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Tabloids take Dannielyn coverage too far?
Filed under: Toddlers Preschoolers, Celeb Kids, Celeb Parents, Behaving Badly
According to the Perez Hilton website and The Insider, Dannielyn Birkhead, daughter of Larry Birkhead and Anna Nicole Smith, has a medical condition. And her father isn't afraid to tell anyone about it. Apparently, although I'm not sure I believe this is true, baby Dannielyn is cross-eyed.
The actual condition is known as strabismus, and affects five percent of children. An eye patch is worn over the child's better eye in an effort to strengthen the not so good eye. I guess poor little Dannielyn was spotted wearing such an eye patch and it was not considered a bold fashion move among celebrity kid-dom.
More than likely the condition will eventually require surgery. Larry isn't so sure how he feels about his baby going under the knife.
I suppose it is better to be up front about the conditions that affect our children. If we hide them or ignore them they tend to get worse. Other people talk, but other people are going to talk anyway, regardless of whether parents make a statement about their children's conditions.
Still, that said, I sort of agree with Perez Hilton. It seems like Larry Birkhead will take any opportunity to talk about his daughter and place himself back in the spotlight, even at the expense of her privacy. And, naturally, tabloids like The Insider hop on that. And then we report on it. It's a vicious cycle, I guess.
Well, either way, I wish Dannielyn luck--not just with a possible condition or surgery, but in dealing with her fame-seeking father!
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-14-2008 @ 10:57PM
Kelly H said...I heard about Dannielynn today and I am so glad that they caught her Strabismus early. I hope that they can get her to patch. My son had to patch at 2 years old and it was a struggle. I made a DVD called "The Eye Patch Kids" to help him and other children patching. Good luck Dannielynn!!
Kelly H.
http://www.bjortandcompany.com
Reply
1-14-2008 @ 11:43PM
Joy said...My husband's family has a history of strabismus, and my husband had to wear a patch and eventually had surgery to correct it. We started taking our son to a pediatric opthalmologist to monitor his eyes. He is not yet two, so there could still be a chance he could develop this situation. What I hate hearing is the talk of Anna-Nicole's drug use as the cause of this. It makes me mad because it puts these thoughts in the minds of the public when it might not be true. To my knowledge, this condition is hereditary. My FIL often gets angry recounting taking his son, my husband, to the doctor and hearing a little girl tell her mom she did not want to "catch" what his son had because his eyes were crossed. It irks me further to think these tabloid shows suggest drug use as a link to strabismus in their headlines to get viewers to watch their show.
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1-15-2008 @ 12:15AM
Kirstie said...Hopefully the patch will work for Dannielyn .. as a child they tried the patch for me for a while, and then it was later determined that it was actually a deformity in the muscle. I was born with it twisted so surgery was needed to correct it. Regardless, it was a simple surgery and 12 years later my eyes are just fine, aside from the resultant lack of depth perception.
Good luck to little Dannielyn!
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1-15-2008 @ 11:42AM
Carolyn said...I also was reading about this today, but didn't think there was anything wrong with Larry Birkhead making Daniellyn's condition public. It's a real condition that other children suffer from, so maybe other parents will be helped by reading about it. And he seemed to make it clear that there is no connection between this condition and possible drug use or medication taken by Anna Nicole.
Now, I do have plenty of problems with things he has done in the past (and probably will in the future too!), but not with this.
Carolyn
http://www.momsontheedge.typepad.com
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1-15-2008 @ 8:49AM
Michelle said...My son, who was born 15 weeks early, has had 6 strabismus surgeries, first on both eyes, when he was several months old, because he literally could not focus, they were that crossed, and it was hindering his vision, which was hindering his other development. The original surgery corrected the right eye, so the subsequent surgeries have been to correct the left eye. Often as children grow, their eyes muscles have to be re-corrected. We have done the patching with the surgeries, but with our son, their our other issues at play, and we feel the surgeries are neccessary for him. It is a very quick, easy surgery, much like the ear tube surgery. In fact, we've been in the surgery center where the tubes have taken longer than his eye surgery!
He will probably have to have one more before we go to corrective lenses. He is 3.
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1-15-2008 @ 8:52AM
Michelle said...geepers: *there* *are* other issues at play.
gah! I is a collidge gradiguate!
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1-15-2008 @ 9:02AM
aprilw said...I don't see anything that wrong with covering a story about a crooked eye. If anything, it bothers me MORE when people whore out their kids for other completey meaningless stuff. At least with this maybe someone who hasn't realised their own kid has a problem will realise that this is something that can be fixed.
If you don't take care of this at an early age the kid ends up blind in one eye (after a certain stage the brain turns one eye off permanently to prevent double vision). You wouldn't believe the number of people who don't do anything about this thinking their kids will just "grow out of it". They won't!!!! Those kids end up losing their vision in one eye.
(My husband is an Optometrist and he has been saddened several times when an older child with this problem is brought in after it is already too late to do anything about it. He still refers them on to our local eye hospital, but really after a certain age all that can be done is cosmetically fixing the eye, once thee vision is gone it is gone.)
Most likely Larry Birkhead wasn't telling this story to try to help others, but if it helps raise awareness then good!
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