Your child may have myopia if they have difficulty seeing objects at a distance. Myopia is an eye condition that typically develops during childhood and worsens over time. Lock Family Eye Care in West Des Moines, IA, can provide myopia management and ensure your child’s vision remains healthy in the future. Continue reading to learn more about myopia and how we can help your child manage symptoms.
What Is Myopia?
Myopia, or nearsightedness, means you have clear vision up close but blurry vision when looking at objects at a distance. Light travels through the lens and the cornea of your eye and should reflect onto the retina at the back of the eye. Myopia occurs when your eye or lens has an irregular shape. Your eye lens could be too curved, or your eyes may be too long from front to back. These structural abnormalities affect how light hits your retina, leading to blurry distance vision.
Myopia typically begins in childhood. Myopia can worsen as your child ages, but myopia usually stops getting worse once your child reaches 20.
Diagnosing Myopia With a Vision Exam
Your child’s optometrist can diagnose myopia with an eye exam. You should schedule an eye exam with your eye doctor immediately if your child appears to have difficulty seeing objects at a distance. We also recommend your child’s eyes get checked yearly to catch and control myopia early.
Myopia Management Options
While there is no cure for myopia, your child’s optometrist can provide several myopia management treatments that can prevent myopia from getting worse. Myopia management includes eye drops, contact lenses, and eyeglasses.
Your child’s optometrist may prescribe atropine eye drops for children between 4-12 years old to slow myopia progression. Your child can use these eye drops for up to four years and should use them once a day at nighttime. These eye drops can slow the progression of myopia, but they cannot correct your child’s vision.
Older children can benefit from contact lenses for myopia control. Your child’s eye doctor can prescribe MiSight contact lenses to correct myopia. These lenses are FDA-approved for myopia control and are daily disposable lenses that can slow and correct myopia progression in your child. Studies have shown that MiSight lenses slowed myopia progression by an average of 59% over three years. 41% of children had no myopia progression throughout treatment.
Another form of myopia control is wearing corrective eyeglasses. Some glasses only provide vision correction, and others can also slow the progression of myopia. Your optometrist can help determine which kind of eyeglasses best suit your child’s needs with a vision test.
Learn More About Myopia Management at Lock Family Eye Care
Myopia can significantly impact your child’s quality of life and make the simplest tasks more challenging, so contact Lock Family Eye Care in West Des Moines, IA, to get your child the myopia control they need to protect their eye and vision health. Call us and schedule a vision exam today at (515) 267-1312.
