‘OutDaughtered’: Adam and Danielle Worry Hazel ‘Freezes Up’ as She Tries to Conquer a Major First (Exclusive)
In PEOPLE's exclusive sneak peek, Adam Busby fretted over how Hazel's vision impairment was impacting her development as Danielle urged him to encourage Hazel to speak up for herself amid challenges
Hazel Busby is gearing up to conquer a major milestone on OutDaughtered.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peek at Tuesday’s episode, Adam Busby tells wife Danielle Busby that their daughter Hazel learning to ride her bike is a “work in progress.”
Hazel, who was 7 at the time of filming and is now 8, was born with an eye condition called congenital nystagmus, an “involuntary movement of the eye.”
As the rest of the quints chat excitedly about their bike-riding skills — Parker called herself the “fastest bike rider in the whole entire earth while Riley and Olivia claimed they could stand up on their bikes — Hazel appears discouraged and admits, “I’m not excited to learn how to ride my bike.”
Adam then voices his concerns to Danielle. “She just doesn’t get that she just needs to pedal hard,” he says of Hazel. “Like, she’s gotta pedal. If she feels at all like she starts to get kind of ‘tippy,’ she just stops. She kind of freezes up.”
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Danielle points out that Ava did the same thing when she learned to ride a bike and admits that she’s “not surprised” Hazel is nervous.
“The thing is, how much [are] her glasses helping whenever she’s moving fast?” Adam questions. “She normally isn’t moving that fast. And so it’s like she doesn’t quite trust herself.”
Danielle is skeptical. “To me, that doesn’t mean anything that has to do with vision,” she says. “Look at Ava. Ava gets nervous to go fast on a bike and is kind of still scared of it. So I don’t know if it’s like vision or not.”
“I just don’t wanna jump to that being the thing every time,” Danielle adds. “I don’t like doing that to her. Because we wouldn’t second guess that if it was any of the other girls. But because Hazel has nystagmus, we must immediately say, ‘This is what this is.’”
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In an interview with producers, Danielle explains more about nystagmus and how it simply means Hazel’s eyes flutter. “Your first reaction with Hazel is, ‘Can she not not see clearly?’” she says. “But Hazel’s also learning how to speak up for herself, so that’s a whole ‘nother question.”
Adam chimes in: “It’s just, we don’t know what we don’t know. And until Hazel can fully understand and communicate exactly what she sees and what she’s feeling at any given moment, we just do the best that we can.”
Danielle tells Adam she sometimes thinks they automatically assume Hazel’s vision is the reason she’s struggling, but that it might not be the case here. Adam says he agrees with that, but at the same time, he’s “not just gonna shove her down the driveway.”
“It’s more about her just speaking up for herself and communicating,” Danielle says. However, Adam is still concerned that Hazel “isn’t quite trusting what she sees.”
When Danielle questions if Adam has tried simply asking Hazel what she’s feeling, he pauses and then responds, “I’ll try that.”
Season 9 of OutDaughtered airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.
