Myopia developing in children: This is how you must handle
MYOPIA IN CHILDREN: WHAT SHOULD YOU DO TO PROTECT THEM?
Are you a parent to children who have problems with their vision? If so, it is very important to take care of your children’s overall health and thus taking care of the optical health is also crucial. This is because many children, especially in recent times are found to have been suffering from various types of ophthalmologic issues, one of which includes myopia, also commonly known as nearsightedness. Myopia or nearsightedness can develop due to a lot of reasons, but it is important to take good care of the eyes and to make sure that if a child has myopia, then the parent must take the necessary steps so that the eye condition gets corrected and the child becomes capable of seeing all objects with clear vision. So, as a parent it is important to know all the details about myopia in children, what it is all about, the causes, and most importantly, the ways that must be followed to correct this eye condition in children. Read the article till the end and get to know all the important facts about myopia in children.
Myopia in children: Here is all you need to know
Though myopia can occur at any age, it is very commonly found to develop among children in present times. When a child develops nearsightedness or myopia, as a parent it might be a matter of concern for you, but you need to identify the eye problem first. The primary problem that arises is that the child faces difficulties in seeing objects that are located far away, that is, at a longer distance. As a result of this, the condition is also known as shortsightedness and many experts claim that it is the most common eye disorder in the world to occur among children and young people. When a child develops myopia, the refractive state of the child that decides the child’s eye power and prescription changes throughout his/her childhood and often stabilizes into adolescence or in their tween years (the age of stabilization of the eye power varies from one child to the other). Treatment and correction of the problem of nearsightedness is crucial for your children because if such eye conditons are left untreated for a long time, you’re your child might develop other severe types of eye problems in the future. If you have a child who is suffering from myopia you must fix an appointment with an ophthalmologist or with an experienced healthcare professional who can help your child to correct the optical problem of myopia and therefore your child can have proper vision.
Why do your children develop myopia in their eyes?
There might be several types of reasons that might be responsible for the occurrences of nearsightedness in children. One of the major reasons behind such eye problems is due to the combination of genetic and environmental factors. This means that if any person in your near family has myopia, then your child might develop a tendency to develop myopia in their eyes. Many experts claim that genetics often play a major role in the development of myopia among children. It has often been found that if a child has a myopic parent, the chance of development of myopia in that child increases. Other than this, the surrounding environment can also be considered responsible for the occurrence of myopia among children. Children nowadays are more exposed to the screens on various types of devices such as cell phones, laptops, tablets, and so on, which can increase the risks of developing myopia in children at a very young age.
What happens to your child’s eyes when he/she develops myopia?
When your children develop myopia in their eyes, they find it difficult to see objects that are located far away, as the eyeball becomes slightly longer than usual from front to back, or their cornea, which forms the clear part on the front of the eye may become curved in shape. While developing myopia, your child might not complain about myopic tendencies at all, especially if your child is at a young age, but you will be able to track certain signs and symptoms that your children will show when they gradually become myopic, and if you follow them properly, you would be able to understand them and then consult the eye expert at once.
The child faces problems in seeing objects that are far away because the light rays focus on the frontal side of the retina instead of directly on it and as a result of it the image of the far object that develops in their eyes appear blurred. You as a parent might be familiar with your children’s complaints about not seeing the blackboard in school properly and it is one of the praimry indications that your child might be developing myopia. Besides these, you might notice that your children will squint a lot or when they find it difficult to look at objects that are far away, they would move closer to those objects so that they can see them clearly. This is what happens to your children when they gradually develop myopia. If you are a parent to such a child, try to consult the condition of your child’s eye with an experienced eye expert who would aid in correcting the nearsightedness and will help your child to look through glasses with appropriated power so that objects that are far away become clearly visible to them.
What should you do if your child develops myopia?
If you find that your child is developing myopia or diffciltuies in seeing objects that are kept at a distance, the first and foremost thing to do is to consult a healthcare expert and seek necessary advise that is required for the treatment to proceed. The healthcare professional might advise you to undergo an eye test for your kids to check the level of development of the myopic issue and set the refractive index of the eye accordingly.
Here are certain things that your child’s ophthalmologist might need to check while your child goes through an eye exam to test the myopic conditions of their eyes with the assistance of an eyecare expert:
• The type of lens to prescribe for which a refraction test is necessary
• To measure how well each of your child’s eyes can see objects at a distance, a visual activity test is to be done
• A slit lamp exam to look at the inside of the eye.
Apart from the eye tests, your child also needs other treatment options to correct the error in vision that the developing myopia is creating. Two of the most commonly practiced methods are as follows:
1. Recommend eye glasses to the children with myopia:
If your child develops myopia, doctors might suggest to wear eye glasses, especially single-vision glasses to your child based on the intensity of development of the myopic conditions in your child’s eyes. This will effectively help to treat the problem of curing the defect of nearsightedness. Your expert might recommend multifocal glasses when there are more than one prescriptions for correcting vision at different distances. They can correct vision and may also slow myopia from further deteriorating.
2. Contact lenses:
Opthalmologits and healthcare experts often prescribe wearing contact lenses for correcting the conditions of myopia in children. Contact leneses are recomnmended for children because such types of lenses help your children to see clearly all the objects that are located far away. But it is also important to remember that some special multifocal contact lenses can keep myopia from gradually deteriorating and thus ensures a clear vision for your child.
3. Surgery:
Surgery of the eyes, especially for children is done in rare and in most severe cases. The doctor will only choose the option of surgery if your child’s problem of nearsightedness cannot be cured with the general treatment options like using eye glasses, eye drops, or wearing contact lenses.
How to reduce the risks of myopia among young children?
It is quite difficult to reduce the risks of developing myopia in your children, especially if these tendencies are present in the genetic traits or in the family history of a child. Moreover, life in the present, for both children and adults have become mostly depended on electronic gadgets and the emission of the harmful rays from the screen os such instruments can be harmful for your child’s eyes.
To prevent the risks of developing myopia in future for your children, try to follow these two vital steps:
1. try to cut-off the daily average screen time of your children
2. go for regular yearly check-ups to the doctor to detect if your child is developing myopia or not
