Children's eye protection, these are what you need to know

Eyes are the windows to the soul, and protecting eyesight should start from childhood. In the outpatient clinic, we often encounter children whose parents are not myopic, but they suffer from myopia at a very young age. Why is this?

Protecting hyperopia reserve

Hyperopia reserve is a term often mentioned in the prevention and control of myopia in children. So what is hyperopia reserve? Generally, the length of the eye axis is proportional to the degree of myopia. The "eye axis" can be understood as the length of the anterior-posterior diameter of the eyeball. That is, people with short eye axes tend to be hyperopic, and people with long eye axes are prone to myopia. Newborn babies have smaller eyeballs and shorter eye axes, and have physiological hyperopia, which is medically called hyperopia reserve.

The eyeball will slowly "grow" during the development process, causing the hyperopia reserve to be gradually consumed until it approaches zero or drops to zero. If children use their eyes for a long time and at close range, it is easy to accelerate the process of hyperopia reserve consumption. Therefore, the younger the child is, the more they need to control the time they use their eyes to reduce the intolerance of long-term eye fatigue.

Grasp the visual development period

0-6 years old is the critical and sensitive period for children's visual development. During this period, special attention should be paid to helping children develop good eye habits. This is the "three ones" and "three 20s" principle. The chest is one fist away from the desk, the eyes are one foot away from the book, and the fingers are one inch away from the tip of the nose. If you look at something close for 20 minutes, you need to look at something 20 feet (6 meters) away for 20 seconds. At the same time, special attention should be paid to some special problems that may occur in children's eyes. In addition to myopia, strabismus and amblyopia are also relatively common eye problems in children.

Visual development is not only the development of the eyes, but also includes the brain's processing of the visual signals sent by the eyes. Children with strabismus cannot see two images with their eyes, and the brain will actively suppress the unclear images. If strabismus is not intervened and relieved in time, amblyopia may develop later.

Some parents think their children are too young and do not cooperate with the examination. When they find that their children have eye problems, they want to wait until their children are older to treat them. This may miss the critical period of children's visual development and delay the best treatment opportunity. Therefore, parents are reminded that during this critical period of children's visual development, they must pay more attention to observing their children's eyes to achieve early detection and early prevention.

Getting rid of the “electronic nanny”

In the clinic, we found that some parents were not myopic, but their children were myopic at a very young age. When asked, they all said that their children started to use tablets and mobile phones when they were six months or one year old. Many children are very obedient and quiet when they are exposed to electronic products. Parents often use electronic products to "take care of" their children in order to relax. However, they do not know that these "electronic nannies" will have a very bad impact on children's eyes.

Some families often organize parent-child trips to the suburbs to get close to nature. On the road, in a shaking carriage and under dim lights, children read books and play games for a long time. Their eyes are focused on one spot, which causes tension in the eye muscles and increases the burden, making it more likely to cause vision loss.

Therefore, parents should set an example by not looking at their phones for hours as soon as they get home, and at the same time, they should not let their children touch or play with electronic products such as phones and iPads too early. When children go to school and have a certain degree of self-control, they should set rules for playing with electronic products.

Establish eye growth and development profile

It is recommended to check children's eyesight regularly, find a specialist in a professional hospital to establish an eye growth and development file for the child, and comprehensively track the development of the child's visual health.

Parents can also observe their children's eyes and keep records starting from preschool to more accurately understand their children's eye development and help doctors develop personalized myopia prevention strategies for their children.

If you find that your child always likes to tilt his head to look at things, gets very close to things that interest him, squints to look at things, or rubs his eyes after concentrating on his eyes for a short while... parents need to observe carefully. These may be signs that the child has eye problems, and they can be recorded to provide a reference for the doctor's diagnosis.

In addition, if parents suffer from myopia or even high myopia, they should pay more attention to their children's eye health. Under the same eye burden, children whose parents are highly myopic have a risk of myopia that is more than 10 times higher than that of ordinary children, and their hyperopia reserves will be consumed earlier. It is recommended that parents with high myopia should do a good job of screening and prevention after their children are born. Take your children outdoors more often, reduce their exposure to electronic products, and do not read at close range too early... If you find any problems, intervene early to avoid severe high myopia and increase the risk of blindness.

Slow down the progression of myopia in children

For children who already have myopia, parents should pay more attention to their eye health. In addition to routine prevention of myopia, they should also provide their children with appropriate corrective glasses in a timely manner and supervise them while wearing them.

The correct use of corrective glasses can not only allow children to see clearly and easily, and reduce the rapid growth of myopia caused by visual fatigue, but also protect children's eye accommodation and convergence functions, avoiding the rapid growth of myopia due to poor accommodation function, or the occurrence of exotropia due to poor convergence function.

In general, doctors will give personalized myopia progression recommendations or treatment methods based on the specific circumstances of each myopic child.

The younger the child is when he or she develops myopia, the more room there is for myopia to progress in the future, and it is easy to develop into high myopia. Therefore, if the child is found to have a high degree of myopia when he or she visits the hospital for the first time, it is necessary to increase the control of myopia. Doctors may use a variety of methods such as orthokeratology lenses, defocus glasses, and low-concentration atropine to effectively control myopia. If high myopia has been diagnosed or has progressed rapidly after using some control methods, posterior scleral reinforcement surgery may be needed to strengthen the strength and toughness of the eyeball wall, slow the growth of the eye axis and the progression of myopia, thereby avoiding the risk of high myopic fundus lesions.

Don’t let online classes become a burden on your eyes

When online classes become a common teaching method, children stare at the screen for a long time, and the pressure on eye health increases dramatically. At this time, we need to use clever methods to protect our eyesight.

Outdoor activities are essential. Ensure at least two hours of outdoor activities every day. Intervals between classes are more effective than two hours in a row. The light outdoors during the day is dozens or even hundreds of times stronger than that indoors. Strong natural light will stimulate the secretion of dopamine, slow down the growth of the eye axis, and thus slow down the occurrence of myopia. Therefore, outdoor activities should be carried out during the day as much as possible.

If there are special circumstances that prevent outdoor activities, parents can play table tennis against the wall with their children at home, do passing exercises and other activities, allowing the eyes to move back and forth with the ball, and the ciliary muscles can also be adjusted and relaxed.

The bigger the screen, the better. If the family conditions allow, it is recommended to use a projector to project the online course content onto a wall or screen for viewing. This way, you don’t have to stare at the screen at a distance, just like looking at a blackboard, and your eyes can relax even when taking online courses at home. If only a fluorescent screen is available, it is recommended to use a screen as large as possible, and adjust the brightness of the screen and the surrounding environment to a comfortable range for the eyes, eliminating overly bright or dark ambient light to avoid eye fatigue.

Split the time of recorded classes. Some online classes are recorded, and you can control the time of each class yourself. Parents can help their children break down the course into 20-minute sections, and let their children take breaks even when taking online classes. Breaks are a good time to relax the eyes. At this time, children should avoid staring at extracurricular books or electronic products, and encourage them to participate in outdoor activities.