Two months ago, I began working with a beautiful seven-year-old girl named Olivia.  Her father had found me on the internet, and called me to discuss his daughter’s prescription. 

At the young age of 6, she had been fitted with a pair of glasses, complete with a correction for astigmatism, but now, one year later, she had been prescribed glasses that were double in strength, (-4 diopters) and her parents were baffled … why would such a young, healthy girl be losing her vision so quickly? 

They were really shocked about her rapidly worsening near-sightedness and the Optometrist had no explanation for them, except to say something vague about her ‘growing too fast’.  They were mystified and concerned.

Working with Olivia continues to be such a delight for me, because she is eager to improve her vision (and accepted the idea immediately), she listens to my explanations and instructions carefully, and then just goes off and integrates her vision practices into her daily routine – no problem.

I have to add that her parents have been wonderfully supportive.  They are both present when I meet with Olivia. so everybody understands the plan and all questions are answered at each session.  Olivia’s Mom helped her to create a schedule which they follow without fail.  When we meet, there are no excuses … “Oh, we forgot for a few days”, “We were too busy this week”, “I wasn’t feeling well so missed several days”, etc. etc.

They just showed up every day despite their very busy schedule, colds or flu cropping up, etc. and did the Natural Vision practices!  The whole family was committed to this.  After 5 weeks like this, there was a noticeable improvement. 

We all agreed that it was time for Olivia to be re-evaluated by an Optometrist, and I recommended one who would be cooperative and give Olivia a 20/40 prescription, that would be much easier on her eyes and vision while we were working together.

I am delighted to say that into her second month of Natural Vision Improvement practices, Olivia is now wearing -2 lenses – back to half what she was wearing previously, and she only uses them at school, when the board work is detailed and still blurry for her.  She says the -2′s feel just right, and the -4′s have been rejected completely.  Olivia says they give her a headache quite quickly – a sign of glasses that are too strong.

Olivia’s parents have given her one of the greatest gifts a child can be given, in my opinion.  Guiding her along and supporting her, they have helped her take her eyesight back and into her own hands (literally, because she palms a lot and loves it), and helped her unload those strong lenses at this early stage.

I have another client who is in his 20′s and started with me with a prescription of -13 in each eye.  He also began to wear lenses at age six and was wearing -4′s, all the time, when he was very young, as he was growing and forming habits.

Now, at age 26, having faithfully worn glasses all these years (believing sincerely that this was the healthy thing to do for his eyesight), he has a strong dependency on these thick lenses.  We will reduce this as we work together, but one can’t help but wonder how much clearer his vision would be now if he’d had the help and encouragement that Olivia has.

If Olivia had continued to wear those -4′s all day, every day … well, there isn’t much doubt in my mind that her eyesight would be much worse as she entered adulthood, and her dependency on the lenses, much more pronounced.  I shudder to think about it, having watched her quick improvement and knowing that she is now playing at the park on swings and playing ball games without lenses and without problems.

Olivia’s a very lucky girl for two reasons; the persistence of her parents in finding another way, and for their commitment to helping her reclaim the clear vision she’d had only a couple of years before.  She’ll never forget this experience, and her eyesight will likely be stronger and healthier for life.

Experiences like this help me to recommit daily to my passion of getting this information ‘out there’, and for that reason a group of us have just formed www.canadianvisioneducators.com because we need to spread the word across the country in any way possible.

The alternative of risk-free Natural Vision practices should be in the hands of parents and educators, so that more children can grow up ‘glasses free’ and know how to care for their precious eyes, for life.