By Michael Hutton 

Contact lenses for children  worn only while sleeping may prove to be the most important weapon in combating the epidemic levels of myopia or short-sightedness being recorded worldwide. In China, the problem has become acute, with over 80% of the adult population now affected by myopia and giving rise to the likelihood that parental genetics will lead to further worsening of the problem for future generations. Shanghai health statistics for 2010 show 38 percent of primary school students are short-sighted, 70 percent of middle school students are myopic and 86 percent of high school students have trouble seeing things in the distance.

Though genetics can be a factor in myopia, bad habits play a bigger role, says Luo Chunyan of the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Heavy school work is a major cause, as is too much access to computer screens and digital devices without breaks and lack of outdoors physical activity. Parents who press for early "intelligence" development - the so-called ‘tiger mothers' - can be part of the problem by providing children access to TV at too early an age and pushing them to spend their time on computers and other indoor activities before children's eyes can handle complicated tasks and before children have proper hand-eye coordination. This is where the new ortho-k corrective contact lenses for children  can provide a major benefit.

Ortho-k lenses work by gently flattening the surface of the eye during sleep to correct the focusing distance and ensure that the lens wearer has perfect natural vision after the lenses are removed each morning. The effect lasts all day long until the lenses are reinserted at night. Whilst these lenses can be worn by short-sighted people of all ages, they are especially good as contact lenses for children  since they prevent the eyeball from continuing to elongate during childhood and adolescence so the initial level of myopia does not get any worse. So if a young child is diagnosed with myopia at an early age, by wearing the ortho-k lenses at night there will be no further deterioration in their eyesight - unlike if instead they are prescribed with glasses as happens most of the time.

Check if your child is suitable for ortho-k corrective contact lenses .