Myopia control can be a great part of your child’s eye care. Myopia is an eye condition that makes it hard for people to focus on objects that are far. Your child’s eye doctor may call it shortsightedness or nearsightedness.
Myopia normally starts between the ages of six and 14. It affects about five percent of toddlers, around nine percent of school-aged children, and close to 30 percent of teenagers. Children whose parents have myopia are more likely to become nearsighted.
Myopia control can protect your child’s eye health. It reduces your child’s chances of developing severe eye problems later in life.
Myopia control is the part of children’s eye care concerned with delaying the progression of myopia in children.
Myopia begins in childhood and gets worse as a child continues to grow. With the disease, the eyeball is longer than usual (from front to back), or the cornea is too bent. This makes images that are distant from you look blurred. Myopia becomes worse as your eyeball grows.
Your child should start myopia control as soon as your child's eye doctor recommends it. That is right after the eye doctor has identified that your child is at a higher risk of getting myopia.
Myopia in children worsens every few months. But with myopia control, your child's eye doctor can slow it down to protect your child's eyes.
Myopia is a permanent eye condition, and early control aims to keep the condition from getting worse. The disease puts your child at a greater risk of developing eye problems later. Among these are glaucoma, retinal detachment, and cataract.
Slowing down myopia can help protect your child’s eyes as they grow, even though they will still need to use contact lenses or eyeglasses.
Myopia is irreversible, and because it is genetic, prevention is not likely. However, eye doctors can treat it and prevent it from worsening. Also, there are things your child can do to help delay its progression.
These include:
Treatment options for myopia depend on your child’s age and how severe the myopia is. Your child’s eye doctor may suggest any of the following treatments:
Bifocal eyeglasses have two focal points. One point corrects close-up vision, and another compensates for distance vision. Multifocal eyeglasses offer clear eyesight for objects close by, far away, and everything in between.
Multifocal contact lenses work just like multifocal eyeglasses. They allow you to adjust your focus to see all distances.
These are medicinal eye drops that help stop your child’s eyes from growing too long. Myopia gets worse as the eyes grow longer.
Ortho-k uses special gas-permeable lenses to reshape the eye as your child sleeps. They also help decrease the lengthening of the eye with time.
For more on the age your child should start myopia control, call Nappanee Family Eyecare at (574) 319-9390 to reach our office in Nappanee, Indiana.