With the start of school approaching, many parents will take their children to have their eyes checked and fitted with glasses, but some parents don’t pay attention to the importance of this aspect. How will it affect the children’s eyesight? TOPick interviewed Horace Huang, a senior optometrist at the Optometry Clinic of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, to discuss the causes of myopia in school children and tips on eye care.
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2 reasons for the high rate of myopia among Hong Kong school children
Horace cited a study that compared with Western countries, Hong Kong school children have a high rate of myopia. Half of the children aged 10 or above have already developed myopia, which deserves attention. According to clinical experience, some schoolchildren found that the average degree of myopia varies from high to low at the first eye examination. Horace even encountered a case of high myopia reaching 800 to 900 degrees. According to his analysis, the causes of myopia among Hong Kong school children are mainly divided into two categories:
May come from myopia of parents. Studies have shown that if the parents have myopia or high myopia, the children are also prone to myopia, or the speed of myopia progression is faster.
If the distance for children to read and write, the lighting, or the time for outdoor activities are not ideal, it is easy to cause myopia. In addition, the epidemic has changed the learning mode of schoolchildren in recent years, and children spend more time at home learning and being exposed to electronic products. Therefore, recent studies have shown that during the epidemic, children’s myopia progressed faster than before.
Mother of 1.5-year-old boy with high myopia refuses to wear glasses
Horace shared an impressive case. He said that he once met a mother who brought a son who was about one and a half years old for the first eye examination. As a result, both eyes were found to have about 800 degrees of myopia and 150 to 200 degrees. astigmatism. Since neither of his parents has the problem of high myopia, Horace analyzed that it may be because he is a premature baby, so he is prone to high myopia at birth.
But unexpectedly, faced with the reality that her son urgently needs to wear glasses, the mother is not very accepting. She did not agree to get glasses for her son at the first time, but she listened to the wrong information in the market, thinking that wearing glasses for children would only make myopia worse. Therefore, she arranged acupuncture for the children, hoping to reverse myopia with acupuncture. But about 9 months to 1 year later, the mother brought the child back for an examination, and found that the myopia has not reversed, but has worsened.
In the end, after learning that she was misled by wrong information, the mother immediately followed the instructions of the optometrist to wear suitable glasses for the child. Horace said:
Although it was difficult to adapt to wearing glasses at first, the child can adapt within a day or two, because the glasses help him see clearly, and even ask his mother to wear glasses when he wakes up, because wearing glasses gives him a sense of confidence and security . After that, I came back regularly for follow-up visits, and the problem of amblyopia was also solved.
The first eye examination and follow-up golden period
Horace pointed out that parents in Hong Kong have a high awareness of eye protection for their children. Some parents will take the initiative to take their children to have their eyes checked regularly even if their children have no symptoms. The other part will bring in the checkup after noticing that the children often have behaviors such as blindfolding, blinking, and eye-smacking. In this regard, Horace recommends:
It is best for children to have their first check-up between the age of half a year and one year old to check for congenital eye diseases, such as congenital cataracts, glaucoma, etc., to ensure that there are no congenital abnormalities and structural problems in the eyes. From the age of 3, it is recommended to have an eye examination every year to check the degree, vision, and coordination of the eyes to see if there is any eye inflammation or infection, so as to ensure that the eyesight and visual function can meet the needs of daily life and learning. If everything is normal, it is recommended to still check every year; if you have amblyopia or strabismus, you need some follow-up and training, and you should have a follow-up visit every 3 to 6 months.
Early control of myopia to prevent eye diseases
Horace also cited studies showing that the fastest progression of myopia among schoolchildren is between the ages of 6 and 12. Therefore, parents should take advantage of this period of time to closely check whether the child’s eye degree has increased excessively. After the age of 12, theoretically, the progression of myopia will slow down, but it still depends on the child’s own eye habits, or the influence of parents’ myopia genes.
If myopia is not controlled early, Horace warns that children’s myopia may deepen rapidly, often accompanied by continuous growth of eyeball length:
The eyeballs will become longer and longer, thinner and easier to break like an elastic band. The retina becomes thinner and thinner, and when it grows up, it is easy to have retinal holes, detachment, tearing, or problems such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and cataracts.
3 Eye Care Tips
Horace recommends 3 key points of eye care:
Sunlight stimulates the secretion of dopamine and vitamin D in the eyes. Studies have shown that if children have 1 to 2 hours of outdoor activities every day, the chance of myopia deepening or appearing will be reduced.
The distance between reading, writing, and playing the computer should not be too close. It is best to have a distance of about 40 cm, that is, about the distance of one arm straightened. Also note that the light should be sufficient and not too dark.
Use your eyes for 10 minutes and rest for 2 minutes
For every 10 minutes of looking at near objects, you have to look at distant objects for 2 minutes. Not watching TV, but looking a little farther away, such as the scene outside the street. Even if it’s not trees looking out the window, it’s better than watching TV.
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Reporter: Zhang Pei
2023-08-14 02:08:54
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