Child Myopia

Revision as of 20:56, 15 April 2021 by Lloydmom (talk | contribs)
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All parents approaching EndMyopia for their children, come with a sense of urgency. Please understand this is not a good approach. You need to be calm and rational in order to make good choices for your child. Remember myopia is not a medical condition, it is a refractive error. If your child had good vision before, they should be able to have it again. Ideally, a myopic adult would start with EndMyopia then help a child. It is very important that an adult who fully understands the method and what vision improvement requires, works with the child in question.

It might be helpful to consider that myopia control and reversal is less like potty training (go hard for a few weeks and it's typically done with) and more like getting them to pick up after themselves (every parent knows this is a long haul lesson).


Most parents new to the method have the first instinct to take away their child's correction and take away most of, if not all of, their favorite close-up activities.

Let's start with the desire to take away correction. Don't. If your child was just told they need glasses and they have never worn them before by all means hold off on introducing correction, you might even find with new habits they won't need correction, as long as you are working on their vision, it is not harmful to not rush into correction. But, if a child is already wearing correction they can't just stop. They need to learn to wear the correction only when needed and should never wear their full correction for nearwork. If their correction is stronger than -2 they will likely require differentials for nearwork. It is best to provide the correction for a greater distance than to have your child looking at things closer in order to eliminate that need for correction; because the closer they are to the object of focus the more strain there is on the eye. Always the goal should be to maximize their distance when in a situation of static viewing; such as reading, playing video games and computer work. The worst danger zone is under 50cms, as you can quickly surmise this includes basically everything within arms reach for children so many parents get creative with book stands and similar solutions to help extend viewing distance.

Now on to that other reflex reaction. If you take away all of your child's favorite and accustomed activities, they are not going to see your love for them in it. They are most likely going to hate the sudden onset of restrictions and feel like they are being punished for being myopic. While this is clearly not your intent, this is almost certainly how they will feel. Try to make gradual changes. Reducing time in extreme and static close up, needs to be a priority; so anytime you can shift phone and/or tablet activities to a tv at a greater distance this will be progress. Introduce the 20-20-20 rule during close up right away, then start reducing the close work time itself where possible. One thing that might help with the 20-20-20 rule is a "stretch buddy" place an object (favorite toy perhaps) at a distance from your child during close up and encourage them to "stretch their eyes" to see the object at regular intervals, picking out details on it as much as possible. Don't worry overmuch about activities like Legos and play dough, 3-D objects and activities tend to have a lot of shifting focus, it is static vision that is the primary concern.


Getting your child to look at a Snellen Chart is probably best saved for measurements only, and for younger children there are kid friendly snellen charts that will probably prove more engaging. It is a good idea to have several charts, it is easy to memorize a frequently used chart so rotate often for more accurate testing.


Children have a hard time grasping active focus but encouraging them to engage with their vision through play is easy to do, when you can get them to do this outside, even better. Some ideas here: focus games.


While it is understandable that you want to reverse your child's myopia quickly, take into account that it is quite likely that their eyes are currently getting worse. Stopping that progression is the first big step, and even if that is all you manage, that is a win. Correct use of correction for a given task and time outdoors engaging with distance vision is typically enough to accomplish this goal.

Your child may or may not choose to reverse their myopia, and hard as it is for a parent to accept, that is their choice. But enabling them to stop it's progression and giving them the option to reverse it, now that you know it is possible, is an advantage that most people don't have; children and adults alike.

Please don't make any changes to your child's correction until you can make an informed decision. Communicate with your child about their vision, even preschool aged children can relay their own feedback. And do your own measurements. But keep it light, keep in mind how you would deal with your child concerning any other matter. Don't forget your are building better vision habits for life, there is no need to frustrate yourself or your child by pushing for fast changes and results.


Other important reads: child myopia diopter strategies, child active focus,child myopia 1 child myopia 2, Active Focus games for kids


Obviously, there is the whole rest of the method to add to this, and if you need more help Jake has an add-on to the adult BackTo20/20 program.