myopia thread - all feedback appreciated

[lovetomom]

Hello all,

My 8 year old daughter was diagnosed with myopia about 6 months ago and the progress in her condition in the short time causes me immense stress.  If you or your child has myopia (near sightedness), please share your experiences and suggestions with me.

I would really appreciate hearing from you.  Thank you.

[witchygrrl]

What kind of progress? Does your daughter wear glasses? Is the condition worsening? Or are there more things going on? Myopia doesn't seem all that bad to me by itself (I'm a life-long glasses wearer, since the age of 3, though I am far-sighted) and my prescription has changed many times from awful to better to worse again. I can potentially be of more help with more info, other than suggesting you find a good pediatric opthomologist.

[lovetomom]

Thanks for your response.

My daughter started out at .75, and 1.00 in September 2010 and is now at 1.5 in both eyes, 4 months later.  She is wearing glasses, but we have been told to limit glasses use, and to only use them for distance work.  She has barely worn them in the last 6 weeks and I am wondering if that is the contributing factor. 

Do you recall what could have made your prescription get better? and get worse?

Thanks again,

[earthmama369]

I've been nearsighted since 5th grade. It started out pretty dramatically and the opthamalogist predicted that my prescription would stabilize soon. About 15 years later it finally did. Sounds scary, but as a kid, it really wasn't. I'd go in for a checkup every six months and get a new pair of glasses, and I'd notice that the headaches I'd started getting in the last month or so went away, and we'd repeat again six months later. By the time my prescription stabilized, I was at something like 1100/20. I can only see clearly about an inch past my nose without any help, but contact lenses today are amazing. I keep a pair of glasses for back-up, but 99% of the time I wear contact lenses that correct my vision to 25/20. It doesn't feel like a big deal to me -- my vision isn't painful or anything, it's just really blurry.

[lovetomom]

so earthmama369, it sounds like the progression we've seen really isn't so surprising...in your experience?

when you say you started out pretty dramatically - what does that mean?

THANK YOU for your response.

[earthmama369]

It was a surprising progression to my eye doctor and my parents, but as a child, I took it pretty much in stride. I'm sure my parents were a bit freaked and my eye doctor still can't explain the course of my vision changes.

When I say that my vision changed dramatically, I went from being farsighted with a touch of astigmatism to nearsighted, with numbers around 250/20, in the first year. Changing by a couple hundred points in 12 months seemed pretty dramatic.

My vision has continued to change, though at a slower pace, in my late 20s and early 30s. During my first pregnancy, my astigmatism changed markedly for the worse, which was attributed to the change in blood pressure during pregnancy. I ended up needing weighted lenses for a few years. Finally, when my youngest was 4, my eyes mostly went back to their usual shape and I was able to ditch the weighted lenses. My vision has also corrected a little, to around 1000/20. As people get older, they often get more farsighted, so for me that means that my nearsightedness will gradually get better as I get older. I'll probably never be farsighted, but my vision should actually improve as I head toward my 40s and 50s. I think that's pretty cool.

[witchygrrl]

In my case, I started out as legally blind at age 3. I also had extreme lazy eye, so for awhile I had eye drops and wore a patch over my stronger eye to get it to correct itself, which worked well. I don't think it's noticeable at this point.  Then I moved on to having really thick glasses. Case in point: I didn't notice my PT had a severe deformity, due to thalidomide, and when I finally got glasses, I asked her what had happened to her arm. Yikes!

Anyway, my eyesight gradually got stronger, but I had to go back to the doc twice a year for a LONG time, different Rxs each time. Around age 13, I was at 30/20, so I was able to go without glasses 90% of the time. Then around age 18, my eyesight gradually worsened again. I think my right eye is at 35/20 and my left is 150/20, so I'm very lopsided. But I've been at this same level for the past 5 years, and I'm nearly 33.

Point is, eyesight can change rapidly. So honestly, I'm not surprised at what your DD is going through, though I wish I could say otherwise. HTH!

[lovetomom]

Thanks mamas. I appreciate your experiences, as it sheds light on the situation for me.  Do you know of any ways that people can improve their myopia?  Do you recall what may have been happening with you, when your eyesight got stronger?

[Kyamo]

I think it is normal for myopia to get worse with time.  I have it, and I first got glasses as a teenager, and my prescription has gotten gradually stronger and stronger through the years.  There has been only 1 time in my life that I went to the eye doctor and didn't come out with a stronger prescription, and I went once a year until age 20 then every 2 years since then.  The decline is slowing a bit as I get older, I think.  

Why is the doctor telling you to minimize glasses use?   It is hard on your eyes/brain adjusting back and forth from glasses to no glasses.  Each new prescription takes a day or two to adjust to.   Without wearing my glasses, I get really bad eye fatigue and sometimes headaches.  Plus, there is so much of the world you don't see.  I remember getting my first pair of glasses (which were about the same prescription as your daughters) and walking through the mall just amazed at all the new little details I could see.  So I don't understand why the doctor would tell her not to wear them.  

[lovetomom]

The doc has said that wearing glasses (for near work especially), results in worsening the eye's and thus a stronger prescription.  So, we have minimized their use, though I feel like my daughter would be more comfortable wearing them more often and I want to support that.  Has anyone heard of bifocals for kids, with the distance prescription up top and an empty prescription down below.