Understanding Myopia

Myopia, also known as nearsightedness or shortsightedness, is a condition where the eye grows too long in childhood, making distant objects appear blurry while close-up objects remain clear. Glasses and contacts help a child see clearly but they do not stop the eye from continuing to grow too long.

Key Causes

Genetics: Myopia can be inherited. A child’s risk for myopia increases 3x if one parent is myopic and 6x if both parents are myopic.
Environment: A lack of outdoor time in natural sunlight has been linked to the development of myopia.
Daily Activities: Excessive close-up time on digital and non-digital tasks can contribute to a child’s myopia progression.

Early Management Matters

The earlier myopia begins, the more likely it is to become severe, increasing the lifelong risk of vision-threatening conditions retinal detachments, myopic macular degeneration, glaucoma, and early cataracts. High myopia also decreases an adult’s eligibility for refractive surgeries like LASIK.

Beyond long-term health concerns, progressing myopia can create academic and social challenges for children. Difficulty seeing the board often hinders classroom engagement and learning, while blurred distance vision can limit a child's confidence and their involvement in sports or other social activities.

Myopia Management Options

Unlike standard glasses and contact lenses, specialized treatment can slow down the eye’s growth. Well-designed clinical trials have given us effective and safe treatments options. Management is most successful when started at the first sign of myopia and continued through the teen years. Treatment options include:

Therapeutic Spectacle Lenses

Stellest®: Glasses That Do More Than Correct Vision
Traditional glasses help children see clearly, but they don't stop nearsightedness from getting worse. Essilor® Stellest® lenses do both. Engineered with cutting-edge H.A.L.T. (Highly Aspherical Lenslet Target) technology, these lenses feature a central zone for sharp, everyday vision, paired with a surrounding ring of specialized technology that signals the growing eye to slow its elongation. They look and wear exactly like standard glasses, but work actively behind the scenes to protect your child’s future vision.

Specialty Contact Lenses

MiSight®: Daily Contacts with a Purpose
Standard contact lenses give children clear vision, but they don’t stop nearsightedness from getting worse. MiSight® 1 day lenses do both. As the first and only FDA-approved daily disposable contact lenses clinically proven to slow the progression of myopia in children, they offer a blend of everyday freedom and active treatment. The center of the lens corrects your child's distance vision for frame-free sight during school and sports, while surrounding concentric rings deliver a specialized optical signal that tells the growing eye to slow its elongation. For the best results, lenses are worn 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. Because they are daily disposables, there is zero cleaning or storage required. A current pair of back-up glasses is required alongside the treatment.

Orthokeratology: Freedom to Play, Power to Slow Myopia
Standard vision correction only helps children see clearly when they are wearing their glasses or contacts, but it does nothing to stop their eyesight from worsening. Custom-fit CRT® overnight lenses do both. This innovative treatment uses specialized, oxygen-permeable hard lenses that your child wears only while they sleep. Overnight, the lenses gently and temporarily reshape the cornea, giving them crisp, frame-free vision all day without the need for daytime glasses or contacts. Beyond the freedom of clear waking vision, this specialized reshaping creates a targeted optical signal that tells the growing eye to slow its elongation. To maintain both clear vision and effective myopia control, these lenses must be worn nightly as part of your child's bedtime routine.

Nightly Eye Drops

Low-Dose Atropine: A Simple Bedtime Routine to Protect Future Vision
Traditional treatments often focus entirely on the eyes during the day, but progressive nearsightedness can also be managed while your child sleeps. Prescription low-dose atropine eye drops offer a simple, clinically proven bedtime solution. Administered nightly, these medicated drops work to signal the growing eye to slow its elongation, effectively curbing myopia progression. Because the drops focus strictly on controlling eye growth, your child will still need to wear their regular prescription glasses or daytime contact lenses full-time to see clearly. For the best everyday comfort while using this treatment, the drops can be paired with glasses that feature photochromatic lenses to ease light sensitivity outdoors, along with an anti-fatigue designs to support comfortable up-close reading and screen time.

Daily Habits to Protect Growing Eyes

While advanced treatments are necessary for successful myopia management, everyday habits play an important role in supporting your child’s vision. Here are some adjustments you can implement at home right away:

• Get Outside: Aim for at least two hours of daily play in natural sunlight, which naturally helps slow eye growth.

• Take Screen and Reading Breaks: Use the 20-20-20 rule—look away from digital screens or close-up reading every 20 minutes at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

• Keep Your Distance: Hold books and devices at least an arm's length away to reduce visual strain.

Your doctor at Eye Care Centers will work with your child and family to develop the best plan to keep them seeing well for a lifetime.


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