A patient from Santa Barbara asked me if there were any good ways to prevent her 10 year old daughter from developing myopia (nearsightedness) as she got older. A European conference held last week looked at this very issue. Nina Jacobsen, MD, PhD made a presentation at the World Society of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Subspecialty Day in Copenhagen. She pointed out that there were several promising avenues for helping to prevent nearsightedness from developing in children. A new, much lower dose, application of daily atropine drops is particularly exciting. Previously, larger doses had been used effectively, but had more side effects. Other promising options include wearing multi-focal contact lenses and simply spending more time outdoors during childhood. Dr. Jacobsen pointed out that studies from Taiwan and China showed reductions in myopia of  25% –  50% when children spent 40 – 80 minutes extra times outdoors. Based on these studies, schools now schedule and additional 2 hours of outdoor time for children. Fortunately, should nearsightedness develop, LASIK and PRK laser vision correction remain excellent options once adulthood is reached and vision has stabilized.