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Myopia Control Options and Our Choice

Wish I Knew Before2 Comments

Updated 5/7/21

It’s great to try and prevent myopia, but what if your child is already myopic? Or what if your child becomes myopic in spite of all your attempts to prevent it? Did you know that there are now ways that you can try to slow down your child’s myopia? Below I summarize the options that I researched and what we decided to try for myopia control.

When I was growing up, anyone who became nearsighted just got glasses and were told that there was nothing to be done to either improve or slow down their myopia. However, now, although it’s not widely practiced, many optometrists and ophthalmologists are offering their pediatric patients some options for myopia control.

These options don’t guarantee that your child’s vision will no longer deteriorate, but in very many cases, it slows down the progression by about 50% per year. Let’s say your child’s vision worsens by about -1.00 diopter per year and they are only 8-9 years old.  They may be highly myopic by the time they reach college (when vision changes typically stabilizes). You might even be able to cut that in half! It’s a win even if they end up at -3.00 diopters instead of -6.00.

There are a lot of eye health risks (such as higher risks of retinal detachment, among others) that come with high myopia, in addition to the inconvenience of not being able to do anything without your glasses.  That is significant considering that your child still has a lot of growing and potential deterioration of the vision.

Current Options

First of all, regular glasses or contact lenses (basically single vision lenses) are not an option because they won’t do anything to slow down your progression. 

In my research, I found the following options, first explained in my layman understanding and my opinion of the pros and cons of each. In the Resources section below, you can find great articles on all the more clinical and detailed explanations of each.

Atropine Eye Drops

Atropine eye drops are an eye medicine that you put in your child’s eye nightly. For myopia control, a very low dose is used. They relax your child’s eye-focusing muscle so that they don’t over focus. 

  • Pros: 1-2 eye drops are fairly easy to learn to put in your child’s eyes nightly and children probably get used to this pretty quickly. 
  • Cons: Although they seem to have a high rate of effectiveness (slowing progression at ~77%), the studies for long-term use of these eye drops aren’t available. Our own optometrist wouldn’t recommend these drops for longer than 5 years, citing lack of studies and side effects such as light sensitivity and blurred near vision.

Ortho K

Ortho K (corneal refractive therapy) are gas permeable contact lenses, which are small and firm compared to the multifocal soft lenses (next option). You put them on at night and during your sleep, it will shape your cornea according to your prescription. When you wake up, you remove them with a tiny plunger (not as scary as it sounds), and your vision is corrected. The correction is only temporary though, which is why you have to do it every night. 

Researcher believe that ortho-k also slows myopic progression in a way that is similar to multifocals. They shape the cornea in a way that keeps the axial length of the eye from growing as much. (Myopia worsens when the eye continues to grow.) Effective rates are ~50%.

  • Pros: The lenses are small and probably easier to get on a young child. You don’t have to worry about anything happening to the lenses during the day. Corrected vision wouldn’t have any potentially blur spots as with the multifocals.
  • Cons: They can take a couple of weeks to take effect and get used to as the eye undergoes reshaping. You have to clean them everyday. This option felt invasive to me in the sense that the eye was undergoing a physical reshaping.
size of an ortho-k lense (L) vs a soft lense (R)

Multifocal Soft Lenses

Multifocal soft lenses (MFSL) are soft contact lenses with two or more powers that were originally made for nearsighted adults who started having presbyopia (needing reading glasses). These apparently help stem myopic progression by providing some amount of myopic blur which slows down the rate of retina growth. 

I didn’t understand how a kid could see well through essentially a reading glasses prescription. An optometrist friend explained that when the eye looks through the lenses they will pick out the clearest parts of the image for a particular distance, so it doesn’t matter that the powers are different in some areas of their vision. The effective rates for this option are 30-50% in recent research.

  • Pros: These come in dailies, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning. They’re worn during the day and can be removed easily without any discomfort. They’re not as physically invasive as atropine drops or ortho-k which shapes your cornea.
  • Cons: They’re larger lenses (than the ortho k lenses) so can be more difficult to put in a child. Some children complain of some blurred distance vision (due to the add powers in the lens). Some studies found they decrease the speed of accommodation when worn.

Bifocal or Progressive Lens Glasses

Bifocal glasses / Progressive lens glasses are your regular glasses with the added reading glass portion on the bottom half or a progression of powers through the lens. They are also available in progressive format so that the power transitions without an obvious, unsightly line in the lens. You correct your child’s distance vision with the top half. The bottom half will be a reading glass prescription that helps their eyes to not focus so hard on the near work such as reading, computer, writing. The ranges I saw in effective rate of these glasses is around 10-30%.

  • Pros: No need to worry about contacts or eye drops
  • Cons: Glasses can be cumbersome for kids to wear and some children have difficulty with seeing comfortably with the different powers in the glasses.  Low efficacy rate.

SightGlass Vision Diffusion Optic Technology Lenses

Coming soon – SightGlass Vision Diffusion Optic Technology (DOT) lenses are new special lenses designed specifically for myopia control and to be worn as eyeglasses. The idea behind the lenses is that they diffuse contrast for the child (in a way that mimics outdoor light setting) under the theory that high contrast environments such as reading, and other near-work cause the eye to grow longer and progress myopia. It sounds like the most promising eyeglass solution available yet. Studies have touted up to 74% reduction in myopic progression and up to 50% reduction in axial length growth. They’ve been approved for sale in Canada, but not yet in the US.

  • Pros: No need to worry about contacts or eye drops. Efficacy rate may be comparable to contact lens or atropine options
  • Cons: Glasses can be cumbersome for kids to wear, not yet available

Finally, some parents also choose to do both atropine drops in conjunction with one of the options above for maximum effect. If you just can’t get your child to put on contacts, for example, then glasses plus atropine drops may be your best bet.

Our Choice for Myopia Control

None of the options seemed perfect to me. Generally speaking, it seems that ortho-k has the most studies demonstrating its ability to slow progression. In the end, we chose multifocal soft lenses for our child because I felt it was the least invasive of the options that had high efficacy rates (ortho-k, atropine drops, MFSL). I haven’t ruled out the other options yet, but this is the one we are starting with. We also are incorporating as many healthy lifestyle and eye habits as possible. Since no one seems to know for sure, it doesn’t hurt to try everything that’s probably good for us anyway!

Considerations in choosing can include the health of your child’s eyes, their willingness to use contacts/drops, and their RX. Remember that the effective rates are just averages and your own results may be different.

A lot of studies and research continue to be done in these areas. Unfortunately, results are sometimes conflicting or inconclusive. Nevertheless, there are a lot of helpful articles on these topics that describe the different theories on what causes myopia and the different myopia control options that we have now to help you decide what to do for your child.

Resources

The BEST overview of the options from an optometrist’s perspective that I have ever read. This article also contains an interesting part on the predictor of myopia in children. He lists cutoff points of cyclopegic refraction that tell you the likelihood of your child developing myopia. It also includes a table showing the different types of health risks associated with myopia as it worsens:

Other links with good overviews of the myopia control options:

This blog by an Australian optometrist, compares Ortho-K and MFSL very clearly and even explains the theory behind the lenses and how they work. Be sure to read part 1 and 2.

Apparently, time outdoors doesn’t have the same protective effective if myopia has already begun:

Unclear if outdoor time or near work actually affect myopia progression:

List of research about environmental impact (near work, outdoor time, lighting, etc.) on myopia with comments by the website’s OD:

Myopia experts around the world discuss the state of myopia control efforts:

Slowing progression of myopia must include reduction of near work activities, and increase of natural light and outdoor activity:

Information on the progress of SightGlass glasses and how they work:

The Slippery Slope of Smartphones and Screen Time

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Screen time is great! It immediately distracts my kids and gets them to stay still. They love the screen so much that they’ll watch videos in languages they don’t know just to have the right to the screen. For me, when I’m standing in line at the grocery, I can check my emails or run through my grocery list. I can leave work early and be with my kids more often since I have email and text access to stay caught up with the office. It’s so efficient, time is never wasted, and dealing with the kids could never be easier, but. . .

The unfortunate truth

The ugly truth is that I’ve seen my kids become monsters with terrible moods once I remove the screen. I’ve seen them so absorbed in the screen that they can’t see or hear anything that’s going around them. I’ve seen the red, glazed eyes after the screen is switched off.

As for myself, to be on a call with my kids around, I have to shush my kids repeatedly. Writing work emails and texts actually require a significant amount of concentration so that I have to step away from my kids or just plain ignore them since they don’t seem to understand when I tell them that I need to focus for a few moments on my phone. In those moments, I must seem obsessed with my phone and I have to completely disengage with my kids. Working while out with my kids or being “available for work” when I was with them is actually stressful and brings down the quality of my time with them. 

I’m not alone

From my personal experience, I realized that the detriments of screen time outweighed its benefits in my household. Then I saw that I wasn’t alone. An article in The Atlantic pointed out that screen time was enabling “tuned out parents” and that the dangers of screen time ran both ways. The New York Times featured a piece on how even some people who work in the industry of producing smartphones and their apps are wary enough to place very strict rules around their kids’ exposure to screen time. 

My takeaway

It starts with us! Parents on the phone while pushing their kids in the stroller. Reading phones while at sport practices or at the park and playground. We have to learn to put the screens aside as well.

  • At kids’ activities: I’m going to watch my child play, chat with another parent, play with my child, or do some exercises myself! I should be in the moment and pay attention when I can. 
  • If I absolutely have to be on the phone, I’m going to explain to them why it’s so important that I need to be using my phone at that time. 
  • During wait times with bored kids at the restaurant, grocery, or waiting room: I’m not going to use my phone as a first resort. Instead, I’ll play a game with the kids. Have a conversation. Find out about their days. Talk about something interesting. Teach them about something. What did parents do before the age of smartphones? This is an opportunity for kids to practice self-discipline and good behavior. Right, rolling your eyes? I know it’s hard work and I want to tear my hair out too sometimes, but I’ve seen parents do it well – bringing non-screen activities or chatting with kids happily. 

As for the kids’ screen time, we’ve minimized this to almost none. Any screen time is supervised. Other parents will sometimes tell me that their kids spend all their time on the iPad or watching TV and that nothing else will satisfy them while at home since they began allowing screen time. As I mentioned earlier, I found watching Netflix videos, playing video games, and using other phones/tablets to be a slippery slope in my household. Kids were inevitably unhappy when the screen time ended. Their brains and eyes seem fried from the other world that they had been sucked into and their moods were just plain nasty. It happened every time. 

So we removed anything that resembled routine screen time. It was hard at first but then they eventually found other things to do. And we had less tantrums and bad moods to deal with too! As they get into their teens, though, this probably becomes even trickier, but it is worth it to me.

Resources:

  1. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/the-dangers-of-distracted-parenting/561752/
  2. https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/everything-kids/parents-trying-to-limit-kids-screen-time-should-start-with/
  3. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/style/phones-children-silicon-valley.html
  4. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/06/style/parenting-coaches-screen-time-phones.html

6 Habits to Fight Myopia

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I’ve been nearsighted since I was eight and I’ve always hated that. Contacts or glasses – it’s just one extra thing you have to do. Plus, I can hardly do anything without them. Ever read “Lord of the Flies”? Remember Piggy and how useless he becomes without his glasses? Don’t worry if you’ve never read it, but if you have, then you can know that I have recurring nightmares about becoming Piggy.

Children’s vision at highest risk 

habits to prevent myopia
Myopia is on the rise, but there are ways to fight it

Kids are usually born with perfect vision and we should help them preserve their vision for as long as possible! Our eyes are in growth and development mode from infancy through adulthood. Vision tends to stabilize in adulthood, but during the long prior developmental period, children’s eyes are more vulnerable to positive or negative factors that can affect their growth. (Enter coronavirus and distance learning for the kids – yikes, what is going to be the impact?!!)

Eye health declining globally

Generally, there’s two reasons that experts say are responsible for myopia or other eye problems. One, genetics (not much you can do about that currently) and two, environmental factors such as exposure to outdoor light, eye strain, near work, and fatigue. 

There appears to be a worldwide rise in myopia possibly due to environmental factors, but the research isn’t definitive yet. About half the young adults in the US and Europe have myopia (double the number from 50 years ago) and in China 90% of young adults and teenagers are nearsighted compared to 10%-20% just 60 years ago. In fact, researchers estimate that one third of the world population will be nearsighted by 2020. Freaky, right!? 

The truth is that researchers are still not sure what may be causing the surge of myopia. They just have a lot of theories with various data to support. However, there is a lot of data that often points to the following culprits: 

  • Rise in close work: any activities that focus your eyes on nearby objects such as crafts, reading, electronic devices, even Legos!
  • Lots of screen time. It has even caused dry eye in children, a condition typically found in middle-aged adults 
  • Too much time indoors! The less time you spent outdoors the likelier you are to be myopic, apparently exposure to bright, natural light (outdoors) is necessary for natural eye development

What can be done?

If you want to reduce the likelihood for eye problems, research results suggest the following: 

  1. Most importantly, raise your awareness of eye-straining activities (you gotta realize it’s a problem if you are ever going to remember to do anything about it – don’t wait until you have symptoms!)
  2. Make sure you do near work such as reading, homework, legos, puzzles in good lighting and even better, if it is in natural lighting
  3. Build habits for regular breaks and reasonable usage for devices and other near work, like the 20-20-20 rule (For every 20 minutes of close work, look at something 20 ft away for 20 seconds).
  4. Ensure that you maintain a good reading and writing distance – this is often overlooked especially in children, but very important. The links below will help you ensure that you do close work with the right distances:
  5. Getting sufficient sleep to reduce eye fatigue and strain when doing close tasks 
  6. Replace indoor time with more time outdoors. According to Ian Morgan, a myopia researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra, children need about 3 hours of outdoor time daily to be protected against myopia. I researched this topic further here.
  7. Check your vision regularly. These free, eye chart printables can be helpful for checking regularly at home.

Resources

Global rise of myopia: 

A look at the possible causes of myopia:

More on children’s screen time, and tips for healthier viewing: 

Dry eyes caused by screen time:

Outdoor light has protective effect on vision:

How much outdoor light you need to protect against myopia:

Use the Latest Research to Buy the Right Shoes for Your Child

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I never would have thought that buying shoes for children would be a complicated matter. But one day in my early shoe-buying days, I wondered how much space there should be between the top of my child’s toe and the top of the shoe. I looked it up and the search results opened a Pandora’s box of other considerations that changed the way I thought about children’s footwear. 

Children's shoes displayed with the latest research insights for informed purchase decisions

A Guide to Buying the Right Shoes for Your Child Using the Latest Research

After reviewing the sometimes conflicting opinions on how to choose footwear, I arrived on a basic approach for choosing footwear for the kids.

Exploring the Latest Trends in Children’s Footwear

First, my major takeaways on footwear in general:

  • Research in this area is slowly emerging and evolving
    1. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/09/barefoot-best-for-children
    2. https://lermagazine.com/cover_story/thinking-small-making-strides-in-childrens-footwear
  • There is a movement away from stiff and over-supportive shoe towards footwear that is soft, flexible and conforming to the natural shape of the foot as researchers delve into the root cause of many foot pain, problems, and deformities as people age
    1. http://time.com/5294580/healthy-shoes-footwear/
    2. http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/: 
    3. People in barefoot communities rarely have the foot problems that shoe-wearing people have developed
    4. How we walk has actually been shaped by the shoes we wear (for better or worse)
    5. Shoes that support the natural shape of the foot and gait are now thought to be best because they support the development of strong feet
    6. Over supportive shoes do too much work for the foot, so that the foot becomes weak and prone to injury. For long-term foot health, the objective is to develop strong and stiff feet. 
  • The majority of shoe-buying guides for children support the current thought that we should allowing a child’s foot to grow naturally, which means flexible, minimal, non-restrictive footwear that retains barefoot feel while protecting the foot. However, they stop short of advising that adults do the same. http://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-sneakers-for-kids.html
  • The majority of adult and children footwear sold in stores is still supportive athletic shoes with elevated heels and trendy footwear (think high heels, shoes with lights, pointy toes) that prioritize fashion trends over natural footwear.

Buying the Best Footwear for Children

So what does this mean for the footwear that I buy my children? Back to the original question!  I wrote a post to list the best minimalist, athletic footwear I’ve found for my kids. Below are my major takeaways on buying footwear both for children and incidentally, adults as well:

  • Childen’s feet as in all other areas of their body are in developmental stage so all the more critical it is to have footwear that allows them to grow properly. Most experts, buying guides, and recent research seem to agree on this one, that up through toddlerhood, children should wear shoes that are minimal, flexible, allowing them to feel the ground properly as they learn to walk and run:
    1. Shoes should not restrict any sort of natural movement of the foot. Anything that restricts the natural spread of the foot lengthwise or width-wise can cause foot development deformities that lead to foot pain in later life.
    2. The shoe should adhere to the foot completely, so that the heel isn’t falling out or the foot sliding back and forth sideways or front to back. However, there should always be a little room at the top of the shoe for growth and varying foot sizes (feet tend to swell at the end the day). 
    3. Try shoes on at the end of the day for best fit, since feet tend to swell by the end of the day
    4. Avoid second-hand shoes if possible – I’ve adapted this to occasional wear (backup shoes for the younger one!). See point below about changing up your shoes every now and then. 
    5. Shoes should not have any heel at all (known as zero drop) and flexible soles that can bend AND twist
  • After age ~5 is where the opinions seem to diverge significantly and you’ll have to decide where you fall on this debate to determine your purchasing choices. Some continue to feel that the same philosophy applies to footwear of all ages. However, the mainstream opinion and footwear options feel that shoes need to have more rigidity for stability, arches for support, toe spring to aid the foot forward, and so on.
    1. An example of this divergence can be found in the difference between the APMA (American Podiatric Medical Association) guide and the opinion from the emerging minimalist movement. https://www.apma.org/files/FileDownloads/Helpful%20Kids%20Shoe%20Shopping%20Tips.pdf;
    2. The emerging minimalist footwear movement differs: http://naturalrunningcenter.com/2011/09/28/kids-minimalist-shoes-ensure-natural-foot-development/
  • Even if you decide that flexibilty and zero drop are important in shoes, as children get older and play more sports (like soccer or tennis), they may need shoes that have more cushioning to reduce the repetitive stress on joints when running on hard surfaces or insoles that help to keep the legs and feet in alignment and balanced as some sports tend to place more stress on certain areas than others.
  • Applying the same child footwear philosophy to adults makes sense to me.  I found this online video guide for children’s footwear to be particularly helpful for both kids and adults: https://naturalfootgear.com/blogs/education/17884028-how-to-choose-healthy-shoes-for-kids
  • Any shoe should feel comfortable right away – don’t expect it will get better with wear.
    1. It’s possible that it will, but the time you spend wearing an uncomfortable shoe is bad for your foot health
    2. Most likely, it won’t get better – only worse because you’ll be aggravating whichever part of  your foot for a longer period of time once you actually wear the shoe out the store
  • Order shoes online (with a free return policy!) whenever possible – this gives you time to wear a shoe indoors for a longer period of time. Even shoes that feel comfortable right away in the store, can start to feel uncomfortable after an hour. And you never would have known that if you bought the shoe from a store and wore it outside right away. If you only wear them indoors, you can still return them! Added bonus: you don’t have to deal with your kids in a shoe store arguing with them about selecting all kinds of shoes that aren’t good for their feet!
  • Switch your (properly fitted) footwear around on a regular basis – this allows you to exercise different muscles, bones, and joints instead of applying repetition to the same areas by wearing the same shoe everyday. So for kids this may mean not having just one pair of shoes to wear for the entire year, but 2-3 pairs to change out on a regular basis

Resources

Below is a list of additional links that I reviewed in my research:

Posts on kids’ developing feet needs:

Looking at the big picture, footwear for adults:

Mainstream guide to choosing shoes:

Minimalist guide to buying shoes:

Athletic shoe buying guides:

Understanding and Treating Black Stains on Children’s Teeth

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Updated 9/30/21

I was horrified one day to find black stains all over my then 2 yr old’s teeth which I couldn’t remove with a toothbrush. I thought they were cavities and brought him to the pediatric dentist right away. Surprisingly, the dentist didn’t know what caused the stains or what the black stains were even called. After ruling out foods, iron intake and poor brushing habits, he suspected something had changed the flora in my child’s mouth. Perhaps the Xoponex (an asthma medication) that he had taken for a cold a few months earlier. A few other pediatric patients also had similar black stains and those stains were not cavities and on the contrary, often associated with a low incidence of cavities.

A close-up image of a child's teeth with black stains, representing the topic of understanding and treating black stains on children's teeth
Black stains on teeth in children

A Comprehensive Overview of Black Stains on Children’s Teeth

While there can be many more reasons for black stains on teeth in the adult population, the culprits are more limited for children. Below is a description of my finding and experience on the stains for children, though they may apply for adults as well.

What are the black stains on teeth?

I discovered that the black stains are caused by chromogenic bacteria and they feed off of the plaque on the teeth. The fact that our kids were not consumers of tea, coffee, iron supplements, dried fruit and other stain-creating foods leads us to believe that their stains were not caused by these culprits as commonly suggested by dentists. Our pediatric dentist said anecdotally that the black stains seem to occur more frequently with the Asian and Hispanic population. It varies in degree of severity. I see many posts where adults complain of having these stains, and not being able to keep the stains at bay (frequent dental visits not enough, regular brushing, etc). I also read about one frustrated woman whose children had lots of stains recurring as quickly as the day after their dental visit. Because it’s bacteria, it needs plaque to grow so it tends to appear along the gumline and in grooves and spots where it is difficult to brush well or where food sugars tend to linger between brushing sessions.

Our dentist also suggested that the black stains decrease and may even disappear with age. However, it was unclear to him if this was from better brushing habits or something in the child’s mouth flora that changes. Unfortunately, bacteria can be transmitted from one child to another and even to an adult! My oldest had the staining first, followed by his brother and eventually their dad got it, too. Fortunately (knock on wood), my teeth don’t show signs of the chromogenic bacteria yet (4 years of exposure and counting) which suggests that there can be something in your mouth flora that also prevents its growth. After all, I kiss my kids and share drinks and food with my kids all the time.

How to remove black stains on teeth

There doesn’t seem to be any definitive treatment or solution for keeping these black stains at bay. However, from first hand experience and tips from a couple of different dentists and readers, I’ve compiled this growing list (more than 6 things to try now!), starting with what has worked best for us:

  1. Sonicare toothbrush (most effective with my kids, recommended by the pediatric dentist, something about the vibration of the toothbrush). In 2021, I’ve also started alternating with the Oral-B rotating toothbrush. My theory is that the different brushes are better at different parts of the teeth, so alternating them helps me brush the teeth more thoroughly.
  2. Swimming in chlorine pools frequently We saw a noticeable reduction in visible black stains over one spring break week spent daily in the pool. We saw even more reduction over a summer when swimming occurred 4 days/week. Remember, this is a 2-child data set. However, I suspect the chlorine kills the bacteria or changes the mouth flora. Update as of 1/23/20: despite not swimming in chlorinated pools for the last 3 months, the reduction of black stains on our kids’ teeth seems to be holding steady.
  3. Listerine mouthwash (helpful for my husband)
  4. Periodic hydrogen peroxide mouth rinse (didn’t dare try it with my kids and this would be too abrasive to do on a long-term basis)
  5. Pumice powder, before you buy it, ask your dentist for a sample to see if it works for you (didn’t really work for us). Also, overuse of pumice and abrasive agents will erode your tooth enamel long-term. Update as of 3/15/21: We tried pumice powder again and it actually helped. Previously, we had added it to the toothpaste first, and that was ineffective. This time, we smeared it onto the areas with stains first and then brushed those teeth directly with an electric toothbrush.
  6. Regular visits to the dentist – The dentist uses a polisher (technically called a prophy angle) with some pumice powder and a scaler to scrape off the parts that remain after polishing. Even our dentist can’t remove all the stains, as some of the stains along the gumline and in the grooves are particularly stubborn. I’ve considered getting one of the polishers from Amazon, but most have pretty bad reviews. Recently, I saw this Bilistic Pro Series and it looks more promising, but I haven’t tried it. Let me know if you have!
  7. A dental scraper (added as of 5/21/20) – During this pandemic, we’re not making it to the dentist routinely, and I notice that the black stains seem to be gaining ground (particularly with my 9 yr old with braces!), so I started using a dental scraper tool like this one. The results aren’t perfect, but I’m able to easily scrape off the black stains on the flatter parts of the teeth and loosen some of the stubborn black stains that build up along the gumline. I noted that when I scraped the stains along the gumline, it would often seem like I hadn’t removed anything. However, when we brushed afterwards and over the course of the following few days, some of the stains could be brushed away, so I think the scraper can agitate or loosen the stains a bit.
  8. Probiotics (added as of 9/1/20) – we haven’t tried probiotics yet, but a reader sent me a tip that eating Greek yogurt regularly (which has cultures containing: L. Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei) seemed to have reduced some of the black staining in their family. Whether it’s yogurt or probiotic capsules, some form of probiotics may be another thing to try. It seems to make sense given the bacterial nature of the staining and the beneficial bacterias found in probiotics and yogurt, etc.
  9. Brushing teeth before breakfast (added as of 9/30/21) – I’m suspecting this is making a remarkable difference, but only time will tell. I suddenly noticed this week that one child amazingly doesn’t have ANY black staining and my other child seems to have a lot less than usual. The only change I could think of is that they both started brushing their teeth before breakfast instead of after breakfast. It’s only been a month so far, so I’ll have to see if the stains continue to stay away this time. As for the theory why this might help? I actually covered this in a previous post about teeth brushing, but I didn’t have my kids brush before breakfast until school started again this year. This other post gets in-depth on the benefits of getting rid of overnight plaque and my theory is that this is slowing down the black-staining chromogenic bacteria.

Resources

This page will definitely be updated if I find out a way to remove or prevent these stains permanently!

About Me

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An image for a page on why I write about parenting, allergies, health, myopia, children, and bilingualism, and education
We eat a lot.

Hi there, I’m a mom to two kids in a bi-cultural household. I’m sharing everything I’m gradually learning about kids, OIT, allergies, health, parenting, myopia control, education, and more. As someone who is obsessive about doing my best to make good decisions for my family and myself, I’ve spent a lot of time researching various things, big and small – from how shoes should fit a toddler to why ice shouldn’t be used to treat injuries. When reading about these different topics, I often learn things that I wish I knew before. And I would think how nice it would have been if I could have just a brief primer on those topics so I wouldn’t have to pull all the information together myself. 

One day, I realized that I should just organize and pull together all the random things I’ve read about, and so here we are! Maybe it’ll save you or someone else a little research time. Some day my kids can read the posts and see why mommy was “that mom.” Hahaha.

How I choose my topics

I’m inspired to research things that impact any decisions that I make for my children, my elderly parents, or my lifestyle, etc. I post on anything I spend some decent amount of time researching online or through real people (fancy that). If I get new, notable information on a previous topic, then I may update previous posts. The research is never perfect and in the end, I just have to choose at the risk level that I’m comfortable with.  

Finally, I’m always interested in other people’s opinions and experiences in all the topics that I write about, so please feel free to share or email me at wishiknewbefore20@gmail.com. Thanks for visiting!