Childhood Myopia - corrective lens or not?

[Biscuitandacuppa]

I’ve just come back from my daughters annual eye test and her sight has changed from being long sighted to short sighted. She is now +1.00. Her opticians have recommended Ortho K corrective lens to slow the progression of the myopia.

It is £150 for the assessment and fitting and then £50 a month for the lens. My daughter is 10 and like many children over lockdown her screen time had vastly increased with online schooling. She has also been diagnosed with dyslexia and visual stress so often uses an iPad or chrome book in school so she can keep up with the rest of the class.

I’m concerned about progressive myopia and the impact on her long term but the cost is significant,
I’m on a low income and it equals a weeks shopping for me! Obviously if she will benefit from the lens long term it’s the right choice but she isn’t keen at all to wear lens.

Has anyone tried these with their dc? Did they tolerate them and was it worth it?

So it's contact lenses they are suggesting? Are they not covered under the optical voucher thing?

I'd ask what the other options were as it sounds expensive and would penalise those who were unable to afford it.

They are corrective lens that you wear overnight and they mould the shape of your cornea so that you don’t need to wear glasses the next day. It’s not a permanent change but does slow the progression of short-sightedness.

Is it -1?

Short sightedness is a minus prescription.

And yes +1 is long sight
Would you not get help with costs as she is under 16?

I have quite severe myopia after having perfect version up until about age 10, mine personally declined quite quickly in those preteen and early teen years.

If you can stretch to it and realistically think she will comply then seriously think about doing it. My risk of retinal detachment is so high that I can’t play certain sports, can’t ride rollercoasters at theme parks and just generally have to be super careful about my vision. I am careful about where I go on holiday re access to medical care should I have a detachment. I periodically end up in a&e when there is a change to my vision like significant new floaters or flashes. Neither of my parents are glasses wearers either, I was just unlucky.

This is the prescription

@clatterclatter thank you for posting, that is my concern. The long term risks are significant.

I’ve just tried to ring them to ask about the voucher but I think they’ve closed for the day. Thank you for mentioning it as I’d not realised that it included lens for children.

She also needs her annual visual stress assessment as she has tinted lens on her current reading glasses. She also is under the care of the hospital for optical nerve compression although that seems stable and she is on long term review. Her eyes have always been problematic!

I would do whatever you can to slow progression. I've spent my entire life with a rubbish eye due to a head injury suffered as a toddler. I'm now -29 in one eye, and as a previous poster says, cant do anything that risks retinal detachment. Have been in and out of A&E countless times. If this was available when I was younger, I would have jumped at the chance!

Can you get a free, NHS, contact lens (standard lenses, not the ortho ones) trail first.
DS wanted conracts for sport, but couldnt get them in or out, so it was a disaster.
We are contemplating etched lenses - but as glasses, not lenses. Not sure if its different for long/short sightedness.

Just spoke to opticians, they are still open. The voucher is only worth £39 so would cover some of the cost for her tinted lenses (she will still need them even if they only have clear glass in).

Good idea about a trial, I’m really not sure she will tolerate them. For her the future risks aren’t really real. They are to me obviously! I’ll talk to her when she gets over the shock of me telling her screen time is now extremely restricted at home.

I think I will contact her father, he has limited contact but does financially support her. If he will agree to split the cost then I think I will try it.

Or rather try to persuade her to try it.

Ds wears mi-sight contact lenses, they're also meant to slow the progression of short sight but he wears them during the day like normal contacts. They're just like my own soft lenses so I've no idea how they work. He tolerates them fine. It took about 4 opticians visits before hw could get them in and out on his own but once he got them home he'd mastered it within a few days and we've never had any problems since. His prescription has stayed fairly stable over 2 years.
I'm terribly short sighted and my prescription changed most in my teens so I'm keen to spend money on making his sight less bad in the long term if at all possible. Its money well spent for us. But we're lucky, we can afford it by making a few cutbacks like branded trainers and clothes, and ds understands why. His brother might have thought differently and prioritised a branded hoodie over better eyesight in later life.

Optometrist here. Not loads of evidence that this works long term. I'd save your money

I didn't know you could get Contact lenses on NHS. Ds has been wearing them since he was about 10 for sport. We were always told contact lenses sight tests and lenses were private and not available on NHS

You can use voucher towards annual lenses but not daily or monthly lenses. You won't then get voucher for specs

@Earlgreyandcake do you have any advice? Given she has visual stress, weak eye muscles (ophthalmoplegia), increased optic nerve pressure and her eyesight has deteriorated 5 points in 12 months. Would you just limit screen time, and provide prescription tinted glasses? I am concerned about the longer term and how this may impact her life.

She’s slightly long sighted, I was -7 for years until I had laser surgery

What was her previous prescription because at first sight her new one isn't that bad?

Think they're supposed to get lots of daylight and time outside too.

Research (paid for by people that supply myopia lenses) suggests that the lenses stop myopic progression. However there is little follow up as to what happens if you stop wearing the lenses. Myopic progress tends to stop after 8 years anyway. I'd stick with tinted glasses

That prescription is very mild. I wouldn't stress too much about the corrective lenses just yet. 10 is quite young to take care of them properly herself. Wait and see if she progresses quickly or not. My daughter tried these overnight lenses and ended up with a very severe corneal infection and scarrring. Now her vision as a result is much worse in the affected eye than it ever would have been with the myopia alone. Make sure you are fully aware of the associated risks beforehand.

OP the majority of people who are short sighted don’t have vision like the PP who are at risk of their retina detaching.

Your daughters at an age where her vision will change quite rapidly, then it should settle down and her prescription probably won’t change much.

I am dyslexic and also had weak eye muscles (binocular instability) which made tracking words more difficult. I was given eye exercises to help with the eye muscles and that really helped with the tracking.

I understand that your intention is to hopefully limit the deterioration of her vision but I think you need to be careful not to make her think that wearing glasses is a bad thing. Atleast my mum had forever been trying to get me to wear contacts because ‘glasses hide my face’ and it’s bloody annoying. I also have a lot of adult friends who have and need glasses but are too self conscious to wear them most of the time.

Your DD needs to know that there is absolutely nothing wrong with needing to wear glasses.

I wouldn't at that age and with that prescription, it's only very mild.

A prescription of -1 is very mild for a 10yr old. I would get her more outdoor time. It’s any indoor time that can contribute to myopia....not just screens. I would not spend the money for Ortho K lenses now as not a lot of evidence they work and her eyes won’t necessarily get dramatically worse long term. I’d wait a year or two to see what kind of curve/trend she is on. I also think she is a bit too young to manage contact lenses. My DC started contact lenses same age I did at 13.

Can I just say, thank you all very much, the tone from the optician was rather doom and gloom and I’ve obviously reacted!
I also asked about her age and whether it was appropriate for lens and they said they have children as young as 7 on the lens.

She was + 0.50 I think from memory from her last prescription but having headaches when reading.