Baby who received compliments for her 'beautiful big blue eyes' actually had a serious condition

When little Aretria was born, her mum was surprised to see she had big blue eyes.

No one else in the family had those hues and mum Louise Bice struggled to work out where they came from.

The 10-month-old would get loads of compliments for her eyes when she was out and about and Louise thought it was amazing.

However, when one of the eyes turned a milky colour, Louise and her partner, Connor, said things went from bad to worse.

"Connor sent me a picture that morning of the two of them together while I was out and her eyes were fine," she recalled.

"When I got back her right eye had clouded over.

SWNS

"I hadn't even got through the door when I said 'we need to take her to A&E right now'."

The baby would scream in pain any time the eye was exposed to any light.

"I never expected Ari's big, beautiful eyes to be a bad thing," the mum said.

"Suddenly one day her eye clouded over - one minute it was fine and 15 minutes later it was completely changed."

The baby was assessed by a doctor, who later diagnosed the tot with a severe case of bilateral congenital glaucoma.

It's a genetic abnormality that results in extreme and growing pressure on the optic nerve.

Aretria needed urgent surgery and she was taken to Birmingham Children's Hospital in June for an operation.

The procedure was meant to relieve some of the pressure on the baby's eye, but sadly it failed.

Louise and Connor took Aretria to hospital a few months later for a second surgery.

SWNS

Devastatingly, they were told that she had already lost nearly 100 per cent of her sight in one eye.

"After two surgeries we still don't know what will happen - she already has just five per cent vision left in her right eye," she said.

"She's in so much pain and I don't know if she can cope with another surgery.

"I just think if we had managed to get this diagnosed before the pressure got out of control, she might not now be blind in one eye.

"If someone had said it was weird, she had big eyes rather than cute we might have got it checked - but none of us knew it was even a red flag."

The couple is awaiting the results of the second surgery, however, if that has failed then they will move onto a different kind of operation to release the pressure involving drainage tubes or valves.

Topics: Health

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Senior Journalist at LADbible. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign. He is in charge of the LADbible Australia editorial content and social presence.

@stewartperrie