This post was sponsored by Treehouse Eyes. All views and opinions are my own.
If you're a parent of a child who suffers from myopia (or widely known as nearsightedness), you're probably wondering if there's a cure.. or if there's something that can be done to stop or slow down its progression. Although there are significant reasons to worry about myopia, the good news is that, it's a common refractive error that can be easily treated with contact lenses, eyeglasses, ortho-K and other refractive surgery procedures.
My Visit at Treehouse Eyes (Tysons Corner)
I recently had a wonderful opportunity to visit Treehouse Eyes in Tysons Corner, Virginia, where I got to meet and chat with Dr. Kevin Chan, optometrist at Treehouse Eyes.
During my visit, I learned so much about the reality of the myopia epidemic in children and how the rate and severity of myopia is growing so significantly over the years.
As a parent with a child who suffers from blurry vision, I am always interested in learning about health-related issues to help me expand my knowledge.
Facts About Myopia, Treatment, Locations and Fees
So just to give you some facts about myopia:
*There are currently over 10 million myopic (nearsighted, or blurry distance vision) children in the United States, and due to societal trends like increased screen time and lack of outdoor time, that number is expected to grow to over 30 million by 2050.
*Researchers have predicted that by 2050 the incidence of myopia will increase by a further 40% over today's epidemic-levels of occurrence.. which means, almost 60 million kids under the age of 17 will suffer from myopia.
*Globally, uncorrected refractive errors (like myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism) are the main cause of moderate and severe visual impairment and diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts and retinal detachments.
*In the DC metro area alone, there are approximately 180,000 children with myopia.
The team of world leading ophthalmologists and optometrists behind Treehouse Eyes™ wants you to know that there is something we can do about myopia. As the "first of its kind" vision health practice in the DC area focused exclusively on treating myopia in children, Treehouse Eyes is proud to offer the Treehouse Vision System™ - a revolutionary approach to actually treat myopia, instead of just "correcting" it with thicker glasses. To date, there are over 5,000 myopic children that have been treated by the experts who developed the Treehouse Vision SystemTM.
When you make your child's appointment at Treehouse Eyes, he/she will be given an assessment, and your Treehouse Eyes™ optometrist will work closely with you to evaluate your child's vision and suggest the customized treatment plan most appropriate for their myopia. The goal of Treehouse Eyes is always the same: to slow or even stop your child's myopia from progressing. And research studies have already proven that we can slow or even stop the progression of myopia in children, giving them better vision for life.
In the DC area, there are two convenient Treehouse Eyes myopia treatment center locations: Bethesda and Tysons Corner. Both locations offer appointments before and after school and on the weekends to accommodate the schedules of busy parents and children. As for the cost and fees, Treehouse Eyes offers a comprehensive, structured fee plan so that there are no surprises or extra costs if your child requires more visits. They accept major credit cards, checks, and cash and also offer a convenient financing plan from Care Credit. A myopia counselor is available who can provide more details on this financing option. Just call the appropriate Treehouse Eyes location that's most convenient to you or go here to make your appointment online.
Helpful Lifestyle Recommendations to Help your Child with Myopia
It's widely believed that myopia is caused by both genetic and environmental factors. While your child's genetic predisposition for myopia is "hard wired" and probably not able to be changed, there are some environmental factors to be aware of.
You'll find a lot of information on the Internet about myopia in general, and to a lesser extent, what can be done to slow or stop its progression. Because of rapidly increasing rates of myopia, there is a lot of ongoing research that our experts continually review. You can view the latest research on our TreehouseEyes.com resource center.
The treatments children receive from Treehouse Eyes® will help slow down or stop their myopia. Additionally, regarding lifestyle recommendations, here is what you should also know.
What works:
• Have your child spend more time outdoors. Research supports that a minimum of 2-3 hours of outdoor time per day has some protective effect against myopia. Kids receiving myopia treatments, like those offered at Treehouse Eyes, do better when they are younger and have less myopia. Like many conditions, early treatment matters.
What may work:
• Limit screen time. Children spending more time on digital device screens (smart phones, tablets and games) may have a higher rate of myopia. Attempting to limit screen time is probably helpful.
• Vitamin D. Vitamin D is produced by exposure to the sun. Lack of Vitamin D may play a role in
the progression of myopia.
• Reading posture. If your child reads in bed, laying on their back might be the best position to help minimize increasing myopia. To date, we are unsure why this helps, but it may.
What doesn't work:
• Intentionally prescribing less than the full amount of a prescription. This has been shown to have the opposite effect and makes myopia worse. Myopic parents often request their child's eye doctor not prescribe the full amount of their measured nearsighted correction. Numerous studies show this is not helpful. Increasing nearsightedness is not caused by "getting used to stronger glasses."
• Eye exercises being promoted on the Internet. Certain types of eye exercises, prescribed by specially trained doctors, have been shown to be helpful for certain eye conditions. Myopia is not one of them.
• Pinhole eyeglasses. These glasses may provide sharper vision, but offer no myopia control benefits.
Connect with Treehouse Eyes
Visit Treehouse Eyes on their website or on their Facebook page for the latest news and updates!
Resources:
Treehouse Eyes
World Health Organization. Visual impairment and blindness. Fact Sheet N°282; Updated August 2014.
Our experience at Treehouse Eyes has been extremely frustrating. We had to cut our losses—both time and money—mid-process and seek alternative services to get Misight lenses for my daughter. Like many others, we were initially drawn to their single mission of myopic control. I had done my research and was eager to get Misight lenses for my 8-year-old daughter, who was recently diagnosed with nearsightedness. She didn't have glasses yet and couldn’t see the board clearly at school, so our priority was to get her glasses as soon as possible.
However, there are several constraints at Treehouse Eyes that you should know before committing to their $2,000+ yearly plan. First, their Saturday appointments are only available for first-time visits, meaning you will likely have to take your child out of school and yourself out of work for any follow-up appointments. Second, they only have one educator who works a limited schedule, and the children are only given one hour to learn to put the lenses in. We were not informed that if my daughter didn’t manage to put the lenses in within that hour, we would have to come back in another week or two—meaning no glasses for my daughter for at least another week, and we’d have to make another appointment during the educator’s limited availability. This could easily require skipping school and work again. If you have young children like mine, they may need multiple visits before they can put the lenses in themselves.
What's most frustrating is that these details are not made clear upfront. It feels like a typical bait-and-switch strategy, which is deceptive and misleading.
While the staff at Treehouse Eyes were professional, they were not compassionate about the children’s health or accommodating to their customers. In our unfortunate case, we had to miss school and work for a second time, only for the educator to fall ill on the day of the appointment (which was not her fault). Treehouse Eyes did nothing to find an alternative way to get the lenses to my daughter sooner. This lack of empathy—especially when working with kids—is frustrating and upsetting.
We are also getting Myosmart spectacle lenses from Canada as a backup for days when my daughter is sick or her eyes aren’t feeling well enough to wear contact lenses. We chose not to get her regular spectacle lenses because it would have made the transition to myopic control lenses difficult. While we're sticking with Treehouse Eyes for the Misight lenses, we wish we could have gotten them sooner.
I initially considered canceling immediately but decided to give it another try, as starting over at a different optical center would take even more time. However, I found out that the educator wouldn’t be available for another week, meaning my child would have to wait and miss school again. If you are a busy family like ours, you will likely find yourself in the same situation. Small businesses working with kids should demonstrate compassion and flexibility to meet their customers’ needs, but Treehouse Eyes sticks rigidly to their rules.
On a positive note, they did charge me a prorated amount rather than the full $2,000 yearly charge, but we still lost $400 and valuable time with no progress, leaving my daughter without glasses for another three weeks. I don’t believe this business will survive if it continues with such poor practices. Stay away!
What a great post on dealing with myopia. Our preachers daughter was diagnosed with myopia. I'll send them your link.
Jocelyn: It was a pleasure meeting you! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our office and for educating your readers about myopia control and what we do at Treehouse Eyes! Wishing the best to you and your family during the holiday season.
Wow I never heard of Myopa before, or a tleast the term & it's affects on children. Thank yo for the useful tips and information.
Honestly I have never heard about myopia before, but it is good to know there are nice ideas to help children with such issues. Such a great way to create awareness on the same and Treehouse Eyes is going to be so much useful for many in need!
oh wow thats for sharing. this is the first time i have heard of myopic. awesome read.
And there I was thinking being myopic was a mental state of narrow mindedness...Its a real eye affliction. Thanks for sharing, as of now Screen time is Limited to 7pm. OMG The digital era and its gadgets!
That looks like a really fun place for kids to get their eyes checked! My son's eye doctor is pretty boring. I found out recently that he is nearsighted, I didn't know it was so common in our kids today.
I've not heard of this condition before so thankyou for sharing, Good to know there are ways to help it.
Eyesight is very important and it's a must to have your eyes and your children's eyes checked on a regular basis. I'm sure this informative post will help a lot of parents when it comes to eye care.
Thanks so much for these useful info! I didn't know much about this condition. Glad to read this!
This was a very interesting read. Eye care is so important, what a cool place to get checked out!
This is so interesting. I had no idea that there were treatments for myopia. None of my children wear glasses (at least not yet) but I always worry about the negative effects of spending so much time on the computer screens (not just at home but they do a lot on computers and tablets at school.)
I am nearsighted and I'm starting to think my daughters might be too. We limit screen time, but I didn't even consider the bedtime reading! Great info!
My son has glasses but never wears them! I wish there was a way to tell him how important it is....
I will have to look for a Treehouse Eyes location near me. It looks like a great place to take the kids for their eye exams.
Treehouse Eyes looks like a great place to get the kids eyes tested. It is so important to get your kids eyes checked regularly.
This is really great. We don't have many places like this near us but my kids need this.
My son needs glasses for distance. I know he spends too much time on a screen. We really need to work on getting him outside more. It's hard in the winter time, but this is a good reminder. Sounds like a really cool service.
I really do think that kids today need to step away from the computer some. Not only is it hard one their eyes, but it's hard on their imagination as well.
I remember reading somewhere recently that a lot of children are suffering from disorders caused by a lack of Vitamin D. It's great to know that there is help for kids who have this eye condition.
My son has had this since he was 4. I really was intrigued by this article.
I love that there are solutions to help those that are nearsighted. My daughter wears glasses but does not have this condition.
I have always had problems with my eyesight. And my kiddo just found out that he needs glasses. I know he would love this place it's too bad it's not in the state where I live. I would love to check it out.
This is a really interesting read, I have eye conditions myself and I even with glasses I definitely took my sight for granted until it got progressively worse, I can only see well now using contacts and one day I know that may not be enough.
That is so great! I think all medical offices should take this approach with kids. It can be so stressful to take the kids to a doctor. This really helps ease that.
Fascinating! I had no idea there were so many myopic kids! That is truly a startling statistic, but I'm glad that there's help. I think I'm going to pay better attention at my kids well visits...they take a basic eye test, but when they say everything is fine, I don't ask more questions.
Very interesting read. I have never heard of Myopia before. It's definitely something to think about with my son and how much time he spends on his devices.