When it comes to their children's myopia, there are three common mentalities among parents. Which one do you have?

It is not to say that there are no parents who do not care about and pay no attention to their children's health, but it should be said that there are very few. However, after the child becomes myopic, the mentality of parents is obviously different. Dr. Jingcai will talk to you about the three most common ones.

The first type: Ignorance + fearlessness

This type of parents has very limited knowledge about myopia. They do not understand the causes of myopia and the harm it brings to their children. Instead, they carelessly and blindly think, "So many children are myopic, what's the big deal?", "Just wear glasses," and "Won't it be okay to have a myopia surgery when you grow up?" This mentality is obviously incorrect. Under the influence of this mentality, parents may simply fit their children with a pair of myopia glasses nearby, and rarely or never take their children to an ophthalmology hospital or optometry clinic for a serious examination. Even more outrageous, some parents don't even fit their children with glasses, but focus on making a fuss with their children's class teacher to let their children sit in the first row. The reason behind this mentality is that parents do not pay enough attention to the knowledge related to myopia, and their willingness to learn and the time and energy invested are insufficient. The end result is that children do not receive appropriate intervention when they need it, and finally myopia occurs prematurely, develops too quickly, and even develops into high myopia.

The second type: excessive tension + anxiety

This type of parents has a much better understanding of myopia than the first type, but this leads to the consequence of "too much is as bad as too little". They are skeptical about the various suggestions given by doctors, and go online or ask around from acquaintances and friends. Once the child's myopia degree increases, or the eye axis increases, they become extremely anxious, frequently changing hospitals and doctors. They usually strictly manage their children's daily life and eye behavior, but often use inappropriate methods, which makes the children very nervous and even affects the parent-child relationship. What's more, as long as they hear that it can help control their children's myopia, regardless of the source of the news, whether it is scientific and reliable, they are willing to take their children to try it. As a result, they are often exploited by unscrupulous businesses, wasting money and time. The reason behind this mentality is that parents love their children so much, but they try too hard, do not have a comprehensive grasp of myopia knowledge, and do not trust the professional ability of doctors enough.

The third type: good "teammates" between doctors and children

For the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents, doctors, parents, and children need to work as a team, with mutual trust and cooperation. This type of teammate-type parent will take the initiative to learn and accumulate knowledge related to myopia, but will also fully trust and respect the professional guidance of doctors. In daily life, they will cooperate with doctors and play a role in areas where doctors cannot reach, such as: helping children maintain refractive development files; paying attention to whether the application of children's myopia prevention and control measures is standardized; communicating with children about eye habits in an appropriate way to prevent children from overusing their eyes at close range and insufficient outdoor activity time; taking children for follow-up visits on time, fully communicating with doctors about problems encountered in recent times, and following doctors' advice.

Mentality affects behavior, and behavior brings results. Dr. Jingcai calls on all parents to strive to become "teammate" parents on the road of myopia prevention and control for their children: pay attention to the myopia problem of their children, but do not be anxious; take the initiative to learn, improve cognition, communicate better with doctors, and fully respect and cooperate with the professional opinions of doctors. In this way, I believe that more children will have less myopia and develop slower under teamwork, so that fewer children will develop high myopia and more children will have a clear and bright future.

If this article is helpful to you, you are welcome to share it with other parents. Maybe they also need it. Thank you.

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About Dr. Jingcai: The creators of Dr. Jingcai's popular science content all have a professional background in ophthalmology, a master's degree or above, and are former ophthalmologists. For some popular science content with a higher degree of professionalism, we will also invite working ophthalmologists and optometry experts to review and check it, striving to be responsible for the accuracy of the content and avoid misleading readers.