Given the obessive detail with which I write here, I’m shocked that I haven’t mentioned Alice’s eye problems yet. For the last couple months she’s been having problems with eye gunk build up, to the point where sometimes she couldn’t open her eyes until Mom or I cleaned them off. The doctor said that the most likely cause was blocked tear ducts. He gave us some antibiotic eye drops to use, which made Alice’s eyes less gunky but didn’t make a real difference.
What finally cured her was another trip to the doctor. Alice never liked the eye drops so the day of the visit she woke up with only slightly gunky eyes and they’ve been clear ever since. So while the eye drops themselves didn’t help that much, the fear of them did. It’s never too early to start with operant conditioning.