Myopia in Children

Does Your Child Suffer From Myopia? 

Does your child always squint or rub his/her eyes when trying to look at far away objects? Or does your child always read his/her book at a very close distance?

Your child could be suffering from myopia. 

What is Myopia?

Myopia, commonly known as nearsightedness, is a very common eye health issue, especially among children. Myopia normally develops during childhood. It is a condition where one can see near objects well, but have trouble seeing objects at a distance clearly.

Those with myopia usually have longer eyeball length compared to normal healthy eyes, where the light rays is unable to focus on the retina but focus in front of the retina. Aside from that, if the cornea (outer layer of eye) is too curved, the light that enters the eyes won’t be able to focus correctly on the retina. All of these will lead to blur vision at a distance. 

Image credit: https://humanbodyanddiseases.weebly.com/myopia.html 

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, there’s evidence that myopia prevalence keep increasing globally and recent study shows that an estimate of about 50% of the population worldwide (about 5 billion people) will have myopia by 2050. 

Genetic and environmental factors are both the reasons contributing to myopia development. Some eye experts believe that children who spend more time using their eyes on “close-up” activities, such as usage of smartphones, tablets or computers, are at higher risk of developing myopia.


What are the symptoms of myopia?

· Blur vision on distance objects

· Eye strain / fatigue

· Headache

· Squinting


Generally young children will not complain about their vision during the initial stage. However, parents or even teachers will be able to notice the child’s condition easily and take further actions to control it at an early stage.

Here are some of the conditions or signs which a child will show if they are experiencing myopia:

· Squinting constantly when see things afar

· Tilting head or closing one eye to read

· Holding books, smartphones or doing homework at a close range

· Often rubbing their eyes

· Frequent headaches

· Tearing

Although myopia (nearsightedness) can be easily corrected using eye glasses, contact lens or refractive surgery, children with high myopes are at greater risk for certain eye diseases such as retinal detachment, macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataracts as they grow older into their adulthood.

Thus, in order to prevent nearsightedness to progress too fast or further worsen, there are ways to slow down progression of myopia in children:

1. Low dose atropine eye drops

2. Specially designed eye glasses

3. Soft peripheral defocus contact lenses

4. Orthokeratology contact lenses 

One of the most effective ways would be the fitting of Orthokeratology contact lenses. Orthokeratology, also known as Ortho-K contact lens is a non-surgical procedure of reshaping the cornea gently when you sleep. This type of contact lens helps to control or correct one’s myopia (nearsighted), providing freedom in vision and the convenience of going glasses free during the day. 

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Though there are corrective measures for myopia (nearsightedness), but prevention is always better than cure. We should encourage our children to spend more time outdoors and reduce their time spent on computers or other digital devices. 

Last but not least, schedule an eye examination with eye care professionals annually to monitor your child’s vision throughout the years, so that any eye health problems can be attended to at an early stage.


Reference:

American Academy of Ophtalmology. (2016). Global Prevalence of Myopia and High Myopia and Temporal Trends from 2000 through 2050. Available at: https://www.aaojournal.org/action/showPdf?pii=S0161-6420%2816%2900025-7 Accessed 11 February 2016.

This is a sponsored post by Oculus (M) Sdn Bhd

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.