How do the eye and vision develop from birth to adulthood? What is hyperopic reserve?

Children's eye and vision development

Did you know that babies do not have 5.0 vision when they are born? As babies grow, the size of their eyeballs and vision gradually develop.

• Development of axial length:

The size of the eyeball is usually measured by the axial length, which is the diameter of the eye from front to back. When a baby is born, the axial length of the eye is about 16-17 mm; at the age of 3, it usually grows to 21 mm; at the age of 6, it usually grows to 22 mm. After the age of 11, the growth rate of the axial length slows down. In adulthood, the axial length of the eye is generally 23-24 mm.

• Development of vision:

Generally speaking, both eyes of newborns are in a hyperopic state, and gradually return to normal as they grow and develop. The standard vision of children of different ages in my country is about 0.5-0.6 at 2 years old; 0.9 at 3 years old; 0.9-1.0 at 4 years old; and 1.0 or above at 5 years old.

• Hyperopia reserve:

As mentioned earlier, children's eyes are hyperopic from the neonatal stage, and as they grow older, they will not be able to achieve "emmetropia" until they are 9 to 12 years old. Therefore, the hyperopia of children before the age of 9 to 12 is a physiological and normal state. The degree of this physiological hyperopia is the hyperopia reserve. Hyperopia reserve is an important indicator for observing the occurrence and development of myopia. Insufficient or premature disappearance of hyperopia reserve means that the child is more likely to develop myopia and the possibility of accelerated myopia progression is also greater.

Ideally:

- For children aged 4 to 5, the hyperopia reserve should be more than 200 degrees;

-6~7 years old, should be 175~200 degrees;

-8 years old 150 degrees;

-9 years old 125 degrees;

-10 years old, 100 degrees;

-11 years old 75 degrees;

-12 years old, 50 degrees.

Starting when the child is about three years old, parents can take the child to the hospital once or twice a year to establish a refractive file, check and pay attention to changes in the child's hyperopia reserve value.

Pay attention to your child's eye health check-up

During pregnancy, mothers should undergo appropriate screening to rule out the possibility of congenital cataracts or other eye problems in their babies;

After the baby is born, he should receive a professional eye health examination;

At around 3 years old, you should start to establish a refractive record to track and manage possible problems such as insufficient hyperopia reserve;

For children who have already developed myopia, they should use standardized myopia prevention and control techniques under the guidance of a doctor, and maintain the good habit of recording refractive records, actively prevent and control myopia, slow the development of myopia, and reduce the possibility of developing high myopia.

The electronic refractive profile of Tejingcai is a simple and considerate tool. You can try it and let us accompany you to protect your child's vision health.

If this article is helpful to you, you are welcome to forward it to other parents as they may need it too. 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.