Does your child have myopia or nearsightedness?
If so, they could be at risk for major eye diseases as an adult…
Here are some of the major factors that can put your child at risk:
- Age - the younger a child develops myopia, the faster they will progress, with children 7 years of age progressing by at least 1D per year with this halving by age 11-12. If your child's glasses prescription worsens each year, they could be at risk for high myopia .
- Family history - A child with 2 myopic parents has a 1 in 2 chance of developing myopia. A child with only 1 myopic parent has a 1 in 3 chance in developing myopia. If neither parent has myopia, the child has a 1 in 4 chance of developing myopia.
- Visual environment – children who are involved with lots of near work (computer use, reading, writing, tablet use) and durations of longer than 45 minutes have been linked with more myopia progression.
- Ethnicity - Asian ethnicity has been linked to faster myopia progression than other ethnicities.
Hi! I’m Dr. Stephanie Woo from the Contact Lens Institute of Nevada, and I think it is incredibly important that you as a parent understand the risks of high myopia. If your child’s prescription keeps getting stronger and stronger each year, they could be on their way toward high myopia.
Patients with high myopia are 22x more at risk for disease such as retinal detachments and glaucoma!
The good news is that you can help slow down the progression of their myopia with something called orthokeratology.
This is a special type of contact lens that not only corrects your child’s vision, but actually slows down the rate of progression.
This will result in an overall lower amount of myopia and majorly decrease their chances of developing detrimental eye diseases in the future.
