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First off, I don't wish to scare anyone with this post. I just think it's really important parents are aware of this disease, which can be very easily spotted at home and is one of the most curable types of cancer when caught early.
Some background information - I have a daughter who is almost ten weeks old. When she was six weeks, I was filming her with my smartphone, and the flash was on, making her pupils glow red. Then suddenly, as her head moved, her right pupil flashed white at me. Ten seconds later, it happened again. It looked something like how a dog's or cat's eyes look when caught in the dark with a bright light.
I remembered seeing something a few years ago about this - so I looked it up and ended up reading all about retinoblastoma, a rare, aggressive cancer of the retina that occurs in young children whose retinas are rapidly developing. If caught early, most children survive. Many, however, will lose an eye. Sometimes both eyes. Worst case scenario, the cancer spreads to the nearby brain and it's too late.
Apparently it is most often parents who notice something is wrong first - the disease often presents itself as a white flash in the pupil in photos, while the other pupil has a normal red reflex. It is possible, however, for a child to have the disease in both eyes.
Armed with this information (and a rapidly sinking heart), I rifled through all my photos of my baby, and to my absolute burning horror I found nearly TEN showing her with a white right pupil and a red left pupil. I demanded that my partner let me go through his too, and found yet more - even one from the day she was born. I'd never noticed before, but now it was so glaringly obvious ... I cried all night and for days afterwards. We booked her in with the GP to be seen as soon as possible.
To cut a long story short, sadly he was a bit of a dick about it. He shone a light in her eyes for about two seconds while she squirmed about squeaking and blinking, and said she was fine, then refused to even look at my photos because he 'didn't need to' after his very brief examination of my daughter. Eventually (after a lot of hoo-hah from me) he agreed to refer her to a paediatric ophthalmologist, but I could tell he wasn't very impressed - not that I cared much. We waited two weeks, hearing absolutely nothing, until I couldn't take it any more and booked her a private appointment bloody miles away.
We got back from that yesterday. The paediatrician was wonderful, understanding and really professional. He dilated her pupils with drops and spent a long time calmly examining them from all angles, with a light and a magnifying glass.
Thankfully, THANKFULLY she is absolutely fine. The occasionally strange appearance of her eyes in pictures is most likely down to the angle of one eye being slightly different to the other as she is still fairly new to the world and her eyes are not totally in synch - therefore from certain directions, her optic disc is lit up (white) rather than her retina (red).
Please mums (and dads) - if you ever see something that doesn't look right in a photo, get it checked out. I am so glad I did. This disease is very rare - about 40-50 new cases in the UK a year, so it's incredibly unlikely to ever happen to your child - but if it DID, surely it's best to know the warning signs in advance so you can kick its ass before it has the chance to take serious hold.
And beware the smartphone - one can often capture a false white flash effect this way. Best to stay on your toes, yes, and if something keeps showing up then definitely mention it - but mostly, pay attention to photos captured with an actual camera.
The paediatrician said I did absolutely the right thing though and that it's great more people are becoming aware of retinoblastoma, because just five years ago, nearly all kids with retinoblastoma were losing one or both of their eyes. So I thought I'd post this to hopefully raise awareness, though I hope nobody ever seriously needs this information.
This website explains it all in good detail: https://www.daisyfund.org/rb/
I'm also including a couple of pictures of my little girl to show that even when it looks really really worrying, it can still be absolutely nothing.
Some background information - I have a daughter who is almost ten weeks old. When she was six weeks, I was filming her with my smartphone, and the flash was on, making her pupils glow red. Then suddenly, as her head moved, her right pupil flashed white at me. Ten seconds later, it happened again. It looked something like how a dog's or cat's eyes look when caught in the dark with a bright light.
I remembered seeing something a few years ago about this - so I looked it up and ended up reading all about retinoblastoma, a rare, aggressive cancer of the retina that occurs in young children whose retinas are rapidly developing. If caught early, most children survive. Many, however, will lose an eye. Sometimes both eyes. Worst case scenario, the cancer spreads to the nearby brain and it's too late.
Apparently it is most often parents who notice something is wrong first - the disease often presents itself as a white flash in the pupil in photos, while the other pupil has a normal red reflex. It is possible, however, for a child to have the disease in both eyes.
Armed with this information (and a rapidly sinking heart), I rifled through all my photos of my baby, and to my absolute burning horror I found nearly TEN showing her with a white right pupil and a red left pupil. I demanded that my partner let me go through his too, and found yet more - even one from the day she was born. I'd never noticed before, but now it was so glaringly obvious ... I cried all night and for days afterwards. We booked her in with the GP to be seen as soon as possible.
To cut a long story short, sadly he was a bit of a dick about it. He shone a light in her eyes for about two seconds while she squirmed about squeaking and blinking, and said she was fine, then refused to even look at my photos because he 'didn't need to' after his very brief examination of my daughter. Eventually (after a lot of hoo-hah from me) he agreed to refer her to a paediatric ophthalmologist, but I could tell he wasn't very impressed - not that I cared much. We waited two weeks, hearing absolutely nothing, until I couldn't take it any more and booked her a private appointment bloody miles away.
We got back from that yesterday. The paediatrician was wonderful, understanding and really professional. He dilated her pupils with drops and spent a long time calmly examining them from all angles, with a light and a magnifying glass.
Thankfully, THANKFULLY she is absolutely fine. The occasionally strange appearance of her eyes in pictures is most likely down to the angle of one eye being slightly different to the other as she is still fairly new to the world and her eyes are not totally in synch - therefore from certain directions, her optic disc is lit up (white) rather than her retina (red).
Please mums (and dads) - if you ever see something that doesn't look right in a photo, get it checked out. I am so glad I did. This disease is very rare - about 40-50 new cases in the UK a year, so it's incredibly unlikely to ever happen to your child - but if it DID, surely it's best to know the warning signs in advance so you can kick its ass before it has the chance to take serious hold.
And beware the smartphone - one can often capture a false white flash effect this way. Best to stay on your toes, yes, and if something keeps showing up then definitely mention it - but mostly, pay attention to photos captured with an actual camera.
The paediatrician said I did absolutely the right thing though and that it's great more people are becoming aware of retinoblastoma, because just five years ago, nearly all kids with retinoblastoma were losing one or both of their eyes. So I thought I'd post this to hopefully raise awareness, though I hope nobody ever seriously needs this information.
This website explains it all in good detail: https://www.daisyfund.org/rb/
I'm also including a couple of pictures of my little girl to show that even when it looks really really worrying, it can still be absolutely nothing.
. 
