So, two months into my fellowship and I am in love with the children I treat. Agreed that I tend to view the world through my rose-tinted glasses, many a time, but there are somethings or some little people that you can’t help but love.

I truly enjoy the first 10 minutes I spend playing with the child, and building a rapport with them. I don’t think any other job lets you play at work 😅

Children are highly sensitive and intelligent. You cannot pretend to like them or they’ll just see through you. But they do understand when someone genuinely cares.

These two months have increased my patience by leaps and bounds. We have a rule, that we hardly ever write that a child is uncooperative, simply because they are children! You can’t expect them to cooperate. You need to make them cooperate.

They’re scared and they’re apprehensive and it’s all very valid.

I’ve had a 5 year old sit extremely still and let me visualise his retina without blinking, and also had a 30 year old who was extremely squeamish.

I think once you deal with children, you tend to have less patience with adults!

Another important thing that I’ve realised in dealing with children is to listen very carefully to the parent. Never ignore something a parent tells you as no one watches a child more that their parent.

Parents may be overtly anxious and worried sometimes but that’s because they’re desperately looking for reassurance that their child is going to be fine.

A mother once told me that her child’s eye would intermittently deviate inwards, and I did a detailed squint examination and found nothing. But I still kept the patient for observation, and noted that there was a sudden inward drift intermittently. Turns out, as usual, the mother was right.

In the OT, a good practice is to talk to the child and tell them what’s going to happen, and that you’ll be with them through it all. More often than not, they put up a brave face and are reassured.

Seeing a tiny baby with a congenital cataract being induced under general anaesthesia tugs your heart in a different way. It’s always about empathy.

Getting a child to laugh is one of the most rewarding things I’ve experienced. It’s important to remember that they’re not just little adults. They’re full of awe and wonder and so much forgiveness.

After they’ve sobbed bitterly when they’re being restrained by their parents and the nurses for me to examine their retina with the most dazzling light ever, they wipe those tears away and still wave bye with a toothy smile before leaving, in between their sniffles.

So blessed and grateful to be looking after these little eyes, and taking care of these little humans.