Parents mistakenly believed in massagers, but their children's eyesight deteriorated

Jimu News reporter Liao Shiqi

Correspondent Pei Nishang

Children’s vision problems are a headache for countless parents. They have tried acupuncture, massage, and physical therapy, but to no avail.

In January this year, Nono's mother took her child to have an eye examination. Unexpectedly, the 10-year-old Nono was diagnosed with 300 degrees of true myopia on the first try. Because she believed the old saying that "once you put on glasses for myopia, you can't take them off, and the degree will get worse and worse", Nono's mother did not buy glasses for her child. Instead, she used a massager purchased from a WeChat merchant that claimed to be able to "cure" myopia to restore her eyesight.

After 4 months of treatment, last weekend, when Nono had his eyesight tested at the Aier Eye Hospital affiliated to Wuhan University, it was found that instead of improving, his vision increased by nearly 100 degrees.

It turned out that after using the massager, Nono felt more at ease to play computer games and watch TV, which increased the intensity of eye use and caused his myopia to increase. "The products that claim to help myopic children recover their vision and cure myopia are basically deceptive. So far, there is no way to cure adolescent myopia, which is irreversible." Dr. Cai Chunyan, deputy chief physician of strabismus and amblyopia and pediatric ophthalmology, said that the eyeballs of adolescents and children are in the growth and development period. Due to long-term reading, doing homework or using electronic products, and lack of necessary outdoor activities, the eyeballs are always in a "near-sighted" state, and the delayed adjustment leads to hyperopic defocus, which accelerates the growth of the eye axis. This is the main reason for the continuous deepening of adolescent myopia.

Dai Hongbin, chief physician of strabismus, amblyopia and pediatric ophthalmology at Wuhan University Aier Eye Hospital, emphasized that once a child is diagnosed with myopia, the only thing parents can do is to use scientific methods to control or delay the development of myopia and avoid high myopia in the future, rather than blindly believing in institutions and methods that claim to "cure" myopia. He reminded parents to avoid or reduce the use of electronic products to prevent and control myopia; correct children's bad eye habits, write "one foot, one fist, one inch", and three "20s", and look at objects at least 20 feet (6 meters) away for more than 20 seconds for every 20 minutes of close-up use of the eyes; let children bathe in the sun and ensure more than 2 hours of outdoor activities every day or more than 10 hours of outdoor activities per week. At the same time, pay attention to the diversification of children's diet and try to avoid sweets.