Nowadays more and more children tend to put on the funky specs at a very young age. Do you realised that? I bet you do and all parents are trying as best as they could to prevent myopia from knocking on their children’s door. With the sharp increase in the number of children having myopia as a friend at an early age, there’s no doubt more and more awareness is being raised.
Smarty started having eyesight issue when he was 6 years old. He was diagnosed with astigmatism, a vision problem with how the eye focuses light. As parents, we were very upset when we got the news. Immediately we went to have a pair of eyeglasses prescribed for him so that it would’t get any worse.
2 years down the road, he was prescribed with slight myopia. Gosh, as best as we can to prevent any further harm to his eyes, now we received this news. As a mom, I was blaming myself because I have shortsightedness whereas his daddy has perfect eyesight and myopic parents have higher chances of having myopic children than non-myopic parents. I blame myself for not taking extra good care of their health including their eyes which resulted in this situation. I quickly slapped myself awake and stopped playing the blaming game. Instead, I should start focusing on how to slow its progression and ensure that he practices good eye care habits himself as well.
What is astigmatism?
Astigmatism is an eye condition that causes blurred or distorted vision. It is caused by an irregularly shaped cornea or because of the curvature of the lens inside the eye.
What is myopia?
Myopia is also known as nearsightedness or shortsightedness. It is a condition where the eyes are able to see the objects nearby or a short distance away clearly but objects that are far away are blurred. It is caused by the eye being slightly too long (not eyes popping out, ya).
Having 2 problems together, we need to make another new pair of eyeglasses for him. We headed off to Nanyang Optical to get him a new pair of glasses. Smarty had his eyes checked and frankly speaking, I didn’t know the eye checks have also advanced that much. It wasn’t just the old school reading ABCs off the chart. There were even checks using gadgets too. Mei mei was watching curiously throughout the process.
Once the eye checks were done, it was time for a fashion show. The friendly person-in-charge was a great help in assisting smarty getting his preferred glasses.
And we thought his all-time favourite colour is red but this time-round he selected the blue colour instead. He definitely is growing up and changing. Once he has made his selection, we were being briefed about the lens used and how it will help slow down the progress of this eye-sight problems.
On top of that, we were given a booklet that contains the eye check chart and a quick guide on how to prevent myopia.
We were trying to convince mei mei to do an eye check up too but she was freaking out and worried that she may need glasses like gor gor (yes, she’s a vain pot). Guess, I will have to use this chart at home to play some games with her and at the same time to test her eye-sight. I am definitely praying hard no further issues with smarty’s eyes and mei mei with perfect eye-sight. Is not fun not being able to see without glasses. So, parents, do take note of your children’s eye-sight and always remind them of the consequences if their eyes are not well taken care of. Here are some quick tips on myopia prevention.
Parents and children, eyes are precious. Please do spend more time and effort by investing in excellent eye care habits so that your eyes will last you a lifetime. Don’t forget to go for regular eye checks too!