All About Kids' Eye-sight

[KL28]

Hi all mummies and daddies

I am looking for atropine eyedrop to help my kid for high mypoia, can pls recommand which clinic to go for? thanks

[barney8]

KL28:

Hi all mummies and daddies

I am looking for atropine eyedrop to help my kid for high mypoia, can pls recommand which clinic to go for? thanks

hi KL28, same here. in a lost. How old is ur child? Is there a minimum age then can put atropine?

[Fur-ma]

We got a referral to KKH Eye Centre from polyclinic. The doctor has to assess ur child's eye before agreeing to atropine.


My dd's degree for her right eye alone is 600 n astig 300 and she is only 5.5y.o. Am so upset and worried for her but nothing I can do except to follow the treatment plan by the doctor. She just started on atropine drops and I know that we have to make progressive plus transition lens. The optical shop quoted me $600 :scared: . Doctor says lens have to change every few months. This is going to dig a deep hole in my pocket. Any kids use sunglasses clip on instead of transition lens? If i can skip the transition part, costs will be 40% less

[kittybank]

Fur-ma:

We got a referral to KKH Eye Centre from polyclinic. The doctor has to assess ur child's eye before agreeing to atropine.


My dd's degree for her right eye alone is 600 n astig 300 and she is only 5.5y.o. Am so upset and worried for her but nothing I can do except to follow the treatment plan by the doctor. She just started on atropine drops and I know that we have to make progressive plus transition lens. The optical shop quoted me $600 :scared: . Doctor says lens have to change every few months. This is going to dig a deep hole in my pocket. Any kids use sunglasses clip on instead of transition lens? If i can skip the transition part, costs will be 40% less

My children are both on atropine eyedrops. We are seeing a doctor at SNEC. Here's our experience for sharing:
- some doctors are more risk adverse than others. Some would order atropine drops daily, whilst others may order twice or thrice a week.
- one pair of photochromatic progressive lens is expensive. We started with the clip. Clip is very dark. Remember you can get UV rays even when indoors. My opinion is that it is worth the $ to invest in transition lens. Kids being kids, they may not clip on the shades when outdoors, unless you are always there to remind them.
- there are many brands of progressive lenses. We did not ask for the branded type, there are some local brands at much lower prices. Ask around first. Neighbourhood shops may carry these more affordable local brands
- choose your frame wisely. One of our pairs of lenses outlasted the frame and we could not find a suitable one as replacement. In the end, we have to make a new pair. Lens costed like 5 times more than the frame. Now we are on plastic lenses and we bought a spare frame for under $50.
- our opinion is that outdoor exercise REALLY helps in delaying myopia progression. However, due to bad weather and all sorts of excuses, we have not been taking that walk in the park.
- we tried supplements, chinese wolfberries, but nothing seems to help to delay.

Will pen more later.

[Fur-ma]

Thanks Wormy for sharing you experience. Looks like I cannot run away from transition lens. In any case, I cannot find clip ons for kids. Am told that there is no market for clip ons ever since transition lens came about. Thanks for tip on frames.


Can you share how many times had to change lens when first started atropine? Does myopia stabilise after a while so that the lens can "last" longer?

[barney8]

hi wormy, which doctor u see in SNEC? Is the eye doctor patient and detailed in explaining about the treatment?


Have your children myopia stabilised?

[KL28]

barney8:

KL28:

Hi all mummies and daddies

I am looking for atropine eyedrop to help my kid for high mypoia, can pls recommand which clinic to go for? thanks

hi KL28, same here. in a lost. How old is ur child? Is there a minimum age then can put atropine?

hi my boy is in K2, i heard can use when they are in nursery. I went Mt alvernia, but Otometry side is not so good, trying to swith to SNEC, cos they have much advance machines than any others clicic, believe they will be more careful with children.

[kittybank]

update 2:


Atropine worked better on my older child. Think I read somewhere on atropine statistics. Average about 25 degrees per year increase for kids on atropine. Older child’s eyesight increased by 100 to 150 from 4 years ago. Used to be 150 every six months. Guess puberty played a role. However, on 2nd child, myopia kept worsening even on atropine treatment.

We started with one eye as the doc wanted to know if the child could tolerate. She didn’t think we needed photochromatic progressive lens if only one eye is on atropine. Doc review is twice yearly. This doc also took care about our pockets. She won’t advise changing glasses unless really necessary. One pair should last one year or longer.

Do shop around. Some shops would recommend the most expensive range. You know, especially those heavily advertised brands, like the "E" brand.

Sorry for being haphazard in my answers.

As for the clip, the shop was kind enough to "cut" to the shape of the lens. $15 all in,I think. When I say "cut", it’s literally using scissors to "cut" hor. So the edges are not too smooth. But we bore with it for a while till we changed to transition lens.

"transition" is actually a brand of photochromatic lenses. We tried one other brand,"S". cheaper but the coating peeled. There are 2 colours to choose from - grey and brown.

Before u decide, find out the risks. The doc was detailed in her explanation. It was Hobson’s choice for us. Bad genes from us to kids. Barney8, I will pm the doc’s name to you.

[Fur-ma]

Thanks again Wormy. I am actually having a frustrating time looking for lens. Have been popping into many optical shops and it seems that many do not quite understand progessive + photochromatic for kids.


Do you mind revealing what brand of lens your kids are on. I tried to google for a "S" brand but no hits.

[kittybank]

Hi Fur-ma


It is the "progressive" part that cost more. Normally for any pair of specs if u say u want transition lenses, meaning photochromatic, they charge another $100. The "S" brand was the lousy photochromatic coating, for which I have forgotten the brand, so don’t bother about that.

If the degree is high and needs thinner and lighter lens, like the 1.67 high index type, it will cost more.

Actually I don’t really know how it works, but i suppose these lens manufacturer get the photochromatic coating from transitions. I also fail to understand why some brands charge more for "better design" of their lenses. I am confusing myself and confusing you, right?

The progressive lens is "ILT" under bravo brand. It came with one year warranty. For myself, I got progressive lens for presbyopia (lao hua) from a local brand (don’t remember the brand), without warranty, 1.67 type, at $400, without the frame.

I always think that there are cheaper options, else how do all the elderly folks get their progressive lens for lao hua yan? All these gimmicks are for the young. What we are getting for our children : progressive + photochromatic is what these shops have been prescribing for the older generation : shortsightedness + lao hua.
Difference is lao hua is measured, say at 150 or so. For our children, the doc would normally prescribe +200 (i.e. 200 degrees less than the myopia degree so that the child can do close work).

I went to those bigger names and noticed that they don’t stock the cheaper brands. The cheapest in these shops seems to be "seiko" brand. Ask around. In fact, these shops are always happy to serve us because we always go with the doc’s prescription and they don’t need to do eye check for our children.