Watch Vision-Impaired Baby Leopold Reppond’s Cute Reaction When He Sees Mom’s Face Clearly Through Glasses For The First Time [Video]

A deeply-touching video uploaded recently to YouTube captures the heartwarming reaction of vision-impaired four-month-old baby Leopold Wilbur Reppond when he saw his mother’s face for the first time after being outfitted with a new pair of glasses.

Little Leo from Seattle, Washington, who was born with a rare disorder called Oculocutaneous Albinism (OCA) linked with significant vision impairment, couldn’t stop beaming with joy after seeing his mother’s face clearly for the time in his life.

OCA affects pigmentation of skin, hair and eyes and many affected individuals suffer from poor eyesight with reduced sharpness of vision and photophobia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzaBWY6yl2I

After the new pair of glasses was placed over Leo’s eyes it took him a few seconds to adjust to the reality of his improved eyesight. He appeared not to have noticed any transformation of his eyesight in the first few seconds after he received his new pair of glasses. He appeared confused as he looked at his mother and then away. But after his mother readjusted the glasses the infant looked up a second time and it finally dawned on him that a drastic transformation had occurred in the world around him.

“Today he received his glasses… and can now see the world clearly for the very first time.”

His looked straight into his mother’s face and made eye-contact. His eyes lit up and during a moment of incredible cuteness he beamed at his mother and then broke into giggles as his mother talked to him.

The delighted reaction of adults in the room was audible. A voice said, “Oh, he is smiling.”

According to 35-year-old Erin, Leopold’s mother, “When he finally did look up that second time and you see that recognition on his face, that’s a smile we just hadn’t really seen before.”

“He’s a pretty happy baby and he smiles and I feel like he generally is pretty happy but that smile was something that was so different for me to see,” Erin told ABC News.

The delightful moment was captured on camera by the little tot’s dad, David Reppond, a 39-year-old film producer. He uploaded the video to Facebook Saturday and it went viral immediately.

According to David, the video was shot during a gathering of their families to witness Leo receiving his glasses for the first time.

Little Leo’s mother, Erin, was overwhelmed with emotion at her son’s reaction.

David was also overwhelmed with emotion, saying “cuteness went through the roof” when his little son smiled at his mother.

There “wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” David added.

According to David, it must have seemed to Leo that he was seeing his mother for the first time.

“I had some issues holding the camera because I was crying so much,” David said. “I was overwhelmed with emotion. It’s just very touching. You cannot anticipate how you’re going to feel when something like that happens. It was very heartwarming.”

David explained that before Leo received his glasses, his eyesight was so poor that he used his hands to assist his sight. The boy’s father had to put his face close to his son so he could feel his beard and know it was his father.

“He can see us now. He’s starting to see objects in front of him for the first time. He’s smiling a lot more and he can see everybody in the room, he’s interacting more. He loves the light and he loves being outdoors where he can see the grass and the blue sky. He loves toys and he’s starting to reach for things. He’s seeing the world differently,” the happy father said.

According to the Daily Mail, Leopold’s parents consulted a pediatric ophthalmologist, Kenneth Wright, who prescribed the special glasses to improve the boy’s eyesight. The pair of glasses are specially designed for infants, being made of rubber with no sharp metal components, such as screws.

Medical experts estimate that only about one-in-20,000 people are diagnosed with the condition worldwide. This makes the condition rare. It affects pigmentation of skin, eyes, and hair. People with the condition are exceptionally fair-skinned with very light or white hair.

They are also highly susceptible to aggressive forms of skin cancer, such as melanoma and other conditions of the eyes due to abnormal light sensitivity of the irises.

[Images via Shutterstock]