Tag Archives: Child Myopia

Myopia Control & Child Close-Up Time: TV or Legos? | Endmyopia Q&A

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The topic closest to your favorite guru’s tiny little black heart, kid’s eyesight (and how to keep it working properly).

Adults, I could sort of take it or leave it.  Plenty of people are their own worst enemies, and we’re well capable of making our own choices, doing our own research, being responsible for our indulgences.

Kids though, they don’t know any better.

So when a small child is being given a phone or iPad as babysitter, an otherwise magnanimous beard isn’t very happy.

And we go from not very happy to directly pissed off, when some dime store retail optometrist lets unsuspecting visitors to his mall retail store believe that he’s some sort of medical doctor (he absolutely isn’t).  He’ll call his retail lens sales ‘prescriptions’ (they’re just clear curved pieces of plastic), his customers ‘patients’ (no you aren’t sick, and a shopping mall isn’t a hospital), and worst of all – sells parents glasses for their little kids.

F*ck those guys.  It’s where I draw the line.

Yes of course, there is far worse in the world, and plenty of the same level of bad.  Anybody associated with Kraft Foods for example, or just industrial food in general, or most of what big pharma gets up to, or pick any politician or divorce lawyer or the American for-profit prison system, or whatever militaries get up to.

I know, kittehz.  Glasses are a minor infraction in the scheme of things.  Perhaps in the spirit of the lesser evil, I picked optometry to be the thing to rail against, educate about, and help you escape from.  All those other evils that’s for somebody else, let Elon build the space ships.

Anyway, excuses for rants aside, here’s a quick clip from our recent live chat Q&A, talking about kid’s close-up time:

And again, I’ve said plenty about child eyesight.

You might also get creative searching our wiki for child myopia topics.

Here’s the thing.  As a parent, you’re the one who is likely set  examples the little ones are going to remember for the rest of their lives.  And we live in incredibly strange and unprecedented times.  How do you keep your kids from turning into TikTok zombies, when all their friends are already?  Are you going to have to go full-native and escape all of default culture, risk them not getting socialized properly around their peers?  Do you just go, well it’ll be fine, I have to go work now.

I don’t know either.  My prior answer was to build an off-grid house in the jungle and at least delay all those questions for a good while.  That didn’t work out either, so I’m not the one with the answer.

So I just offer the little picture:  Phones are not good toys.  If you have little ones, maybe this is a good time and reason to address your own phone addiction, so at least they don’t see their role models scrolling like a zombie.  Just like you’re not getting drunk in front of them or chain smoking cigarettes, show them that there’s plenty more to life than letting billion dollar companies get your soul in exchange for mindless entertainment.

God Jake again with the rants, you’re thinking.

I know.  But this is the fuel that provides the motivation to continue to also offer tools.  

Go make some 20/20 gains.

– Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Teaching Children Active Focus

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All contents on this site should be considered research material only.  We are not offering medical advice or treatment or cures for any illnesses.Before considering taking steps to control your own myopia, you should definitely visit a qualified ophthalmologist for a comprehensive eyesight checkup.  Specific diagnoses illnesses aside,  most) myopia may be considered to not be an illness at all.  Most myopia is likely just a matter of environmental strain, and excessive prescription use.  You yourself may be able to control and reduce your own myopia by 1) managing eye strain, 2) conservative prescription lens use, and 3) targeted positive stimulus.We recommend finding a prevention minded optometrist to supplement your journey with professional advice and prescription management help.  While not a requisite, a supportive optometrist may make your journey that much more enjoyable!Potential Side Effects: (1) You may experience astigmatism-like symptoms, especially if you reduce too fast or without paying attention to this (transient) symptom. Search our Youtube channel or Website for ‘transient astigmatism’. This can easily be prevented or managed. (2) Some people report an increase in eye floaters when practicing active focus. In general floaters are considered harmless but a sudden increase in floaters should be evaluated by a medical trained professional, as they could be a sign of retinal detachment or other serious medical condition. Generally taking it easy, not over straining, practicing gently and with patience should help. (3) Headaches. You’re taking on a very much unsanctioned self-experiment changing diopters. Anytime you overdo things or change too much or aren’t educating yourself first, you may expose yourself to strain symptoms. You should be experiencing no pain, headaches, or discomfort if you do things correctly!

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Can My Child Wear Differential Glasses ONLY?

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I recently did an hour long live chat video Q&A session for BackTo20/20 members.

Lots of eyeball questions were covered, good chat.  I made clips of some of the questions and a quick Youtube playlist for you:

Free stuff, somebody else doing all the work.  Isn’t Jakey just the nicest?

The question here is an important one, because kids.

I always hesitate to get into child-specific topics, I don’t have any paid courses just for children, that whole category is as important to me as I’m reticent to talk about it.

The thing with kids is, they’re developing.  Lots is going on.  You have to interpret their experiences through their evolving relationship with language, there is a lot of emotional and social and physical development going on – all things that benefit hugely from good eyesight.

Between the challenge of entertaining them (without using phones!) and making sure they see well, adding endmyopia in case of existing shortsightedness is absolutely a parenting challenge.

What I always says is:  Prioritize them seeing well.  From developing fine motor skills properly, to socializing naturally by being able to see facial expressions clearly, you really want to make sure that you’re not messing with diopters unless you’re really confident in what you’re doing.  Again, a lot of development relies on good eyesight.  Things I suggest for adults, may be too much of a compromise for a child.  It’s up to you to make choices on that front.

Anyways.  It’s all solvable, lots and lots of parents are doing it.  

Go make some 20/20 gains!

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Help! I Need To Fix My Child’s Eyes, FAST

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I get a lot o fe-mail from concerned parents, about their children being “prescribed” glasses.

Here’s part of one just from today:

A busy parent, having bought my awesome BackTo20/20 course, hoping for help.

(And yes, the heading picture is not representative of a 9 year old. Not much time for well considered Photoshops these days.)

The thing about the course, it’s almost 20 years in the making.  Many tweaks and learning experiences on my part, figuring out things and improving the approach based on recurring questions and issue.  It’s been a labor of beardly love (or at least, trying to get less support questions).

And … it takes time to improve your vision.

Here is what I told this parent, and likely what I might tell you as well:

The thing about the course progression rate:

Eyes adapt very slowly.  Generally at least a couple of weeks before some diopter changes get a response from your eyes (and visual cortex mainly), and 3-4 months before proper adaptation to changes is realized.

I used to have the course as a ‘book’.  It was a miserable failure and it took me a long time to figure out the issue – which is that people consume the entire thing at once, implement changes as they interpret them, and entirely miss the most important aspect:  which is the timing.  Example, we don’t talk about distance glasses at all for the first month.  It’s not even an accessible topic.  If you do change distance glasses any sooner, the whole thing doesn’t work (nearly as well).  Because it really takes a month of just figuring out what the correct close-up solution is, and getting used to that, and active focus, before it even makes sense to discuss distance vision.

All that just to say, there’s no real quick absorbing the info option and then taking action and moving on.

I’d love to be offering some faster version since 100% I know you’re crazy busy.  My parents are both MDs also, I definitely get how it is.

20 minutes pers session, at most 2-3 a week.  It’s more like going for a run with the long term goal of better cardio, than “let’s get this done and over with”.

For a quick “fix”:

Print an eye chart to put up at home.  The #1 issue with these 1 diopter range myopia cases usually is ciliary muscle spasm.  Find out when he sees best and what line that is.  Compare before and after homework, screen time, figure out the pattern of what activities strain the eyes in a tangible way (can’t read x-line anymore).  Distance breaks and a good habit between distance and close up, especially if there is a tempting distance vision activity / hobby for kids, makes all the difference.

Kids eyes adapt super quickly.  If he starts to wear those glasses, a year from now he’ll need -2.  Conversely if there’s something he finds that he loves doing that doesn’t involve screens and lots of natural different distances, he’ll see better fast.

Also lighting makes a big difference.  Real test, can he see facial expressions at normal distances.  I always look for that, so their socialization doesn’t get disrupted because of lacking eyesight.

There it is.

It’s like when I put a keto diet on my experiment list, or getting serious about the gym.  It needs a little slot in your schedule, in your allocation of time.  You may have to cancel a few relaxing scrolls on the phone, or some TV show, or an hour of Youtube may have to be taken out, once in a while.

Believe me, I’m the least motivated, least role-model-like, I myself would be the worst of all endmyopia students.  Plus I’m busy with plenty of things, and tend to not just throw random new projects on my schedule.  So I get it and I’m totally with you, if you look at all this and go, duuuude that’s asking a lot.

Seeing well is a worthwhile investment, in the long run.  See what other habit needs to be getting a tiny bit less attention, so you can look back a year from now, with less diopters to worry about.

Or even more awesomely, if you’re doing it for your kids.

Go make some 20/20 gains!

Cheers,

-Jake

P.S.:  Your eyes aren’t “broken”.

It’s your lens use and habits that keep making your eyes worse.  And the massive hundred billion dollar optics industry loves it.   They keep selling you stronger and stronger glasses, and tell you stories of some mysterious genetic “myopia illness”.

It’s nonsense.  Your eyes are perfectly healthy.  

Check out Annette’s post in our Facebook group.  From -5.25 down to the last diopter already:

Exactly.

These results are entirely achievable!  We built a 84 session structured program that has been used with great success by thousands of participants over nearly a decade online.  With hundreds of updates, 200+ pro topic videos,  and daily one-on-one support with Jake personally, this is the single best system to help reduce your diopter dependence.

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

9 Year Old: 50% Improved Eyesight

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Would you know it, another parent e-mailing about their child, at the same age range as our last post.

Though that last story was asking for help, and this one is about gains.  Take a look:

That’s beautiful.

Eyes and health and learning all the things about life, our work as parents.  Odds are certainly not in our favor with sugar and screens and all the commercial interests that need us to be addicted and broken, in order to generate profit.

But here we are anyway.  Thanks to the Internet we can connect and figure these things out together.

I’ve written lots child eyesight articles over the years, and shared these updates.

I hope you’re continuing to make great 20/20 gains.

Cheers,

-Jake

P.S.:  Your eyes aren’t “broken”.

It’s your lens use and habits that keep making your eyes worse.  And the massive hundred billion dollar optics industry loves it.   They keep selling you stronger and stronger glasses, and tell you stories of some mysterious genetic “myopia illness”.

It’s nonsense.  Your eyes are perfectly healthy.  

Check out Annette’s post in our Facebook group.  From -5.25 down to the last diopter already:

Exactly.

These results are entirely achievable!  We built a 84 session structured program that has been used with great success by thousands of participants over nearly a decade online.  With hundreds of updates, 200+ pro topic videos,  and daily one-on-one support with Jake personally, this is the single best system to help reduce your diopter dependence.

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Helping Prevent Child Myopia

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We talk quite a lot about child myopia.

Especially child myopia prevention is so entirely feasible and yet not offered as eduction for parents or health care professionals.  We have an entire wiki section dedicated to just the little ones!

Luckily and slowly endmyopia reaches at least some of the child health ‘influencers’.

All you need to really know to keep your kids eyes working properly:

Number one, phones are not toys for children.  Ole Jakey never ever wants to see a child playing with a phone.  But if you do think that’s wise parenting, also hand them a glass of whiskey and perhaps a cigar.  It maybe a juggling act to hold on to all three but challenges is what life is all about.

Phones, not children’s toys.  Also iPads aren’t babysitters.  The level of wanton negligence in parenting there hurts an Old Beard’s sensitive sensibilities.

“Oh but Jake, the little one will be quiet for HOURS.”

Why not just buy a tranquilizer gun?  That’ll work really well too and probably isn’t any worse for the child.

Number two, plus lenses (aka old people reading glasses) can be great myopia prevention.  If the child isn’t myopic yet, introducing plus lenses gradually for close-up work is a game changer for long term myopia prevention.

This is a whole topic unto itself.  Don’t monkey with lenses until you know what you’re doing.  This isn’t diopter or medical advice.  Or really, advice at all.

Just vaguely guru-esque pointers towards misty mountains and therein contained wisdoms.

Oh and also …

Yes, some optometrists sure do practice sanity.  Rare, but real.

Go make some 20/20 gains.  And keep your kids away from phones and (minus) lenses.

Cheers,

-Jake

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

13 Year Old Child: From -3.00 Up To -6.00 Diopter (In Two Years!)

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It’s been a while, darlings.  

It sometimes feels as though the world as moved on from written words and blogs and things, towards reels and TikTok things and scroll-ey bits and YouTube shorts and podcasts.

All media that a beard is clearly too old for.  

Or perhaps, too majestic.  

Speaking of, I should be doing more terrible YouTube videos.  They do get dozens upon dozens of views and it’s not at all a fruitless effort.  Do kids these days even need eyesight that goes beyond arm’s length?  And will they need it once Zucky McZuckerf*ck gets his way with Web3, the metaverse, the total ownership of your attention and reality to live in his corporate digital reality?

Who knows.  I’m old.  Not in touch.  Here’s who’s not old, though:

Lame!

I have kids.  Maybe you have kids.  Letting these retail optometry halfwits direct the eyesight of your children should be illegal.  They have zero clue what they’re doing.  

Best case scenario.

Or maybe plenty of that industry knows exactly what they’re doing, which is how they turned selling glasses and making your eyes turn to sh*t a hundred billion (with a b!) dollar a year business.  Nobody reads the science or the studies or understands the biology, or takes the time for any of it.

Ah well.  It does break my heart, though.

There are good news though:

It’s always a mixed bag, life.  And the guru inbox.  Let’s pick another good news one:

I guess you have to be smart to see well.

Or lucky.  Or be the type to ask plenty of questions.  The type to overlook the occasional misgivings of a dubious beard, and dig into endmyopia despite these unnecessary rants and digressions.

Best part?  These are just a couple of e-mails, from a single day.  Most days include quite a few bits of encouraging news and progress updates, and people clearly having discovered endmyopia and made sense of its inner workings.  It continues to encourage.

Now, will I make more videos?  Reels and things?  

Maybe.  Whenever I manage to overlook feeling like a psycho talking to myself, at a camera lens.  See you over on the Tubes!

Cheers,

Il Jaquarino Los Tres

P.S.:  Your eyes aren’t “broken”.

It’s your lens use and habits that keep making your eyes worse.  And the massive hundred billion dollar optics industry loves it.   They keep selling you stronger and stronger glasses, and tell you stories of some mysterious genetic “myopia illness”.

It’s nonsense.  Your eyes are perfectly healthy.  

Check out Annette’s post in our Facebook group.  From -5.25 down to the last diopter already:

Exactly.

To find out how Annette did this, grab a copy of my free (yes, darling freeloaders, don’t pay me for this one) 7-Day guide.  It’ll teach you all the basics on how to start getting your eyes back.  No sales pitch!  

Get the free guide here (and see available courses).

*No eye exercises, no Bates Method, no unicorn farming.  Just science and evidence based stimulus and habit changes.

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

8 Year Old: -1.00 To -4.50 Diopters … And Now To -2.00?

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Hey darlings,

Your favorite bearded sage gets daily and endless e-mails from parents.  

Parents who, apparently did manage to find endmyopia and my e-mail, but not the gigantic child myopia section of the site.

Mysteries abound.

Or anyway, the questions abound.  Jake, my child got -1 diopter glasses.  Should I let my child wear those?  And I want to say sure, wear them, if you want the myopia starter pack.

But I try to contain beardly sarcasms.

I also try to contain just having my e-mail signature be this article stating that not explaining myopia control should be considered negligence.  That’s a damning one and filled with respectable evidence, right from within the bowels of modern optometry.

But who cares.  People want to trust a guy with a paper square on his office wall, pronouncing him an expert.  Even if his expertise largely manifests in making 5000% profit on selling you glasses.

Jakey, who you might as well call Cassandra.

I can explain all this stuff all I want, I can link all the studies, I can show all the improvement reports, nobody cares.

Not care, or they think endmyopia is all some giant conspiracy:

That is a weird question.  Why would anyone ask the creator of a thing, whether his thing is fake?  Granted yes the obvious answer is that dude bro is well intentioned and just wants some reassurance.

Well.  Wrong place for reassurances, this.

That’s right. This is what you get when you combine a lack of financial motive with no desire for fame, and weary fatigue of trolls and dummies.

I do feel for parents, however.  And celebrate their successes:

That does kind of make it worth it.

And while we’re already here:

That is pretty cool, and lowers a bearded cynicism at least enough to share this post with you.

One more!

Also very nice.

And no, I didn’t pay for these, or make them up.  Not because ole Jakey isn’t some kind of terrifying capitalist Schweinehund, but just because who can be bothered?

Just a bit of fleecing hapless crypto bros and their amateurhour trades, the YOLOs looking to gamble, an old subterfugionist might make endlessly more easy money than selling you some Internet course.  For which then I’ll have to be accountable, and provide support, answer questions, make sure things work out.  

That’s a lot of work.  So you won’t find me promoting paid stuff much at all, even if I most definitely appreciate you supporting endmyopia as a resource.

There we go.  Go make some 20/20 gains.

Cheers,

-Jake

P.S.:  Your eyes aren’t “broken”.

It’s your lens use and habits that keep making your eyes worse.  And the massive hundred billion dollar optics industry loves it.   They keep selling you stronger and stronger glasses, and tell you stories of some mysterious genetic “myopia illness”.

It’s nonsense.  Your eyes are perfectly healthy.  

Check out Annette’s post in our Facebook group.  From -5.25 down to the last diopter already:

Exactly.

To find out how Annette did this, grab a copy of my free (yes, darling freeloaders, don’t pay me for this one) 7-Day guide.  It’ll teach you all the basics on how to start getting your eyes back.  No sales pitch!  

*No eye exercises, no Bates Method, no unicorn farming.  Just science and evidence based stimulus and habit changes.

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Young Child Glasses: One Focal Plane?

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You have a young child, already in glasses.  

You’re reading and learning and figuring out normalized, differentials, blur horizon, focal planes.  But now you’re thinking … my child doesn’t really have close-up screen time, yet.   Not in school yet, I don’t use iPads as babysitters, so maybe differentials make no sense?

Also, how would you keep track of when to wear what, and how much ongoing effort and confusion will two pairs of glasses add?

Some potential answers on this, in this  quick video discussing single focal plane preferences for young children:

As always, there’s lots more in the child nearsightedness section.

And in our child myopia YouTube playlist.

Cheers,

-Jake

P.S.:  Your eyes aren’t “broken”.

It’s your lens use and habits that keep making your eyes worse.  And the massive hundred billion dollar optics industry loves it.   They keep selling you stronger and stronger glasses, and tell you stories of some mysterious genetic “myopia illness”.

It’s nonsense.  Your eyes are perfectly healthy.  

Check out Annette’s post in our Facebook group.  From -5.25 down to the last diopter already:

Exactly.

To find out how Annette did this, grab a copy of my free (yes, darling freeloaders, don’t pay me for this one) 7-Day guide.  It’ll teach you all the basics on how to start getting your eyes back.  No sales pitch!  

*No eye exercises, no Bates Method, no unicorn farming.  Just science and evidence based stimulus and habit changes.

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site

Ten Year Old Boy: No More Glasses! | Shortsighted Podcast

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Hello, darlings.

Finally as per popular demand, a Shortsighted Podcast episode dealing with parent and child myopia.

Today we’re chatting with Simon who helped his now ten year old son reverse -2.75 diopters of artificial lens dependence.

It’s a great conversation and should help you moderate your own expectations.

You can watch the episode here, or listen in your favorite podcast app.

Video:

Or have a stop over on our full podcast page.  You will find direct links to our podcast on Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes), Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Alexa, and many more apps.

You can also listen to the episode here, directly:

P.S.:  Your eyes aren’t broken.

It’s your lens use and habits that keep making your eyes worse.  And the massive hundred billion dollar optics industry loves it.   They sell you ever increasing diopter glasses at a huge profit, and tell you stories of a mysterious genetic myopia illness.

It’s quite possibly all nonsense.  Your eyes might be perfectly healthy.  

Check out Annette’s post in our Facebook group.  From -5.25 down to the last diopter already:

Exactly.

To find out how Annette did this, grab a copy of my free (yes, darling freeloaders, don’t pay me for this one) 7-Day Course.  It’ll teach you all the basics on how to start getting your eyes back.

*No eye exercises, no Bates Method, no unicorn farming.  Just science and evidence based stimulus and habit changes.

Learn more at http://curemydisorder.com/links/improve-eyesight-tedmaser-site