Diagnosed with myopia at 18 months old

Myopia in young children might be increasingly common – but it is still rare for a toddler to present in practice and be diagnosed with the condition.

It is rarer still for one eye to be significantly weaker than the other – but that was the case when Penelope, now three, was taken by her parents to her local optometrist in Somerset.

Penelope’s mother, Verity Chancellor, explained to OT that she had suspected that her daughter might have a squint when she was 18 months old.

However, a trip to Specsavers in Taunton revealed that Penelope was actually –5 in one eye.

“We were quite surprised,” Verity told OT. “We were not expecting that. Short sight does run in my family. Straightaway, she needed glasses. And then they told us about this special lens that she could have as treatment.”

Penelope was fitted with glasses with a myopia lens on the left at Specsavers Taunton, and is now under the care of Musgrove Park Hospital. She also needs to wear an eye patch on her stronger eye for four hours every day.

Damien Reavey, optometry director at Specsavers Taunton, explained that, as a practitioner, myopia management is one of his “core passions.”

He is a high myope himself, he told OT, and his own daughter has also recently started myopia management.

The current generation of children is lucky that they can benefit from the myopia treatments that have been developed in recent years, he said.

Verity added that the eye care practitioners involved in Penelope’s care were surprised at the difference in strength between her eyes.

“That’s when they thought the myopia management lens was the best route to go down, on that one side,” she said.

Verity also wants to raise awareness of the importance of sight testing for young children.

“Most children don’t have their eyes tested until they’re at school. They did say that, if we hadn’t suspected a squint and taken her in, and it hadn’t been picked up until she was school age, it could have been a lot worse,” she said.

She added: “If you suspect that anything is abnormal with your child’s sight, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

“We obviously didn’t expect the diagnosis that we had, so I say that to everyone now – if you have any concerns, just go and speak to your optometrist.”