The child is under 6 years old, so he won’t be nearsighted? Wrong!

According to data released by the National Health Commission in 2020, the overall myopia rate among children and adolescents in my country is 52.7%, including 14.3% for 6-year-old children, 35.6% for primary school students, 71.1% for junior high school students, and 80.5% for high school students.

What about children under 6 years old? A study in Jiading District, Shanghai in 2016 found that the figure was less than 5%.

Indeed, the incidence of myopia among children and adolescents increases significantly with age. Looking at the data alone, the incidence rate within 6 years old is indeed not high, but this definitely does not mean that parents can ignore it!

Let Dr. Jingcai explain to you. It’s the old rules. It’s pure popular science. No deception or selling. Please feel free to read:

The earlier a child develops myopia, the faster it develops and the higher the degree of myopia in adulthood. A Danish study found that among children who developed myopia before the age of 6, 54.5% developed high myopia (more than 600 degrees) after 8 years. Therefore, we should pay attention to the vision health of children as early as possible. Even if myopia has not occurred, we should take active measures to prevent it, so as to delay the onset of myopia in children as much as possible, or even prevent it from happening at all.

The changes in lifestyles and habits of modern children can easily cause children to develop myopia at an earlier age. For example, electronic devices are everywhere, including but not limited to televisions, mobile phones, computers, tablets, etc. Young children have poor self-control. Once parents supervise them, it is easy for children to use electronic devices at close range and for a long time, which leads to myopia at an earlier age.

What should parents do? The following suggestions come from the 2022 edition of the White Paper on Myopia Management:

For children who have not yet developed myopia, they should go to the hospital for a checkup every 3 to 6 months, including:

-Vision test

- Non-mydriatic refraction test

- Axis measurement

-Ocular surface health examination

- Fundus examination

If the child is very young, for example, under three years old, the above examinations may not be possible, and the doctor may have other examination methods suitable for infants and young children.

If a child is already in the early stages of myopia, such as a 6-year-old child, and his hyperopia reserve is less than +0.75D, he needs to go to the hospital for a check-up every 3 months.

If a child has developed progressive myopia (myopia increases by more than 75 degrees each year), he or she needs to actively follow myopia prevention and control measures under the doctor's advice.

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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.