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Letters About the Peeking Issue

First Letter

Dr. Packer, Thank you for your interest in our product, and for the nice compliment about our daughter. When we first started patching Lindsey, the total occlusion was not a factor for our pediatric ophthalmologist, so I developed a product that met the needs that he required. Since we started selling them to the public almost 2 years now, this issue of total occlusion quickly became the #1 question we were faced with. Not knowing that there were pediatric ophthalmologists that were saying we need to have total occlusion. Since I have dealt with many dentists over the last 20 years with my lab, and my wife being an RN for the last 15 years at a hospital, we know that each doctor can have his own personal preference of treatments depending on his or her research and schooling. This led us to asking why the need for total occlusion, if the required results were being met without total occlusion? After many others around the country that have used our lenses, some whose DR required total and others that did not, they, the parents, for numerous reasons have used our lenses, and with no exceptions, after a followup appointment, have had great results, and most were better than expected. The DR's have been impressed with the results we are getting with them, so we have become much more eager to find out why the need for total occlusion. This is my theory, just like with the orthodontists that I do work for, their main concern when using any of the removable appliances (headgear, retainers, etc.) is compliance. With the introduction of the colored retainers and elastics, it brought immediate compliance. If they had their way the child would wear his head gear for much longer periods of time, but they know this is hard to do so they settle for hours when they are not out in public, thus extending the length of treatment. We have felt that this may be the reason for the total occlusion treatment, the DR knowing that there is going to be a struggle with patching, so let's get the most out of the time patched. Our Lindsey's Lenses has removed all of that and we are almost faced with the child not wanting to take them off, and this has been the case with several of the kids. The kids are willing to wear them to school with no problems. This is a portion of a letter I sent to Dr. Rosenbaum, (a pediatric opthamologist) at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. One of the most common problems we read about is that once the child is diagnosed, how hard it is to get a consistent treatment plan. The parents go to their pediatrician, optometrist, optician, school clinic, opthamologist, pediatric opthamologist, and they can all have varying opinions. Our daughter used our patches under the care of a pediatric opthamologist, and the results were great. We have other children whose pediatric opthamologist gave them our literature and are getting great results. In a publication put out by the Institute for families of blind children, with acknowledgments from your foundation, state the following; "the most important ingredients are patience persistence and support. Flexibility and creativity will also help you accomplish your goal." "And no parent wants to feel like the 'bad guy' constantly at odds with a child over this much-needed treatment." THAT IS AND HAS BEEN OUR GOAL WITH LINDSEY'S LENSES. We want to work with the Dr's to get the best results for the Children.

Second Letter

Nancy, We received some correspondence today from you, along with one of your books "My new eye patch". I thought the gist of the letter was a concern about our Lindsey's Lenses and the ability to peek. The last line in the letter asks me to let you know what I think. I wasn't sure if that was regarding your concerns about peeking, or the book you sent, so I will do both. I think that the book you sent me is a very good source of information and would like to put a link to your site if that is ok with you. To begin with, we find that so many kids are 5 -8 years old and up before they are even diagnosed with amblyopia. One of the most common problems we read about is that once the child is diagnosed, how hard it is to get a consistent treatment plan. The parents go to their pediatrician, optometrist, optician, school clinic, opthamologist, pediatric opthamologist, and they can all have varying opinions. When we first had our daughter patched it was an ugly bandaid patch on her lens. She was only 3, and a very compliant child, but she did not like this (she cried). Now we can, as many do, make their child wear them because it is after all, for their own good. However, after offering Lindsey's Lenses we find that many parents do not have a compliant child, or because you are covering the good eye the child just naturally wants to remove it. Also, they have older kids that are in school and have to face the other kids who can be very cruel. In my line of work, Orthodontics, there is the same problem with kids wearing headgear. The orthodontists would love to have the kids wear the headgear for much longer periods of time, but because of embarrassment and what other kids say, the Drs. only have them wear it when not out in public. We believe, and have found it to be true with our lenses, that the trade off for some peeking is, that the kids love their lenses and will wear them as much as needed without fighting. On page 11 of your book you state the following "the most important ingredients are patience persistence and support. Flexibility and creativity will also help you accomplish your goal." We feel that we are doing just that in offering parents our lenses. You will find many Drs. who argue against the total occlusion method. We have found that there really has never been a product like ours, so Drs. naturally go for what they think will get the most out of patch time as they can, again knowing that kids don't like any of the patches out there (not to mention the skin irritations). We let the kids pick out which lenses they want and each lens is made for that pair of glasses, no small, medium and large to choose from. They come in a nice case that says Lindsey's Lenses made just for...and we put their name on the case. I noticed when I read your book, that the whole book is geared toward getting your child to wear the patch. On page 15 you talk about introducing the patch to the child and maybe they will only wear it for 5 minutes or, he may be cooperative for up to an hour. You say it may take up to 2 weeks to get the desired amount of patch time, now that is 'big time peeking'. How about, the minute they get their Lindsey's Lenses they put them on and it's done. This whole book can be avoided using our Lindsey's Lenses (granted there will exceptions). I once wrote a person who was concerned about the peeking; "Look at it this way. Let's say you catch her peeking as she talks to you or other times about 120 times each day, and each time lasts 30 sec. You have 1 hour total of lost patching, but we deal with kids who don't want to patch and so they get 3- 4 hours a day of patching because the kids won't patch at school or other public places. Now with Lindsey's Lenses, we are finding that they will wear them all day, about 14 hours, minus the 1 hour of peeking you get 13 hours of good patching. It is all in how you look at it. The peeking is noticeable, but keep it in perspective. The trade off is a little loss in patch time but you get great compliance and longer times of patching. Just something to think about as you talk to the Dr."

Bruce & Carol