Sunday, November 18, 2007

Optical Illusion


In March this year, my daughter Bethany was squinting a lot. Was it a ‘habit’ that developed from an unmet need and a way of getting some extra parental attention? Was she reading too much? Paul suggested we take her to an optometrist. Against my better judgement I went. I avoid the medical profession, and opticians come under the same category. I was horrified when he said she needed glasses for all ‘close work’, like reading, sewing, knitting, drawing, etc.

He said to come back in six months. This man, with the social skills of a dead ant, was very dismissive of any holistic approach, including pin hole glasses. I bit my tongue.

For the duration of the six months I felt uneasy. When her check-up was due, I chose another optometrist. There was panic and they said her eyes had deteriorated rapidly in six months and prescribed her ‘new glasses’… Here’s an irony, they wouldn’t even use her old frames without charging me £20 for the recycling pleasure. I didn’t find this woman’s social skills to be much better than the last optometrist's.

They said Bethany needed to see a specialist. Thank Goddess for that!

When we travelled over to Hexham hospital to meet him, I was immediately struck by how pleasant he was, his FANTASTIC eye contact, and his honesty. He was stunned that she’d been prescribed glasses in the first place. Her vision is normal. Apparently, according to him, many children are being prescribed glasses in the UK ~ no coincidence that the optometrist gets £20 from the government each time a child gets new glasses.

Until we saw him, I’d been planning to get hold of a holistic eyesight book from Findhorn Press. I’d read excerpts online about the metaphysical reasons for various eye disorders and felt this to be the path we would have pursued in remedying the situation.

If your child has been prescribed glasses, listen to your heart and consider getting an opinion from a specialist who has no ulterior motive.

4 comments:

rae-ann said...

Thank you for raising awareness of this issue (most notably the payment made for each pair of glasses sold *sigh*).

I hope things resolve themselves and I'll be interested to hear if you try the pinhole glasses or the Bates method.

When I think of V with an ear infection, I often find that I have been raising my voice recently - so she chooses not to listen to me anymore.

Is there anything in her life that your angel is choosing not to see right now?

Can I ask what your views on dentists are? Do you go for your regular 6 month checkups as a preventative or do you use them when something 'goes wrong'?

We've never taken dd, but I'm not really sure how I feel about it........

Much love to you and yours,
Rae x

Unknown said...

hi Rae ~ we didn't do dentists for a few years because of a VERY bad experience..not anything he did, as such, but his horrible attitude..it really traumatised her.

We now have a WONDERFUL dentist...very like minded on many levels..I really like him personally, as well as professionally. We don't go at any set time...

as for bethany's eyes...the metaphysical aspect was certainly the first thing i looked at...'what doesn't she want to see?'. The excerpt I'd read in relation to astigmatism (which interestingly, her sister from paul's first marriage has) suggested (emotional) issues with the grandparents that had been passed down. Always handy to pass the blame to someone else isn't it? LOL


Love, v

lijhe said...

I just want to add into the mix that most children are naturally far-sighted -- meaning their eyes are better at seeing far away than very near. Doing too much close work at this age can result in eye strain which can result in other issues -- one of the most common right now, something of an epidemic actually, is accommodative strabismus. It seems to me that this must have much to do with the push to make children begin reading at younger and younger ages, and is one reason I am perfectly happy that my children have been learning to read "late".

thatdietcokegirl said...

hi veronika,

just wondering, how did you end up taking care of the situation ultimately? does yr daughter still squint? i'm interested also to know what book on holistic eye health you were considering buying. i've just been to Findhorn Press's website but i couldn't find a book on eye health or anything.

thx,
suzy :)