light sensitivity, but from what I can tell Elora seems to be more
sensitive than most. She is also only
affected by natural light not indoor artificial light. For these reasons we felt that transitions
lenses would not be effective for her because they do not transition fast
enough or dark enough and they have trouble differentiating from natural and
artificial light. We wanted something
that was much more under our control. Obviously
we don’t want her taking her prescription glasses of for risk of loss or damage
plus she needs them to see! What I
envisioned idealy were clip on sunglasses, but I could only find them in adult
sizes and they are spring loaded these days and depend on the width. I am still looking for the old school style
that works on an actual clip and flip mechanism in a small enough size. In the mean time I was inspired by sun
glasses I found for my husband that are designed to slide over top of his prescription
glasses.

He really likes these because they also provide side
coverage. They were just too big for
baby, but any adults or older kids with albinism, check these out!
http://www.cocoonseyewear.com/
I took this idea and fitted my own device using Elora’s
existing store bought sunglasses. We are
hard core sunglass collectors and we own about 15 pairs and styles. Through some testing I found that sunglasses
with a flat front worked best with our Miraflex style. Just so happens that our heart shape glasses
from Joe fresh were the best fit and at only $8 we stoked up on ever color! I tried leaving the arms on the glasses and
attaching them to the band and this may be a solution for your child but it was
too weighty on Elora’s floppy ears.
I
removed the arms using a glasses screwdriver and threaded clear Goody brand hair
elastics into the now empty screw hole and then created a linking chain of
elastics to the opposite side.
The
little tab that used to hold the arms fits perfectly on top of the Miraflex
glasses where the arm and frame meet and the elastic holds it in place.
They are easy to use and Elora can take them
on and off on her own, another goal we had. They stayed in place during a
sledding outing and downhill tumble, so I am pretty impressed so far.

*Note: For any boy readers out there that may not be
thrilled about heart shaped glasses I did find that aviator and Ray Band
imitation style glasses were also good fit for the Miraflex, just avoid any
thing that has a wraparound or curvature on the face.