Myopia, or near-sightedness has become a world-wide epidemic. In many Asian countries a very high percentage of children are highly myopic. Highly near-sighted parents will pass on their genes to their children. The eye can grow long in childhood and create blurred distance vision, but more concerning, it creates a thinned, stretched retina that is fragile. High myopia during childhood and early teen years leads to high risk for may ocular diseases for those patients as adults.
The causes and interventions for progressive myopia have been extensively studied over the past 15 years and the reseach has shown us that myopia progression can be significantly slowed in children under age 14.
It is know that children who spend at least 2 hours (cumulative) outdoors each day have less progression of near-sightedness. We recommend that children spend at elast 2 hours outside most days. The sunlight slows the stimulus of the eye to grow longer.
We now have spectacles lenses, Stellera, and contact lenses, MiSight, that aid in reducing the progression of the near-sigtedness by slowing the elongation of the eye. If you or your spouse are moderately near-sighted and you have small children, please get them an evaluation for myopia control lenses. You can affect their life-long ocular health by treating it now.