When we prescribe glasses to a child for the first time, some parents get super worried and they don’t really understand what it means. Many thoughts go through their minds, for example…
1) My child’s eyes are bad and what should I do to improve the eye health?
2) What did I do wrong?
3) What did my child do wrong?
4) Is it because of increased screen time?
5) How come my child got glasses, both us parents don’t have glasses?
6) How will the number reduce?
So first I would like to address what does wearing glasses mean. It basically means that the length of the eyeball is shorter or longer than normal. If the eyeball is longer, we get what is known as myopia and if it is shorter, we get what is hyperopia. Myopia is a minus number while hyperopia is a plus number.
Sometimes instead of a perfect round, like a football, if your eyeball is shaped like a rugby ball, then one may get what is called as astigmatism or cylindrical number. All these are eye numbers and it’s not like one is worse than the other.
Genetics and environmental factors play a role in these. Genetics you cannot do much about. In the environmental category if your child spends too much time on a phone or I pad and very less time outdoors then there is an increased risk of developing myopia or minus numbered glasses.
Now sometimes even when both the parents don’t have glasses and the child does not watch too much of screen, the child may get glasses and there is nothing to worry about. You as parents have done nothing wrong and definitely not the child.
Now myopia and astigmatism don’t really reduce with time. In fact, myopia may increase with an increase in height. Astigmatism on the other hand usually remains constant with age.
Hyperopia or having a plus number in glasses can reduce a bit as the child ages but very rarely do the glasses go away completely. So unfortunately, you cannot do much to reduce the number of glasses. There are no foods or exercises to help you with that. There are certain groups that claim to reduce the eye power, but we ophthalmologists have almost never seen that happen.
Now, why is it important that your child wears glasses. Your child needs glasses because they cannot see clearly. With the glasses we hope that your child starts seeing what a normal human being should see. Sometimes because of the child needing glasses and not wearing them we get a condition called amblyopia and lazy eye. What happens here is because of not seeing well the visual development in the brain does not happen like it should and if this continues for up to 8-9 years of age then it may so happen that that one eye may not see well for your child’s entire life.
You may say that your child does not have a problem and does not complain. The thing is children may feel that all the people in the world see things the way they see them. They just don’t know any better. So younger children may not even know that they are supposed to see better.
Also, if your child has a number in only one eye then only that eye is not seeing well. Then again, the child will not complain because the other eye is seeing well and the child is feeling completely normal. So, if you have not had a routine eye exam for your child then you should be thinking of getting one.
(Dr Deepak Garg is a Cataract and Squint specialist and Founder of Eye Solutions, Mumbai)
