Help your child protect his eyes, this is what an ophthalmologist mother does

Winning the battle to protect vision

During the holidays, many children and parents gather at the ophthalmology clinic. How to protect children's eyes in the video age is a common concern of parents.

As an ophthalmologist and a mother, I am also very concerned about my child's eye health. I hope to win this "vision protection battle" by sharing my professional knowledge and practical experience. Today, I have selected some content that you may be concerned about and share it with you.

Negotiate with your child to limit screen time

Large and small screens are important sources of knowledge and information for children nowadays, and electronic products are also children's favorite entertainment items. Mobile phones and electronic games are not "monsters". As long as we find a balance point to control their use, we can take into account learning, health and games. Therefore, we need to cultivate children's self-management ability. Taking my family as an example, I stipulate that my children have 20 minutes of TV watching time every Friday and Saturday. Sometimes they can be rewarded with 10 minutes for good academic performance; 1.5 hours of movie watching time once every two weeks; if they play tablets or mobile phones, they will use the time of watching TV to offset it. Playing with mobile phones for 10 minutes is equivalent to watching TV for 20 minutes. In order to remind time, my child and I bought his favorite timer. From the beginning when I set the time to his own time, the child gradually developed a self-disciplined habit of using videos. Parents should try not to impose their own ideas and concepts on their children, but strive to establish an equal relationship, through communication and mutual respect, choose a method that is more suitable for children, and help them achieve unity of knowledge and action. This can not only maintain the parent-child relationship, but also make children change from passive to active and be responsible for their own health.

"Eyes" bathing in the sun, the whole family is mobilized

The safest, economical and effective measure to prevent and control myopia is to engage in outdoor activities. Strong light intensity outdoors can inhibit the occurrence of myopia. In addition, sunlight can increase the synthesis of dopamine. The synthesis and metabolism of dopamine are light-dependent and are affected by the brightness and exposure time of the surrounding light. The concentration of retinal dopamine is high during the day and low at night. Therefore, it is recommended that children engage in outdoor activities more during the day. There are many school courses and limited outdoor time. Therefore, parents should grasp the time of school and holidays and find ways to mobilize their children's enthusiasm for sports. This requires the mobilization of the whole family. For example, when picking up and dropping off children from school, try to use means of transportation that can be exposed to natural light, such as bicycles and buses. When choosing sports, give priority to outdoor projects, such as roller skating, kites, football, tennis, badminton, etc. After school, children can play outdoors for a while before going home to eat and do homework. On weekends, try to accompany your children to outdoor activities and create opportunities to take them hiking, skiing, boating, etc.

Taking children to dilate their pupils must be treated correctly

Before children get glasses, they need to undergo mydriasis refraction. During the period of pupil dilation, close reading will be affected, and children cannot read or do homework as usual. Mydriasis drugs are divided into fast mydriasis and slow mydriasis. It takes about 6 to 8 hours for the pupil to return to normal with fast mydriasis drugs. However, children who are young, have their first eye examination, have hyperopia and astigmatism, all need to use atropine for slow mydriasis. It takes about 3 weeks for the child's pupil to return to normal. During this period, the child's learning may be affected. Some parents are very worried when talking about mydriasis, thinking that mydriasis will harm their children. In fact, the main purpose of mydriasis is to relieve ciliary muscle spasm. Long-term close-range eye use can cause ciliary muscle spasm, and the inability of the ciliary muscle to relax will cause myopia. Mydriasis can relieve spasms of ciliary muscles that can still be relaxed and solve the problem of pseudomyopia.

If you find your vision is declining, you can do this

After discovering that the child's vision has declined, the first thing to do is to go to the ophthalmologist to establish a vision file, including vision, eye structure examination, mydriasis refraction, fundus and eye axis. We will reexamine the children every year and keep a record in the file. Secondly, under the guidance of the doctor, choose the prevention and control method suitable for the child, use a "combination punch" instead of relying on a single method to deal with the problem of myopia. Currently, the measures that have been proven to be effective in delaying myopia include outdoor activities, wearing orthokeratology lenses, using low-concentration atropine, and wearing defocus function glasses. In daily life, children should also pay attention to adopting the correct reading and writing posture, cultivating scientific eye habits, and maintaining a good lifestyle (such as normal sleep, balanced diet, and eating less sweets). Increasing outdoor activities is the basis. If you don't pay attention to eye habits, even if you use orthokeratology lenses, low-concentration atropine or defocus lenses, the effect is limited. Children's myopia can be prevented and controlled, and parents are the vanguard of this "defense war". Let's work together.