headaches from white board

[Clawdeen]

Not sure if this is the right place to post or if I should post in health but here goes.

My DD has been complaining of 'board ache' as she describes it for over 18 months. I've taken her for 6 monthly eye tests which haven't flagged up any problems. Her teacher has tried moving her about on the carpet but this hasn't had much effect. She only seems to complain about it in relation to school and the white board.

Having just started back at school, it's got worse again. In fact she says it is the worse it's ever been. In addition to the head aches, her eyes are hurting too. It's making her very tired. Her teacher says they have a new, very large white board. We've been back to the opticians again, but still told she has 20/20 vision.

Last night she told me that she is getting some sort of double vision when looking at the white board- the line she is reading is sometimes repeated below. She says it is worse if the text is close together. She sometimes also gets this when reading a book. I have noticed she's skipping words though that could be because she reads fast. Her reading level is above expected for age and she is achieving well at school.

I don't know what to do. I've been googling this morning and found mention of behavioural optometrists- does anyone have any experience?

Dont feel guilty (easier said) you are trying your best for her

I can't believe the optician said that! JUst ignore them.

Don't beat yourself up OP, I have referred many children to behavioral optometrists over the years and yet still failed to notice my son had a significant eye teaming issue.

I know it is pricey but I would try and get her assessed properly. It could be that the glasses to correct her astigmatism will remove a great deal of the stress on the eyes anyway, but best to be sure.

Since the start of school DD complained she couldn't see correctly opticians found nothing. As part of dyslexia assessment last year she had behavioural optometry assessment which found a huge visual processing disorder. She has always been a good reader with reading age well in advance of her age, but her spelling age is way, way behind her age.
Getting the right type of glasses has really helped. She has had a lot of turmoil in her life and school were putting a lot of her problems down to stress. Only through private assessment did we get the answers we needed.
I have a much, much happier child with fewer migraines (which had previously been attributed to stress).

Dd has only had her lenses a year and her headaches have almost gone she got a motion sickness headache feeling she said. She also uses them for her driving lessons to read signs and to have clarity to road markings.

I don't like the sound of the optician! They should know that it's quite common for children to have problems with whiteboards. When DS1 was about 8 he became photophobic. The optician told us to go to the GP for a hospital referral, which we did. That was when we were told that the problem was with the whiteboard. The teacher was happy to make some adjustments so he didn't have to look at it as much and he coped. In hindsight I wish I'd asked for non-prescription glasses with a very, very slight tint (I had tinted specs for a while at school as I was photophobic.)
So, try the new glasses but if that doesn't work go to your GP for a referral and a more thorough check.

Optician sounds hopeless.

Ds has 20-20 vision in both eyes, unfortunately that mattered not a jot as his eye muscles weren't working properly so couldn't focus properly...

As other have said, it may take a behavioural optometrist to work out what's going on.

instead of the optician go to the doctor (and explain everything) who can/will refer her to the hospital to get a full assessment

When I was 10, I was having double vision when I looked at the blackboard during geography. It was only geography it happened in (realised later that it was because we were in a different classroom and I was at a weird angle to the board) and my best friend had just got (fabulous) glasses, but mum still took me to the optician even though she was suspicious.

My vision was assessed as being perfect, but they wanted me to go back and have some drops put in and be re-checked. I ended up needing surgery to re-correct a squint that my body had "self-corrected" (and was going the other way) - they tried prism glasses but they didn't work for more than a very short period each time they were changed (my prism was up to 30 dioptres at the end).

My vision was then perfect until I was 17, when I became mildly shortsighted. Unfortunately (due to Ehlers Danlos Syndrome) the ligaments holding my eyes in place are too stretchy so I've needed prisms in my glasses for the past ten years or so (although it's not as bad as when I was a kid, now only on a 5 dioptre - but this along with my -3.5 prescription means my lenses are super-thick on the outside, which limits the style of frames I can choose).