A toddler is at risk of blindness due to a rare condition meaning her eyes won't stop growing - and once even cried BLOOD.<br /><br />Little Aretria Bice, 21 months, was born with big blue eyes - which friends, family and strangers all found adorable.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />She had a string of urgent surgeries - the last two to insert a tube to drain the excess fluid from her eyes.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />"She has had five surgeries to try to stabilise the optic pressure which would stop her vision damage, but things keep getting worse.<br /><br />"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.<br /><br />"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.<br /><br />"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.<br /><br />"Her eyes won't shrink back down, but we are hopeful at some point things will stabilise so her vision doesn't get worse.<br /><br />"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."<br /><br />Aretria was born on October 20, 2022, with her "cartoon bug eyes", as Louise and Connor lovingly refer to them.<br /><br />They never considered her eyes would be a concern, until the tot was six months old and one of her eyes clouded over.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />After visiting several other hospitals to see specialists, Aretria's condition was finally diagnosed - as bilateral congenital glaucoma.<br /><br />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."<br /><br />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.<br /><br />She went under the knife for the first time in June 2023 at Birmingham Children's Hospital, West Midlands, in a four-hour procedure.
