Will my child’s glasses make myopia better or worse?

As a parent, the idea that your child may need to wear glasses can be concerning. Alongside a worry about what might have caused the eye problem in the first place, there are questions about how far the condition may progress and whether the need for glasses may affect your child’s development or limit their choice of career.

You may also have to contend with a well meaning friend or relative who informs you that making a child wear glasses at too early an age could in fact make their eyesight worse. Like all urban myths it’s one with a grain of truth in it.

A 2002 study [1] found that glasses which were too weak to fully correct the level of myopia could in fact speed up the progression of myopia.