My 5.5 years old daughter has Myopia

I have a daughter who is 5.5 years old. Last year we got her vision checked and the doctor told us that she had developed myopia. Her number was -0.75 and -1.25. During this oner year, we have been regularly checking her vision but her vision has dropped to -4.5 (both eyes). We were very worried that why in spite of regularly wearing glasses her vision is deteriorating and consulted a specialist. She performed OCT (Optical coherence tomography). The showed that her RNFL thickness of one eye is 80 and that of the other is 81. She also told us that her c:d ratio is also higher about 0.7. She asked to check her IOP and the average for that was about 15 to 16 (both eyes; over a duration of 12 hours). The doctor has advised to use Travatron drops (one drop each eye daily) to control the IOP and control further damage. We also did a B-scan of her eye and that was normal i.e. 23.1mm. I would be very obliged if some one could tell me that, does my daughter suffer from myopia or some other disease. How can we control this loss of vision. I have searched the internet and there is some procedure named AOK. Will it help her. Please let me know,
A deperate father

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

The question here is does your daughter have glaucoma. I suggest you see a glaucoma supspecialist for a second opinion about whether your daugther has glaucoma.

Progressive myopia is very common. It is not usually a disease. Use the archives and search feature to learn more about myopia and the factors in it getting worse.

JCH MD

[kash01]

Thanks a lot Dr, John for the word of advice. I would like to know that is glucoma a common disease in children of this age. and if not why do u think she has (if considering she has the issue) developed this problem. What preventive measures do u suggest. Lastly, can myopia also cause this kind of disorder i.e. glucoma

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Glaucoma is rare at here age.

JCJ MD

[Iwasblindbutnowisee]

Sorry to hear about your daughter. Generally people do not develop myopia until they are into adulthood. Myopia in young children is an indication of some underlying health condition.  I would be seeing a number of specialist in the vision field, including at least one from a natural/alternative practioner.

Myopia in very young children is generally caused by inability of the eye muscles to focus for reasons that are not well understood if understood at all. Doctors don't know a lot of things even though they present like they know a lot (so they can charge you big bucks).

Contrary to what you've been told, progessive myopia IS NOT COMMON though it is very common in young children made to wear glasses at a young age.

I was made to wear glasses at age 7 because I was not able to read a very small line of letters on a board. It was later discovered that I had a reading disability not a visual one - but it was too late, I was well on the path to progressive dengerative myopia. I will now tell you why. Wearing glasses for close up work only causes further degeneration of the eye because it interferes with the proper working and focussing efforts of the eye muscles. When your child uses prescription lenses for close up work, the eye eventually "adapts" so that now distance vision is no longer possible. The capacity of a child's body to adapt is so great that this adaptation occurs very quickly.

Every year since I was 7, my prescription went up by about 0.25-1 diopters. At age 12 I was prescribed -6 diopters but luckily for me a family friend stepped in and said this is stupid and abnormal and referred me to an "alternative" opthamologist who suggested I wore special close up glasses for close up work. I only wore stronger prescription for distance. I am now aged 44 and seeing at -6 diopters. I shudder to think what would have been if fate had not intervened. By 21 I would have been almost blind at -20 diopters. Unfortunately I have come across many people who started life in the same position I was in as a child, but did not have the good fortune I had.  A colleague who started wearing glasses at age 5 now could only see at -15 diopters. He lives constantly with the fear of retinal detachment, myopic degeneration and other degenerative diseases of the eye associated with strong myopia. Of couse your opthamologist would not tell you this because it would "scare" you.

Remember only let your child wear glasses for distance. Use special close up glasses for close up work. Let your child play in the outdoor during the day to get exposure to the sun. Avoid using glasses during these times if possible. Let the eye muscles do their work. The healing capacity of young children is astonishing !

There is growing evidence that exposure to sunlight helps strengthen the eye muscles. Eye muscles are exercised when the eyes are exposed to the sun (of course exercise caution that children do not stare directly into the sun or strong sources of light). Educate yourself about ways to help your child improve blood circulation to the eyes and improve eye muscle function. You WILL get a lot of "professional" poo pooing what I've just said to you but think about it ! These people do not understand vision at all. They may understand the mechanics of sight but not why or how the eye and mind works together to provide us with vision. Abused children locked in basements for years emerge blind even though there is nothing physically wrong with their eyes. And the experts can't explain why.

Like I've said, there is growing evidence that natural sunlight helps vision. The exports don't know exactly why but I suspect it has to do with getting those eye muscles working again. Many professional say it can't hurt to expose children to sunlight as long as you exercise common sense (to avoid sunburn etc). Exercising the body also somehows helps your eye health generally. Experts claim no evidence for this but use your common sense. If your body is healthy and muscles working fine why shouldn't your eye muscles improve as well.

Health professional are generally "blinded" by their professional training to the point of not being able to exercise simple common sense. Use your common sense and intuition as a mother. Think about it

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

The above post contains a wealth of misinformation, speculation and out and out errors.

JCH MD