Ways to stop kid's myopia (short-sightedness)?

[Leo12345]

Hi!

My daughter is now 7 years old.

1 year ago she was diagnosed with myopia about 0.5 each eye.
Now we came for the test and she already has -2.0

I myself have had myopia since the age of 10 and it progressed from about -1.5 to -5.0 (I am 41 now). When I was child, I did different exercises for the eyes and even attended special course several times a week: I was reading my book for one hour and the nurse would change lenses in my glasses once in 5 minutes (lences from +5 to -5 in steps of 1 dioptre).

Now, I am afraid the myopia of my daughter can progress very fast.
Opticians say she just needs to change glasses - that's it, they even did not want to give me referral to the GP. They say it is 'normal' etc. - they absolutely don't care, just humiliating.

And I am absolutely sure that if I come to our GP, he will say the same: don't worry, use glasses, come for the eye test next year.

But I do worry, because once myopia reaches high values it may lead to retina detachment. And as far as I know, myopia can never 'improve', you can only slow it down. Because myopia is caused by the eye-ball growth, it can never contract back.

If each year it will worsen 1.5 dioptres (like this year), in 10 years she will develop -17.0!

We are now in our family trying to put strict control on how our daughter reads (and she loves reading and wants to read a lot). I am considering buying very large computer monitor, so she will be able to read e-books from 2 meter distance (when the eye is not focused on close objects, the accomodation muscle is not strained and the eye-ball growth does not occur).

Are there any private clinics in Greater London which specialise on stopping myopia progress with children?

Do you have similar problem with your kids? What do you do? Just each time wait for another year to visit the optician and see the vision worsened by another 2 dioptres?

£250 to "get started" and then around £54 per month. It's a no from me.

@flyingpinkrabbit

what's the minimum age of wearing Othro K? Could you wear this for more than 15 years? Could you still go swimming etcs? Thank you

I’m not sure on minimum age but posters have said they’re kids wear them. I’ve been wearing them for 17 years and not planning on stopping and you don’t wear them during the day so you can go swimming and do whatever you like.

There isn't a way to reverse myopia but there is a way to
reduce it's progression. It's by using hard gas permeable lenses overnight to shape the cornea. The ones my daughter uses are called Ortho-K. My daughter started to develop shortsightedness as she was going into secondary school. A month after she got glasses (-1,25 in each eye) we went to the Institute of Optometry in Elephant and Castle, London and she got her first set of Ortho-k lenses. She was 11. She is now 19 and just started university and wanted to get some glasses in case she hasn't worn her lenses for a couple of nights. We went to a local Specsavers and got her eyes tested (3 days without lenses first) She is still -1.25 in both eyes. Her friends who got glasses around the same time as her have all had significantly progressive myopia. The optician was amazed. You can only use the system of night lenses for a prescription of below -3.5. It is great for a child to be able to go to school, swim etc with corrected vision during the day and my daughter can put her lenses in within a minute now and from the start hasn't had any problem sleeping with them in. When my daughter was 11, I did a lot of research and reading and went down the overnight lens path as my sister had progressive myopia, and there is myopia in both sides of the family. There is now quite a lot of evidence that this system dramatically reduces myopia progression. Generally it's a system that can be used from about 7-8 years of age. The drawback is the cost around £40 a month and it did take a couple of weeks for my daughter to get used to putting in lenses at night and to be scrupulously clean when handling them. I would definitely do it again, I am convinced that by now my daughter would be very short sighted if we hadn't gone down the orthokeratology path.

I hadn't realised this was a thread from 2014! I've basically therefore given a far too long update, yes after 8 years of use, Ortho-k work in our case to reduce myopia progression.

@mushroom3

There isn't a way to reverse myopia but there is a way to reduce it's progression. It's by using hard gas permeable lenses overnight to shape the cornea. The ones my daughter uses are called Ortho-K. My daughter started to develop shortsightedness as she was going into secondary school. A month after she got glasses (-1,25 in each eye) we went to the Institute of Optometry in Elephant and Castle, London and she got her first set of Ortho-k lenses. She was 11. She is now 19 and just started university and wanted to get some glasses in case she hasn't worn her lenses for a couple of nights. We went to a local Specsavers and got her eyes tested (3 days without lenses first) She is still -1.25 in both eyes. Her friends who got glasses around the same time as her have all had significantly progressive myopia. The optician was amazed. You can only use the system of night lenses for a prescription of below -3.5. It is great for a child to be able to go to school, swim etc with corrected vision during the day and my daughter can put her lenses in within a minute now and from the start hasn't had any problem sleeping with them in. When my daughter was 11, I did a lot of research and reading and went down the overnight lens path as my sister had progressive myopia, and there is myopia in both sides of the family. There is now quite a lot of evidence that this system dramatically reduces myopia progression. Generally it's a system that can be used from about 7-8 years of age. The drawback is the cost around £40 a month and it did take a couple of weeks for my daughter to get used to putting in lenses at night and to be scrupulously clean when handling them. I would definitely do it again, I am convinced that by now my daughter would be very short sighted if we hadn't gone down the orthokeratology path.

Thank you so so much for sharing the very first hand experience.

I was hoping you could still reply although this was a very thread.

I'm very excited to learn the news of your child, this gives me hope.

Did you give your child any glasses before choosing Othro K lenses?

Since she has been wearing it for 8 years, has she always had it every single night? Has she ever experienced any infections in cornea as I read this could be common?

Have you met any younger children wear Othro K lenses?

On the day of swimming, can she still wear it at night? Some people recommend to not wear it Othro K if you would go swimming on the day, to reduce the risks of infection.

Have you also had other intervention method to slow down the progression such as using atropine eye drop?

I'm so sorry to bombard you with many questions, I truly appreciate your answer. Thank you very much

I can update from dds point of view. She's had hers for about 6 years I think, after I posted questions on this thread. They certainly have been expensive, but her eyesight has barely changed. Her astigmatism has got slightly worse, but she hasn't become any more myopic. Given her mine and dhs prescriptions, it seems quite miraculous.

She is always scrupulous about routine and hasn't had any infections. Wears them practically every night, but on the rare occasions she doesn't she can get through most of the day without noticing and deterioration. She never wears her glasses.

@flyingpinkrabbit my daughter has never had an infection. I didn't know that about swimming, she has worn them on nights before and after swimming. She wore glasses for a month before starting the Ortho-K . She does sometimes not wear them for a night eg if she is travelling and her vision is not as quite as good the next day, but back to normal after she wears her lenses for a night. Occasionally she has had a speck of dust or some other debris under one lens, that means for one day her eyesight hasn't been as good as normal in that eye but is fine in the other eye. She didn't wear her glasses at all, but she has now got new ones as the old ones were from when she was 11. (same prescription). She got them just as backup if for some reason she couldn't wear her lenses for a few days. She has gone through the ages where myopia typically progresses with no change in prescription. Given our family history on both sides, I would have expected her to be quite short sighted by now.