Remember that classic eyeglass ad line? “Eyes are the windows to the soul — to protect those windows, you need to ‘install glass’.” Back when I was in school, I thought it was just marketing fluff. It wasn’t until I became a mom to two nearsighted daughters that I realized this line holds the truest truth about myopia prevention.
My husband and I both have high myopia, so we’ve always been extra careful with our kids’ eyesight. For my older daughter, we strictly limited her screen time when she was little and made sure she got 2 hours of outdoor time every day. But in third grade, she still tested positive for 100° myopia. That’s when I made the mistake most parents make: I thought, “She’s still young — if we can avoid glasses, we should,” clinging to the hope that “maybe it’ll get better on its own.” Half a year later, at her follow-up exam, her prescription had skyrocketed to 250°.
After my older daughter’s experience, we watched Lila’s eyesight even more closely: We didn’t let her touch a phone at all, only allowed 20 minutes of TV a day, and spent every weekend at the park. But the unexpected still happened — before school started this year, Lila tested positive for 75° myopia during her physical. I waited a month, clinging to wishful thinking, and when we went back for a check-up, her prescription had gone up another 50°! The doctor said firmly, “If you keep putting this off, her prescription will only get worse faster!”
In that moment, I finally understood: Not wearing glasses doesn’t mean your child isn’t nearsighted. Putting off glasses is the cruellest thing you can do to their eyesight.
Many parents (myself included, once) hold a deep-rooted myth: “Once you start wearing glasses, you can never take them off, so delay as long as possible.” But the doctor’s words shattered that bias completely: When the eyes are stuck in a blurry state for a long time, they force the ciliary muscles to contract too much. This actually stimulates eye elongation, making myopia “spiral out of control.” By the time you finally agree to get glasses, the prescription has already gone from “mild” to “high” — and controlling it becomes nearly impossible.
A colleague’s story hit me even harder: Her son tested positive for 150° myopia in first grade. She got him myopia prevention glasses right away and took him for follow-ups every six months to adjust his prescription. Now her son is in college, and his prescription has stayed at 300° — it hasn’t gone up since! But my high school classmate’s son? He was “afraid glasses would make him look ugly,” so he refused to get them until his prescription hit 400°. Before he even finished high school, his prescription jumped to 1000°, and his eyes developed thinning of the retinal membrane. The doctor said if it gets worse, it could affect his eyesight for life.
When I look at my two daughters wearing their myopia prevention glasses, I sometimes wonder: If I’d known this years earlier, would my older daughter’s prescription have stayed at 100°? Would my younger daughter have avoided the anxiety of a sudden prescription spike?
I’m not writing this to spread fear. I want to tell all parents like me: The key to myopia prevention has never been “whether you can avoid glasses.” It’s “early detection, early intervention, and early use of the right glasses.” Those myths about “once you wear glasses, you can’t take them off” need to be debunked by science. Compared to the risk of letting myopia turn “high,” getting your child a proper pair of prevention glasses early is the most responsible choice you can make for their eyes.
After all, our kids’ “windows to the soul” don’t deserve to be gambled with our wishful thinking. Install that “glass” a little earlier, and you’ll help them see a clearer, brighter future ahead.
