When your child's prescription climbs a step every year, it is natural to worry, and choosing to act on it is the right call. Myopia tends to progress quickest through the school-age years, and the faster it moves, the greater your child's lifetime risk of serious eye conditions such as retinal detachment, glaucoma, and myopic macular degeneration. The good news is that the pace can be slowed. At Mudgil Eye Associates we design a personalized myopia control plan for each child using MiSight 1 day contact lenses, which are FDA-approved to slow myopia progression, and low-dose atropine.
Newtown Square sits in Delaware County along West Chester Pike (Route 3), just up the road from Ridley Creek State Park, and families from Edgmont, Marple, Broomall, and the surrounding townships reach our West Chester office in about 20 minutes. They make the drive because myopia control is not a product you buy once; it is a plan that is measured, adjusted, and followed over years. With more screen time and less time outdoors than earlier generations, more Newtown Square children are becoming nearsighted younger, and we help you stay ahead of it.
Your child's care is guided by a Johns Hopkins fellowship-trained pediatric ophthalmologist working hand in hand with a residency-trained pediatric optometrist, so whatever your child's eyes may need is already in one place. Myopia control slows and manages nearsightedness; it does not cure or reverse it, and results vary from child to child.
MiSight is an FDA-approved daily contact lens proven to slow the progression of myopia in children. Your child wears it during the day, and it both corrects vision and helps keep the prescription from climbing as quickly. We are listed on the manufacturer's official provider locator.
Dr. A. Vijay Mudgil completed his pediatric ophthalmology fellowship at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, and Dr. Reetu Julakanti provides residency-trained pediatric optometric care. Your child's myopia plan is overseen by pediatric eye specialists who do this every day.
For children who are not ready for contact lenses, we also offer low-dose atropine eye drops, a simple nightly drop widely used to help slow myopia progression. We help you choose the approach that fits your child best, and some children do well with a combination.
We are a complete practice with both a pediatric optometrist and a fellowship-trained pediatric ophthalmologist working side by side. Optometrists are central to children's vision care, and pairing that expertise with an on-site pediatric ophthalmologist means that if your child ever needs more than myopia control, that care is already in place.
It is tempting to treat nearsightedness as nothing more than a number on a prescription, but the change behind it is structural. In a myopic eye, the eyeball has grown a touch too long from front to back, a shift eye doctors call axial elongation. Because the eye is overlong, light from distant objects comes to focus in front of the retina instead of on it, leaving distance vision blurry while close-up vision stays sharp. Glasses and standard contacts redirect that light so your child sees clearly, but they leave the length of the eye, and the speed of its growth, untouched. Influencing that growth is the whole purpose of myopia control.
Myopia control is about far more than a thinner lens next year. Each jump in nearsightedness means a longer, more stretched eye, and a higher lifetime chance of retinal detachment, glaucoma, earlier cataract, and myopic maculopathy down the road. By slowing how fast the prescription rises while a child is still growing, we work toward a lower final adult prescription than they would otherwise reach, and that lower number carries lower long-term risk. It bears repeating that myopia control does not cure or reverse existing nearsightedness, and results vary from child to child, yet for most children it slows progression in a way that matters.
Nearsightedness is on the rise throughout the Philadelphia suburbs, and Delaware County is no exception. Family history counts for a lot, so a child with one or both parents in glasses faces higher odds, but environment plays its part too. Hours of reading, homework, and devices, together with less time outdoors in daylight, track with quicker progression. One of the most accessible, evidence-supported habits a Newtown Square family can build, alongside trips to nearby Ridley Creek State Park, is regular outdoor time, which is why we discuss daily routines whenever we start a lens or a drop.
For a lot of Newtown Square children who are ready for a contact lens, MiSight 1 day is an appealing place to start. It is the only soft contact lens the FDA has approved specifically to slow the progression of myopia in children, and since it is a single-use daily lens worn through the day, it also corrects distance vision while it is worn. Many families find that convenient at a Marple rec game or in the classroom, and results vary from child to child.
To a child, a MiSight lens feels like an ordinary soft contact, but it is engineered with concentric treatment zones. The central zone delivers clear distance vision, while the outer zones bring part of the light to focus just ahead of the peripheral retina, a signal that seems to calm the eye's tendency to keep growing longer. Across the manufacturer's multi-year clinical study, children in MiSight lenses progressed considerably more slowly on average than those in a control group, roughly a 59 percent reduction in the rate of progression over three years. That statistic reflects the clinical study, and the benefit for any given child varies.
MiSight usually suits school-age children, commonly from about ages 8 to 12 at the start, who are ready to insert, remove, and look after a lens with a parent guiding them at first. Since a new pair goes in every morning and is discarded at night, there is no cleaning solution or case to keep track of. A child with meaningful astigmatism may not be an ideal fit, which is among the things Dr. Julakanti evaluates during the fitting. To be effective, the lenses are worn most of the day, generally at least 10 hours, six or more days a week, until growth slows and the prescription holds steady.
Many Newtown Square parents ask about an option that involves no contact lens at all: a small drop in each eye at bedtime. Low-dose atropine has grown into one of the most widely discussed ways to slow childhood myopia, and for a suitable child it is simple and well tolerated. An atropine consultation is a frequent reason families make the short trip along West Chester Pike to our office.
Atropine has been part of eye care for generations. In the very dilute concentrations used for myopia control, typically 0.01% to 0.05%, it is used off-label to slow a growing eye's elongation over time. Both the purpose and the strength are worlds apart from the dilating drops used at a comprehensive eye exam, which is why the familiar atropine side effects are usually slight at these low doses.
For a lot of Newtown Square families, the draw is how easy it is. One drop goes in each eye at night as part of winding down, and the child simply wears their usual glasses during the day. Nothing to insert, clean, or store. Because the dose is small, most children notice little or no difference, though some report mild light sensitivity or a minor change in near focus, which we keep an eye on and can address by adjusting the concentration.
Part of what makes atropine work well as a managed treatment is that its strength can be dialed in. We might begin at a lower concentration and revise it over the next several months according to how the prescription responds. This is not a drop you start and forget; it is a plan our optometric team reviews at each follow-up, watching both the rate of change and how comfortably your child tolerates it.
MiSight 1 day contact lenses and low-dose atropine drops are both proven, evidence-based ways to slow how quickly a child's nearsightedness advances. Neither cures myopia, and neither works the same for every child, so the best choice comes down to your child rather than a rigid script. We consider age and maturity together, the current prescription and how fast it is shifting, comfort with wearing a lens, the degree of astigmatism, day-to-day activities, and what your family prefers.
Broadly, MiSight fits an older, contact-ready child who is comfortable wearing a lens during the day, while low-dose atropine fits a younger child, one not yet ready for lenses, or a family that likes the idea of a single nightly drop with glasses by day. Plenty of children start on one path and switch as they get older, and in select cases the two are used together. Whatever we choose, myopia control is a managed process: we track the prescription, and when helpful the length of the eye, at regular visits and fine-tune along the way. Results vary from child to child, and we aim for the best outcome for yours.
The ideal moment to begin is early in the progression, while the eye is still growing and more future change can still be prevented. Practically, that is often the first time a child needs distance glasses, or the first time a prescription leaps between annual exams. Myopia most commonly appears between roughly ages 8 and 12, though it can begin earlier, and a child with nearsighted parents or a rapidly changing prescription warrants an earlier look. No referral is needed to book an evaluation.
Most nearsighted children can benefit from some form of myopia control. Signs it is worth asking us include a prescription that climbs at each visit, squinting or moving close to the board or TV, recurring headaches or eye strain, or a family history of strong prescriptions. The only way to know which treatment suits your child is a full evaluation, and part of our role is to tell you plainly whether myopia control is likely to help and which route makes the most sense.
A myopia control evaluation is a complete pediatric eye exam, not a brief screening. We measure your child's vision and full prescription, often with dilating drops for accuracy, assess eye alignment and overall eye health, and take baseline readings so we can follow progression closely over time. Then we sit with you and your child to explain what we found in everyday language and walk through the choices, including what each treatment asks day to day, what it can and cannot do, and the follow-up rhythm. If we go with a contact lens, we fit it and teach your child to handle it. Expect a bit more time than a standard exam, particularly if drops are used.
Myopia management is at its best as a long-term relationship, and at Mudgil Eye Associates your child gains an unusually complete team. Dr. Reetu R. Julakanti, our residency-trained pediatric optometrist, leads the day-to-day myopia control program, fitting MiSight lenses, prescribing and adjusting low-dose atropine, and following each child's progress through the years of care. Optometrists are the foundation of children's vision care, and Dr. Julakanti's dedicated pediatric training is exactly what a growing, shifting prescription needs.
Alongside her is Dr. A. Vijay Mudgil, a board-certified, fellowship-trained pediatric ophthalmologist who completed his pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus fellowship at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins and has served families across the region for more than 20 years. He has been named a Main Line Today Top Doctor since 2009. With both an optometrist and a fellowship-trained pediatric ophthalmologist in the same practice, if your child ever needs more than myopia control, whether a stubborn prescription, eye misalignment, or a medical concern, that expertise is already on their team, with no fresh referral and no starting over.
Learn more about our pediatric eye care for children of every age, or explore our full myopia management program.
Yes. Dr. Reetu Julakanti, our pediatric optometrist, fits FDA-approved MiSight 1 day contact lenses for children in the Newtown Square area. MiSight is a soft daily-disposable lens worn during the day that corrects vision and is proven to slow the progression of myopia in children.
Both are proven, evidence-based ways to slow how fast a child's nearsightedness progresses. MiSight suits an older child ready to handle a daily contact lens; low-dose atropine, a simple nightly eye drop, suits younger children or those not ready for contacts. Dr. Julakanti helps you choose and adjusts the plan over time.
Myopia control combines proven treatments, MiSight 1 day contact lenses and low-dose atropine, with lifestyle steps like more time outdoors. Newtown Square-area families see Dr. Julakanti, who builds a plan for each child and monitors progress at regular visits. Slowing progression matters because higher myopia raises the lifetime risk of eye problems later in life.
Myopia control is most effective when it starts early in the progression, while the eye is still growing. Most Newtown Square children begin between about ages 6 and 12, frequently at the first hint that a prescription is rising, though there is no single correct age. Because the goal is to head off future change, an earlier start usually leads to a lower final prescription. If your child has just become nearsighted or the number keeps climbing, an evaluation now beats waiting.
No. Myopia control neither cures nearsightedness nor reverses the prescription your child already has. Its role is to slow how fast myopia advances during the growing years, so your child finishes less nearsighted than they otherwise would. Your child will still wear glasses or contacts to see clearly, and results vary from child to child.
Neither is better across the board; it depends on your child. MiSight 1 day contact lenses fit an older, contact-ready child who is comfortable wearing a lens during the day. Low-dose atropine, a simple nightly drop worn with daytime glasses, fits younger children or those not yet ready for lenses. Both are evidence-based and proven to slow progression, and Dr. Julakanti guides the choice around your child's age, prescription, comfort with lenses, and lifestyle, adjusting as you go.
Yes. Many Newtown Square families find myopia control suits active kids nicely. MiSight 1 day lenses are worn during the day and correct distance vision while they are worn, which plenty of children prefer for sports, and each pair is tossed at the end of the day. Low-dose atropine is a bedtime drop, so it has no effect on daytime play; the child just wears their usual glasses or sports eyewear. We are happy to discuss protective eyewear for your child's particular sport. Results vary from child to child.
For most children, myopia control slows the rate of progression in a meaningful way, though it does not halt it entirely or undo existing nearsightedness. In its multi-year clinical study, MiSight was linked to about a 59 percent reduction in the rate of myopia progression over three years, and low-dose atropine has slowed progression across multiple studies as well. These figures come from clinical studies; the benefit for any one child varies, which is why we track progress and adjust the plan at regular visits.
Myopia control generally continues through the growing years, until the eyes settle and the prescription stabilizes, often in the mid-to-late teens or early adulthood. Stopping is best planned with us rather than done suddenly, and we guide the timing by how your child's eyes are behaving. Regular follow-up visits stay part of the plan throughout.
Low-dose atropine is used off-label for myopia control; the low concentrations involved, usually 0.01% to 0.05%, have a long history in eye care and are generally very well tolerated. MiSight, on the other hand, is FDA-approved specifically to slow myopia progression in children. Most children on low-dose atropine have no side effects; a few notice mild light sensitivity or a slight change in near focus, which we can manage by adjusting the concentration.
You do not need a referral to book a myopia evaluation. Coverage differs by plan, and some services or materials may not be covered by medical insurance, so our team goes over the specifics with you before treatment starts. Call our West Chester office at (610) 429-3004 and we will help you sort out your options.
Most Newtown Square families are seen within one to two weeks for an initial myopia evaluation. Call 610-429-3004 or schedule online, and we will help you get ahead of your child's nearsightedness.