We Realised Our Baby Was Born Blind

[Music] i just walked out of the room and i just like cried and like it was a very busy clinic there were a lot of people in the clinic everybody just like sunday like silent [Music] why ask why him do you think i've been a very different parent if you know i'm a child yeah i think so i think i'll be lazy elliot was born with libra's congenital amaurosis a rare condition that causes severe vision differently there are many things that babies learn by visual cues but elliot doesn't have that advantage so basics that come normally for most parents can't be taken for granted by the course [Music] it's not like food motivated at all what's the logic behind it you know searching right thank you really just throw it into like a bowl like because of porridge if you don't eat then at least not a lot of effort is wasted come on chew chew now that my child is visually impaired when i go through my daily life i start to realize that oh there are just so many things that i didn't realize it was a privilege is it hard to like teach him how to chill yeah yeah so there's only more recently that he knows my arm is over mouth ah [Music] open the book once we knew his condition we start to get toys or books with some form of audio or texture so that he is a bit more attracted to the toy so fluffy so fluffy such a bungee meow it's so cute hey look at the tummy yes [Applause] some hypothesis says that you create some form of stimulation if we were to press our eyes hard enough we would see like some i think some reflections or things like that but we do know that we are supposed to like try and stop him from doing it as much as possible because first it causes the eyes to sink in if he does it excessively it can cause other issues like the infection of the eyes which you want to avoid as well take photos every month on the day of his birthday to just uh like look at his groove he got myself [Music] is there a reason why he likes to look down uh i think it's because there's no reason to look up so he also didn't manage to leave his head like other babies up to a much older age i think about five months old when he's supposed to do it at like the second of that month sometimes when i look at photos before he was diagnosed i would miss those times but i missed was the feeling that i actually thought that he was a sighted person thinking that he could see us as parents see me and his mom when he was about three plus four months we noticed that his eyes were still not tracking anything and that was when he brought him to the doctor and thereafter we got him diagnosed because eliot's genetic condition is so rare it was tough to find much information on raising a blind baby to be honest i have never like closely interacted with a visually impaired person so first thing is i i wouldn't even know how to interact with him we didn't really know what to ask the doctors as well and i think at the same time it being such a rare condition many medical practitioners wouldn't have experience especially in a country like singapore where our population is so small i think the incidence rate is even smaller i try to google i try to google different things and that was when i was a bit surprised and shocked at the same time to know that there were so little resources for special needs babies and let alone visually impaired babies so i think i think it kind of like made me panic a little okay that was when um my husband eric managed to get into contact with a few related agencies organizations the first help that we get was from guide dog singapore apparently they have this orientation and mobility department and we managed to get in touch with a orientation mobility specialist cheryl hello see you the last one i actually teach people with vision impairment how to travel independently during the first home visit i just taught them some methods of playing with elliot gave them some suggestions of toys that could help early intervention style to get any on the same level as the other kids but now our families just know each other and we hang out [Music] [Applause] it's not not that light for him right yeah no it's for him to swing on the floor sweep on the floor and wet things so it's really for him to just become friends with it babies actually typically get longer canes because they don't use it for walking they use it for exploring everything okay goodbye right this is reality of things right i guess i'm afraid that he'll be defined by it you know and that's why people don't like their kids to use kids right let's learn letters answering people's questions there'll be something that you know we'll be worried about they are not prepared yet why is he like that and what's his condition [Music] i think like any other singapore parent our initial thought is for the baby to be successful be reached smart but you know after we find out that he has a visual impairment i think our priorities shifted as well the concern here is for him to just be independent but you also realize that our expectation shouldn't reduce he will just have to reach this target in a different way it's about how we enable him to develop his interests in whichever field uh that he wants to be um but please be a lawyer [Music] more recently as he grew a bit more curious about his environment he's getting better exploring which makes me really happy yes good job good job yes hope i stay here i imagine like moving around in unfamiliar areas not being able to see what's in front of you yeah good job being able to take that step out to exploit is already a big thing wow you found a game only when you want to build a toy right you don't actually want papa right you want the toy right for a signer parents crawling forward is something that is very natural yes but for us that was something that's very impressive we celebrate all the small wins [Music] all right yeah there would still be times where i look at him and i still wonder what the first question i first wanted when he was diagnosed which is what's going to happen to him if like i would pass on if like we were both to pass on right right first slowly slowly that would also further encourage me to make sure that he would be able to live independently so that if i were to like leave this world one day unexpectedly i can at least be assured that like um he's able to care for himself come down come now slowly yeah [Applause] but it's fulfilling because i think because of like the reaction response i get from him christmas looking back i wouldn't want to like take away any of those because i think that all those time spent with him right to bring him to who he is today and what he's achieving today is totally worth it i love you it's time for me [Music] you

Channel: CNA Insider

Views: 298,400

Keywords: CNA Insider, Channel NewsAsia, People stories, Asian perspectives

Id: 6F65N2SwKUw

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021