Visit Your Child’s Eye Doctor To Find Out About Different Treatments for Myopia (Nearsightedness)

This post is sponsored by the Global Myopia Awareness Coalition. As always, all opinions are my own.

Everyone in my family has myopia. If you’re not aware of what myopia is, it’s commonly referred to as nearsightedness, which is a vision condition in which people can see close objects clearly, but objects farther away appear blurred. My daughter was diagnosed at almost 5 years old with myopia. At 8 and 10 respectively, both of our sons were diagnosed with myopia. I was diagnosed with myopia at age 8 and my husband was diagnosed at age 7. You might have known that most kids either get glasses or contacts (when they are a little older) to deal with their myopia, but that’s not the only thing that can be done to slow the progression of myopia. There are new treatments that I want to find out about. Since my daughter is due for an eye doctor visit anyway, I’m going to make sure we do everything we can to slow the progression of myopia. To make this fun, we’ve planned a Vision Mission Scavenger Hunt to get her excited about visiting the eye doctor!

Our Vision Mission

To get my daughter excited about going to the eye doctor and finding out more about new treatments for myopia, we did a scavenger hunt around our town. This was so fun and my husband and younger son helped us plan it. There are several risk factors for myopia – too much time on video and digital screens, not enough time playing outside as well as genetics. Quality time with family is a great way for your kids to take a break from screen time. Parents – I’m going to show you what we did for our scavenger hunt so you can plan and complete your own Vision Mission with your kids to get them excited about seeing their eye doctor to find out about new treatment options– beyond conventional glasses and contacts – that may help slow the progression of myopia.

Starting Our Vision Mission Scavenger Hunt

We started it right outside our apartment. We used this downloadable #VisionMission template as a jumping off point to plan our day, and you can do the same! Share it to your Instagram Story and tag me – would love to hear what you do!

My younger son and my husband were our advance team and posted all the clues, they had a 10 minute head start on us.

My daughter’s first clue was,

“Where do the smallest kids get their exercise? Go to the place that has NO BIG Kids Allowed.”

She quickly figured out it was the school playground right nearby and we walked there.

She found the clue taped to the gate and opened it up to find the next clue, which was

“The E’s on the eye chart are shown on a ______ . Go to the place has a lot of these ________.”

My daughter did have a little trouble with this clue, but she got that it was the movie theater a few minutes later.

And then we set off to the movie theater.

And then she found the next clue,

“Here’s the place near when your older brother loved to watch the trains – unscramble this and go to the back!
INUTSA LAE SOHUE
(it unscrambled to the name of the restaurant)

My daughter figured this was a local restaurant right near the train station so we set off for that.

She went inside to find the next clue.

The next clue said,

“You can get these in many different colors, mom can drink the lattes, just give me the _______.

Scrambled word: SDTONU

My daughter figured it was our local donut shop and we set off.

She picked up the last clue from the woman behind the counter which said,
“Go to the office where they have the big fish tank and the kids movies playing.”

She guessed that it was our local eye doctor! I told her it was time for her yearly checkup and we were going to find out about some new treatment options for myopia.

We piled into our car and set off!

After we got to the office, we relaxed and watched the fish.

My daughter had her eyes checked and then dilated.

Then she met with her doctor.

We discovered that my daughter was having a few issues, one of them being a tracking issue that was contributing to her attention issues. I’m so glad the doctor picked that up. We also found out that her myopia had gotten worse in the last 6 months since we had seen the optometrist.

We also found out that there are several new treatments for her myopia – outside of conventional glasses or contacts – and we decided on a course of action for that. I never would have known this if I didn’t ask and I’m so glad we did.

Parents, this is so important! Has your child gone to eye doctor this year? Along with pediatrician and dentist appointments, annual visits to the eye doctor should be an essential part of a child’s yearly health checklist since they are the only way to diagnose nearsightedness (myopia) and allow children to perform their best. Myopia can increase your children’s risk of other serious eye conditions too. So don’t wait! Plan a #VisionMission using the template below, and be sure to ask your child’s eye doctor about new myopia treatment options!

If you aren’t sure where to start, download these scavenger hunt templates here and make a fun #visionmission to see your eye doctor to find out new treatments for myopia.

So, who’s going to plan a Vision Mission?

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