cherrygal:

Hi cutiemax

can you share what eye massages you did and how old is your gal? Also, what diet you giving her? My gal has astigmatism.

My girl is 6yo.

Here is what we did...

1) Eye related activities ( reading/studying etc)only during the day. Maximise the use of natural light instead of lightings

2) Eat eye rich food such as blueberries, carrots, celerys, kiwi, brocooli, squash, sweet potatoes and etc ( I made smoothies/juice to increase intake)

3) massage eyes(clockwise, 10x and hold for few seconds) in 4 main areas. I do it 3x daily for her. Before school, after school and before sleep.
- fingers on each side of the eyebrows ( top section)
- fingers on each side of the nose ( middle section)
- fingers on cheekbones( bottom of eyes)
- fingers on each side of the eye( just above ears)

4) Eye exercise ( 1x daily)
- Look far and near
- up and down
- left and right
- eight
-clock

5) Regular blinking of eyes and looking away when using eyes for close up

Hope it helps....

Just like to share with parents how good diet, eye exercises, eye massage(by hands) and good eye habits/lifestyle can really improve our eyes, slowly but surely.


We just did a check on her eyes.Her shortsightedness remains the same but there is another improvement on astigma , from -0.5 to -0.25.

She was diagnosed -1.25 on myopia and -1.0 on astigma on both eyes,on 23 Nov 2011.
She was diagnosed -1.25 on myopia and -0.5 on astigma on both eyes, on 5 Dec and 28 Dec 2011.
She was diagnosed -1.25 on myopia and -0.25 on astigma on both eyes on 30th Jan 2012.

* Her right eye is between -1.0 and -1.25 so I just put -1.25.

I hope over time we can see better results…

Interesting articles...


http://www.prlog.org/10264821-are-eye-exercises-unleash-your-vision-scam.html

mwchua:

Hi,


Need your quick help. I used to take my girl to Health Promotion Board for eye check-up when she was in K2 and P1. Now that she is in P2 this year, HPB mentioned that they do not perform eye check-up anymore and we have to go to optometrist.

Sometimes the eye degree given by different optometrists can vary quite a bit. I am wondering if apart from HPB, is there any other place I can bring my girl to for eye check-up which will be more objective and reliable than that of optometrist?

Many thanks for your kind advice.

Regards,
Ming

Hi Ming,
Hmm...strange. My mum was a nurse , part of the medical team that went round SG schools to check students' eyesight. Only Pr 1 and Pr 5 required detail body check and immunisations jabs. Maybe they have change the policies. My mum just retired last August.

Yes, it is quite frustrating when eye test varies. We tried 2 different optometrists and the results are different. The first one didn't detect astigmatism but as she wasn't as detailed as the second optometrist, I put trust the second one more. I was with my daughter throughout her both eye tests. It helps to gain more familar with the process and how each test is being carried out. I would also request for a print out of the prescriptions for future references.

Personally, there is little reason for optometrists or even optician shop to give an objective view as their main source of income come from the purchase of glasses. They are all for glasses/drops/hard lens. There are also little research done on alternative ways to combat myopia. I heard of vision therapist but have not tried before.

peapot:

Cutiemax, can you recommend me your optometrist? I need to bring my gal to test her eyesight again. Usually the school will conduct the eye test but now I don't hear anything from the school anymore.

Hi Peapot,
We are currently living in Brisbane and are seeing a nearby optometrist here.

Usually MOH medical team goes to school for yearly eye test. U may check with teachers cos it is a must for all schools.

My girl just had her eyes retested by the same optometrist.


19 days ago
Was -1.25 on right and -1.25 on left for shortsightedness.
Was -0.75 on right and 0.75 on left for astigmatism.
Was 180 on right and 180 on left for axis.

Axis refers to the direction of astigmatism, it shows the orientation of the football shaped eye.

Today’s results show some slight improvement.

-1.00 on right and -1.25 on left for shortsightedness.
-0.5 on right and 0.5 on left for astimgmatism.
90 on right and 90 on left for axis.

The optometrist mentioned that her right eye is a 1/2 point improvement. She is in between -1.25 and -1.00 and she put -1.00 for her.

I am happy with the results. At least our daily eye exercises, newly adopted reading habits and diets help in strengthenign her eye muscles.

Will retest her eyes again in Feb 12 to monitor her progress. Really hope we can combat myopia…

I bought this from Brisbane. U can get something similar.


http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Technology/Peripherals/Stands-and-Cleaners/FE2110

All glasses lens in optical shops are standardised, for far distance. If we wanna it meant for classroom settings, we will need to talk to them how much to lower. I was recommended myopia control(progressive lens) for my girl. Lens have distance and near lens. The optician suggested -1.0 and -0.25 for my girl.


But I would think -0.5 and -0.0 would be sufficiently for classroom boards. One thing to note, we have to constantly drill into their little minds that never strain eyes. Just walk a little closer to see if the image is blur or use our ears to help our eyes. If not, leave it.

I also encourage my girl to look as far as she can at the same time making sure the words are clear and comfortable to her eyes. We been practising this using bookstand while reading books and it helps alot. Now she is comfortable to read almost 2 arms away.

Hi OrangeBelt,


For eye exercises, I got it from http://www.improvemyopia.com/. We tried all exercises except the first one. Dun quite understand it. Also, we will close our eyes and \"sun\" them in the morning. Also we do \" near and far \" focus by looking at the grass before looking faraway trees.

I have also bought a book stand for reading. Noticed that the max distance between book and eyes is just 30cm(no matter how well a child sit).However, with a bookstand, the distance is doubled , 60cm. I will ask my girl to use her arm as a guide. Reading is also more comfortable with a book stand.

Fyi, I am also shortsighted(-1.5 on right and 0.75 on left) myself for the past 25 years. I used to need my glasses after hours without it. Now, I am totally \"glasses less \" for 2 weeks and my eyes are no longer tired without glasses. So I guess we need to use our eye muscles to make it stronger like other parts of our body too.

My 6yo girl has just been found to be myopia( -1.25 on each eye) 2 weeks ago. My heart sank as I had taken preventative measures since young. However, I do agree that there were times when she strained her eyes to do her work/read. I want to find alternatives to wearing glasses as it is not a solution to help myopia. In fact, I find it worsen myopia but can't explain why until I found some research on how glasses worsen myopia.


We have been using a single lens to see different distances. However our eyes are like a camera that zoom in and out effortlessly. The lens used in glasses are good for 20feet away( 6m) and each time we used it for shorter distance it is incorrected used, straining our eyes and in turn worsen myopia ( my opinion). The board in class is usually 2-3 metres away. We should have different lens for different purpose RATHER than a single lens for different distance.

http://www.i-see.org/eyeglasses_harmful/chap5.html

I have decided to delay the used of glasses for my girl. In the meantime, we make many changes to our daily lives in hope to help her vision improve. We did eye exercises, sun our eyes, consume lots of fruits and veggies that are good for eyes. We reduce night activities to the minimal and only do eye related activities during the day. We changed our sleeping patterns, waking up an hour earlier since they now sleep at 8pm instead of 9pm. It has been 2 weeks and I have been using DIY eye chart to \"test\" her vision. There seem to be slight improvement. I have arranged for a eye retest in a week's time. Wil see how it turn out.

If I really need to get her glasses, I will make sure the lens are just nice for classroom settings rather than 6m.