Sever Myopia in a 9 year old

My son who was 8yr old last year has had -8.5 in both eyes with -1.75 Astigmatism last  August 2010 . As a 6 month follow up last month with an opthomologist last month he has been diagnosed with -11.5 20/30 vision and 2.25 astigmatism in both eyes. It has increased a lot. My kid is a not the one who is either with Video games or iphone or ipads.... Doctor says that his eye is healthy and is happily suprised to see that there is no sign of thinning... even in such high eye prescription.. I feel really helpless when they say they nothing can be done except to watch and wait.... We did have second opinion who happens to say the same thing. None of the docs told us about CRT when his prescription was low enough to be corrected... Did any one try CRT or accelerated CRT on a severe myopic kid ?...This is a request from a desperate mom as i really hate to see my little one go through this...

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

What do you mean about CRT?

JCH MD

[Sofia4]

My son is also very young, and within the last year went from -8.00 to
-10.75. I also was never informed by any of the many optometrists and few ophthalmologists about Ortho-K. I learned about it via internet, by then his myopia was too high and absolutely not recommended because of a great risk of hurting the cornea. One of the cornea specialists that I saw gave us the option of trying drops of atropine to slow down the progression of the myopia. He said so far it seems to be the only method that promises any results. Of course I also consulted an ophtalmologists with my health insurance carrier. She knew of the doctor I had seen because he is world renowned and seem to agree with his treatment, however she did emphasized that as soon he stopped the progression would continue and might even jump to it would have been with no treatment.  We tried it for a few days, it was sad to see my son with dark shades due to the dilation of his pupil. Even the lights inside the house at night would bother him and I was also concerned about UV rays and the risk of secondary effects that I read.  I lose sleep thinking about the uncertain future, most doctors say it most likely stop when he finishes growing. If he went up two numbers in 10 months, what do I expect in a few years? Please let me know if you have any leads or posible treatments.

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

There is no way to predict how myopic he will get, it's like trying to predict how tall he'll be.  There is no cure for high myopia. Atropine drops have been tried, as well as bifocals and some new investigational eye drops. Ortho-K has been around for several decades, it is not a cure, the difficulties of treating a child with rigid contacts are considerable and not without risks. You can use the search feature and archives and read about high myopia.

JCH MD