How can myopia be managed in a child?

Q: My 4 years old son is having an eye power of - 11.0 in the left eye and - 6.5 in the right eye. The doctor said he has a long eye and his left eye is a lazy eye. They asked us to start doing patching up. Is there any treatment for myopia? Please advise.

A:Although this much of myopia is worrying at this age but the best way to manage his eyes would be to arrange to get contact lenses for this defect. This will get a bit worse with age as he grows up but due to differences in power between the two eye he will not be able to tolerate spectacles. I don’t think that he would have lazy eye, just poor vision due to inadequate refractive correction.Although contact lenses would be difficult to manage at this age but that is the only thing, which will give him some quality vision, after this if the eye is still not seeing very well, he could have patching the good eye few hours a day for 3-4 months.