Baby without eyes enjoys swimming


In this article, we have an adorable 13-month-old Daisy Smith who laughs out loudly and gleefully every time her mother Danielle takes her for a swim at the pool.
However, Daisy will never be able to see her mother’s smiles or where she is swimming because she was born with a unique condition – she has no eyes. The toddler relies on touch and sound to make sense of the world around her.
She suffers with anophthalmia, a rare condition which affects one in every 10,000 babies in the UK. During her pregnancy, Danielle and her partner were told that Daisy had a cyst on her brain. They were offered to terminate the pregnancy. But the couple decided to carry on, and they have since ensured a normal childhood for their beautiful daughter, allowing her to enjoy her first splashes in the pool like any other child.
“We found out that Daisy loves the water – it’s her favourite thing and it really makes her laugh. I can’t wait to see her face every week when we go to the pool. It just lights up in a big smile,” said Danielle.
Danielle is an enthusiastic swimmer who wanted Daisy to enjoy the feel of water around her. She then took Daisy to swim at just six weeks old.
“I was nervous taking her into the pool for the first time – I thought she would scream the place down.
“But she loved it right from the start. She started smiling and her legs were going like mad.”
Daisy enjoys herself so much that dunking in the water is not a problem at all. She goes to Serrenu Children’s Centre in Risca, Newport weekly for her Monday swims. She starts laughing and knows where she is the moment she hears the creaking doors to the pool, her mother said.
She will be getting glass eyes which work as expanders for her eye sockets. It is simply beautiful and wonderful how disability does not get in the way to enjoying life, and swimming is definitely the best therapy to pure joy!