Parents urged to get children's eyes tested as myopia cases double
Cases of short-sightedness have doubled in UK children over the past 50 years.
A Northampton Optometrist is urging parents to get their children's eyes checked early.
It's as rates of myopia - or short sightedness - have doubled in UK children over the past 50 years to an estimated total of 3 million, that's an estimated one in five.
More screen time and a lack of time outside are two of the biggest contributors to myopia.
With shorter winter days, there is much less opportunities for kids to spend the recommended time outdoors, approximately two hours a day.
As Keyur Patel from Tompkins Knight and Son Optometrists explains:
"We are spending more time indoors, we are spending more time with our heads and faces looking at devices.
"Not just devices, even near tasks within, you know, 30 to 40 centimetres of our faces. We were not built for that. We were built for running and hunting and and things like that."
Children's eye tests are free up to 16, and 18 if they stay in education.
When it comes to the first eye test, it's advised children should have had their first by 4, but they can have an eye test younger if you think they have sight issues, and are available free on the NHS.
Keyur Patel says untreated myopia has implications in later life:
"Children are becoming short sighted younger. So that potentially means they are going to be more short sighted later.
"And there are potential eye related conditions that can increase the more short sighted you become.
"Just from lifestyle perspective, you know you don't get out of bed without reaching for your glasses or having to put contact lenses in and everything is then restricted."
He says early intervention can reduce potential risk long term:
"We have quite a few options in terms of myopia management that's available to our patients anywhere from.
"Spectacles to contact lenses and and more recently an eye drop called Atropine, which there is now a licensed product in the UK that wasn't available six months ago."