Tot at risk of blindness due to a rare illness meaning her eyes won't stop growing

A toddler is at risk of blindness due to a rare condition meaning her eyes won't stop growing - and once even cried BLOOD.

Little Aretria Bice, 21 months, was born with big blue eyes - which friends, family and strangers all found adorable.

But at six months old, in May 2023, one of Aretria's baby blues turned "milky" and any light caused the tot to scream in pain.

After being rushed to hospital she was diagnosed with a genetic abnormality which saw extreme and growing pressure on the optic nerve - causing her eyes to swell.

She had a string of urgent surgeries - the last two to insert a tube to drain the excess fluid from her eyes.

But each one failed, and one even left her crying BLOOD - and now Aretria is now waiting to go under the knife for the SIXTH time.

Her worried parents, Louise, 35, and Connor Bice, 30, have been told Aretria's eyes will never get smaller once they've grown in size.

And they're growing desperate for a solution as their daughter - who is already extremely short-sighted - will lose more vision as time goes on.

Louise, a stay-at-home mum, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, said: "Aretria has major damage to her optic nerves - she can only see things closer than 8cm.

"She has had five surgeries to try to stabilise the optic pressure which would stop her vision damage, but things keep getting worse.

"She got a tube put into her right eye in March to relieve the pressure but it didn't work and she even cried blood after because her stitches came loose.

"She wears glasses 24 hours a day - she even has to wear them at night because if she wakes up and can't see, she is terrified.

"She has had so many surgeries and appointments that she has the biggest fear of hospitals, and sobs even just at the smell of it.

"Her eyes won't shrink back down, but we are hopeful at some point things will stabilise so her vision doesn't get worse.

"As soon as she was diagnosed we knew this would be her whole life - but we have no idea what the future holds for her."

Aretria was born on October 20, 2022, with her "cartoon bug eyes", as Louise and Connor lovingly refer to them.

They never considered her eyes would be a concern, until the tot was six months old and one of her eyes clouded over.

Louise and Connor took her to hospital and doctors identified high pressure in her eyes from fluid build up, but couldn't work out the cause.

After visiting several other hospitals to see specialists, Aretria's condition was finally diagnosed - as bilateral congenital glaucoma.

Louise said: "Doctors said she had been exposed to high eye pressure from birth because her fluid drainage system didn't form properly in her eye when she was still in the womb."

The specialists - who had only seen a handful of cases of the condition - revealed she would need a surgery called a goniotomy to lower the pressure.

She went under the knife for the first time in June 2023 at Birmingham Children's Hospital, West Midlands, in a four-hour procedure.