*Your eye care professional can manage your child’s myopia and may even reduce the risk of excessive eye growth. Ask his now.

My Child & Myopia: what all parents should know about putting your child on the path to better eye health: NaturalVue

NaturalVue Enhanced Multifocal 1 Day Contact lenses use Neurofocus Optics technology that helps keep peripheral images inside the retina which may reduce the risk of peripheral hyperopia.

https://www.abboptical.com/contact-lenses/soft-lenses/vti/naturalvue-enhanced-multifocal

Today more kids are being diagnosed with myopia. This is also called nearsightedness, myopia causes blurry distance vision. It means more than just stronger thicker glasses. Myopia can get worse as kids grow. This increases the risk of serious eye diseases. It’s a global eye health issue.

*Myopia happens when the normal eye grows too long from front to back.

*Light rays have trouble reaching the right spot on the back of the eye (the retina) to achieve clear distance vision.

What causes myopia?

*Myopic parents: there’s a 50% chance your child will develop myopia if both parents are myopic. 25% if one parent is myopic.

*Increased virtual learning. During the COVID 19 lockdown, myopia prevalence increased 3x in young children.

*Increased screen time: children spending 7+ hours a week on digital devices face 3X the risk of developing myopia.

*Traditional vision correction: regular single vision glasses do not slow down the progression of myopia. In fact, they may contribute to increased myopia.

There are no safe levels of myopia.

Myopia can negatively impact performance in school, athletics and other activities. The younger your child develops myopia, the greater the risk of serious eye conditions like retinal detachment, glaucoma, cataracts and even blindness.

Each 1.00 diopter decrease in final magnitude of myopia:

*Reduces the risk of retinal detachment by 20%.

*Reduces the risk of cataract and open angle glaucoma by 20%.

*Reduces the risk of myopic maculopathy by 40%.

Help reduce the risks of unwanted eye growth.

An unfortunate by-product of traditional myopia correction may be the induction of more peripheral hyperopia.

Peripheral hyperopia occurs when routine correction moves images behind the retina which may signal eye growth.

In Uncorrected Myopia, the central light rays fall short of the retina. Peripheral light rays fall beyond the retina.

The traditional correction to this is traditional single vision lenses do correct myopia by moving central light rays to the retina but do not address peripheral images that fall behind the retina and may even intensify the situation.

In Unwanted Eye Growth, the peripheral light rays focus beyond the retina may establish a growth signal and may lead to the excessive lengthening of the eye.

The Optimal correction rather than using single vision lenses, multifocal or specialty designed lenses should be used to bring the peripheral light rays inside the retina.

Today there are evidence-based management options, like specially designed contact lenses for the correction and management of your child’s myopia.

Tips to help manage myopia:

*Increase outdoor time-at least 90 minutes a day.

*Limit screen time-cut the number of hours your child spends on digital devices.

*Follow the 20-20-20 rule-every 20 minutes have your child take a 20 second break to view something 20 feet away.

Disclaimer: This information was taken directly from the NaturalVue pamphlet and I give them full credit for the information. I have never used the product so I do not have an option on the product. Please call the company or contact your local eye doctor for information on the product.