China’s Ministry of Education released an announcement of the results of student physical health monitoring: the detection rate of poor eyesight was 43.5% for elementary school students aged 7 to 12, 69.7% for junior high school students, 82.3% for high school students and 80.0% for university students. China is the number one country in the world for glasses. Not only that, but the age group of children with myopia is getting lower and lower in recent years. So, why are so many children nearsighted? Most children’s myopia is caused by external causes, which category does your child belong to?
1. Children who sleep with lights on at night
The University of Pennsylvania Medical Center conducted a survey of 479 children aged 0 to 16 years old and found that children who sleep with the lights on at night have a greater likelihood of developing myopia in the future, with particularly serious effects on children younger than 2 years old. If a child sleeps in a dark room before the age of 2, the proportion of myopia is 10%; if they sleep in a room with a small night light, the proportion of myopia is 34%; if they sleep in a room with a large light on, the proportion of myopia is 55%.
Therefore, do not let your child sleep with the lights on at night. If the child is really afraid of the dark, then at least do not open the bedroom lights, you can turn on the corridor lights.
2, children who learn to walk early
Children learn to walk too early, not only will affect the development of the spine, the development of vision will also have some impact. After birth, the child’s vision development is not yet sound, more children practice crawling, the development of vision is very beneficial. On the contrary, children who learn to walk too early will be unable to see more distant scenes, and efforts to adjust the diopter and focus of the eyes to gaze, which will make the child’s eyes produce fatigue, easy to damage vision.
3, often play electronic products for children
Many young parents like to use cell phones, iPads to “watch the children”, once the child will be quiet in the hands almost immediately, do not need the company of parents. However, for children whose eyesight has not yet developed, electronic products on vision damage is very large.
When the child stares at the electronic screen for a long time, the radiation of the light on the screen will inhibit the function of the child’s retinal photoreceptor cells, causing visual fatigue and vision loss. At the same time, frequent changes in screen brightness and flickering distance will make the ciliary muscle of the child’s eye in a state of frequent movement, when the ciliary muscle fatigue is excessive (ciliary muscle spasm), the child is easy to develop myopia. Therefore, during the critical period of the child’s vision development, parents should minimize the child’s exposure to electronic products and encourage the child to do more outdoor activities to relieve eye fatigue.
4.Children with unbalanced nutrition
In the period of rapid growth and development of children, if the nutrition is not balanced may lead to a lack of certain nutrients, when the child lacks the following three nutrients, it may increase the chances of myopia.
Calcium: Calcium is related to the formation of the eyeball. Insufficient calcium intake may lead to scleral monotony, increased intraocular pressure, and elongation of the anterior and posterior diameters of the eyeball, resulting in myopia.
Foods rich in calcium include milk, yogurt, cheese, loach, shrimp, kelp, peanuts, sesame seed paste, tofu, cabbage, rape, purple cabbage, fungus, egg yolk, pig liver, beef liver, lamb liver, etc.
Chromium: If the child lacks chromium, the activity of insulin will be reduced, and the regulation of sugar metabolism will be reduced, resulting in excessive sugar retention in the blood of the child, forcing the refractive power of the eyes to change, eventually forming myopia.
Foods rich in chromium include beef, black pepper, brown rice, corn, millet, brown sugar, grape juice, edible mushrooms, etc.
Vitamin A: One of the important physiological functions of vitamin A is to maintain the normal function of the cornea and retina. Common symptoms of vitamin A deficiency are night blindness and loss of vision. Therefore, vitamin A should never be lacking in a child’s diet.
Foods rich in vitamin A include spinach, alfalfa, pea shoots, sweet potatoes, carrots, green peppers, pumpkin, tomatoes, peas, celery, lettuce, asparagus, animal liver, milk and dairy products, poultry eggs, etc.
5, children who love to eat sugar
Studies have shown that children who eat sweets for a long time are more prone to myopia than children on a normal diet, and the degree of progression is faster. This is because sugar softens the sclera of the eye, which is an important tissue that wraps the eye and maintains the shape of the eye, and when the sclera becomes soft, the eye is easily deformed.
6.Children with little sleep
Less sleep is also one of the causes of myopia in children. If a child is in a period of rapid growth and development, especially between the ages of 7 and 14, it is also easy to cause myopia if the child sleeps too little and the eyes are in a state of long-term exhaustion. During this time if the child is studying more intense, parents must pay attention to the child’s eye hygiene.
7.Children born with low birth weight
The incidence of myopia is also higher in children who weigh less than 2,500 grams at birth or who are born more than 2 weeks prematurely. The development of the eye axis is easily affected by poor congenital development and later on, if they encounter adverse external factors. For these children, parents should pay special attention to their lifestyle habits and eye hygiene.
8, parents myopia more than 600 degrees, the child is easy to myopia
Generally speaking, parents with myopia below 300 degrees will not inherit to their children; the chances of inheriting myopia from 300 to 600 degrees will increase; the chances of inheriting myopia above 600 degrees will be even greater.
The following 5 conditions may be a signal of myopia in children.
1. Squinting
When you find that your child is always squinting when reading a book or watching TV, parents should pay attention to it. Because squinting, the eyelids can block part of the pupil to reduce the scattering of light, temporarily improve and improve vision. If this continues for a long time, it is likely to lead to myopia.
2. Frowning
Frowning is also a way for children to try to improve their vision. Frequent frowning causes the extraocular muscles to compress the eyeball, which in turn stimulates the eye muscles and accelerates the formation of myopia. Some children also exhibit behaviors such as pulling at the corners of their eyes or rubbing their eyes.
3. Tilting the head to look at things
Some children will always look at things with a crooked head in the early stages of myopia because looking at things with a crooked head can reduce the effect of scattered light on vision and make seeing things clearer. Therefore, if you find that your child is always looking at things with a crooked head, you must correct it in time.
4.Strabismus
When a child has strabismus, it may be that the vision of one of the eyes has decreased, and the things seen will inadvertently use the normal one. Therefore, when a child often looks at things with squinted eyes it may be a sign of myopia.
5. Frequent blinking
Frequent blinking can, to some extent, relieve myopia and increase the clarity of vision. When a child has trouble seeing things, he or she may choose to blink constantly to get clearer vision.
Also, it is important to emphasize with parents that they should not rush to give their children glasses once myopia is detected. There is a difference between true myopia and pseudomyopia. Pseudomyopia is caused by close up or improper use of the eyes, because the ciliary muscle has been in a state of tension and spasm, resulting in refractive error, thus causing eye fatigue. Generally speaking, most children who have just developed myopia are pseudomyopic. Although pseudomyopia is a prelude to true myopia, the structure of the eye does not change in pseudomyopia, but only the physiological function, as long as timely treatment and attention to eye hygiene, can be restored to normal.
However, the survey shows that: children’s pseudomyopia stage is often not taken seriously by parents, 70% of the students surveyed, the first time the visual acuity was checked at 0.8, parents failed to timely treatment, of which about 15% of the children directly with glasses, so directly become true myopia. Therefore, for children with the first signs of myopia, parents should correct or treat them as soon as they are detected, so as not to miss the best recovery period.