As the new semester approaches, many parents are not anxious to buy their children stationery for the new semester, but have come to the hospital to check the vision of their children. A summer vacation past, “small myopic eyes” a lot more. Yesterday, several hospitals in Hangzhou asked around, during the summer holidays, the hospital ophthalmology clinic of small patients increased significantly. Compared to July, the number increased by nearly two percent, the province, the province of Xinhua and other hospitals, children’s myopia patients accounted for almost half of the outpatient volume, the most even reached eighty percent. Hangzhou ophthalmologists said that the premature use of cell phones, playing with them for too long is an important cause of rapid myopia in children.
The rewarded iPhone
Let 7-year-old child wear glasses
Ren Tian is 7 years old, is a second grade boy in elementary school. In the final exam before summer vacation, his father promised him an iPhone if he did well in the exam. Ren Tian did not disappoint his father, the final exam took the first in the class. In order to keep his promise, the father bought his son an iPhone on the first day of summer vacation.
In a few days, the father found that the child had been playing with the iPhone all summer, except for eating and sleeping, the rest of the time are holding this thing to play, even to go to the toilet work also to carry, become a standard “iPhone control”. Tiantian’s mother said, “We reminded him every day during the summer that he can only look at it for a while every day. But he just symbolically put it down, when we are not paying attention, and secretly began to play.” Tiantian’s parents saw that their son was playing some word recognition and arithmetic puzzle games, so they thought it would be helpful for learning, so they let him go.
”Seeing that the summer vacation is almost over, he always said to me a few days ago that ‘eyes hurt’. Last weekend I waited for him downstairs in the neighborhood, he squinted at me from afar, and did not dare to identify me. I was worried, is not my eyes nearsighted ah!”
Yesterday, mom and dad rushed to the hospital to take Tiantian to have his eyes checked. The examination results were very unexpected, the original 1,0 vision, after a summer vacation, actually dropped to 0,3, a young age had to wear 300 degrees of glasses.
Children’s myopia patients account for more than 50% of the outpatient clinic
Nearly a thousand new “small myopic eyes” a month
Yesterday at 11:00 pm, the provincial hospital ophthalmology waiting area, has been filled with children and teenagers waiting to see the doctor. Most of them are children in elementary school, and some of them are preschoolers. Parents with medical records led their children back and forth in various departments. At the same time, there were 10 or so children waiting to be seen in the waiting area at the Hangzhou campus of Zhejiang Eye Hospital (an optometry hospital affiliated with Wenzhou Medical College).
A woman named Zhou Xiao at the provincial hospital told reporters that her son will soon be in the fifth grade of elementary school. She and her husband have to go to work every day and have no time to watch their children. Since the summer break, her son has been playing games online all day. A few days ago, her son always squinted when he looked at things, so she brought him here to see a doctor.
Zhang Jue, director of ophthalmology at the provincial Chinese hospital, said that in recent years, once the summer break, there is always a peak period for the ophthalmology clinic. Every day, the number of ophthalmology clinics will be more than double the usual. Patients in the morning often have to see nearly 12 noon to finish. Among the patients, children with myopia account for more than 50%.
Zhejiang Provincial Eye Hospital Hangzhou Optometry Center in charge of Chen Yan, attending physician, generally to late August, the number of patients will be explosive growth. Every day the ophthalmology clinic will be more than double the usual amount, the morning patients often have to see nearly 12 noon to see. The entire optometry center, children’s myopia patients accounted for more than 80%.
In the side of the dispensing optometry area, many small patients waiting for glasses, but also forget to hold the phone to concentrate on the game. According to the staff of the prescription, since the summer break, the number of small patients to prescription glasses than usual doubled, a month just their hospital, nearly 1,000 new children myopia patients. “From the patient’s age level, the current trend of myopia patients at a younger age is obvious, there is no shortage of preschool myopia patients. What is particularly important for parents to note is that with the popularity of handheld electronic products such as iPads and iPhones, there are also many cases of vision loss due to long hours of playing with handheld electronic products.”
Reminder
Do not let children play with cell phones before the age of 6
Nowadays, the age at which myopia occurs in children is getting younger and younger, and many parents seem helpless to do anything about such a condition. “Generally speaking, children’s eyes can only basically develop to normal vision at the age of six or seven, and the visual nerve of children under the age of six is not yet mature, which is the critical period when they should most protect and restore normal vision.”
Chen Yan said that before the age of 6, children prematurely use cell phones, iPads and other electronic products, especially for a long time, the damage to children’s eyes is very large.
”Generally speaking preschoolers’ eyes tend to be still in a mildly farsighted state, gradually developing to an orthoptic state by the age of six or seven. If myopia occurs too early at this time, then with the arrival of the child’s growth spurt, the degree of myopia will grow more rapidly, even by 100 to 200 degrees a year, and there is a risk of high myopia occurring in adulthood.” Chen Yan recommends that parents, before the child is 6 years old, it is best to strictly limit the use of handheld electronic products, and try to provide the child with sufficient time for outdoor sports, and should test the child’s vision every six months, once found that the child likes to squint, tilt the head, frown to see things, like rubbing eyes and other problems, should quickly go to the regular medical sector for timely consultation.
Survey
Children of post-80s parents are especially nearsighted
Yu Pingping, director of ophthalmology at the provincial Xinhua Hospital, said that cases like Ren Tian are common in outpatient clinics, and some are even as young as five or six years old. “I often see some young mothers playing iPhones for their children, which are mostly educational software, learning while watching in the colorful images. Such educational techniques, although good, but for the child’s delicate eyes is a great harm. I have seen the youngest child playing with an iPhone is only about one or two years old, and most of the parents let their children hold the phone for the initial reason that they want them to be quiet for a while. However, the eyesight of young children is not yet mature, usually watch TV to limit the time, and iPad, iPhone, these electronic products are using bright colors, visual stimulation is too strong. Too long a gaze can trigger the child’s optic nerve fatigue, and even induce myopia.”
Pingping Yu also found that there are especially many children of young parents with myopia. “These parents tend to be post-80s, and are quicker to contact new things. These smartphones are both a communication tool that adults like and can be used as a fully functional ‘early education machine’ for young children, which can be used as a teaching aid. Many young parents have downloaded some educational software to allow their children to follow and read nursery rhymes, look through pictures, learn to recognize words, etc.”
School is not allowed to bring cell phones children home to play
Since the trend of playing with cell phones at a younger age is so obvious, is there such a phenomenon in schools? In this regard, the reporter telephone interviewed Hangzhou Nanxiaobu Primary School’s teacher Feng Xin’en. “The school is not allowed to bring a cell phone, but there are some children because the family lives far away, parents pick up inconvenient, so will give the child a cell phone. These children with cell phones are also reported with us, in order to prevent too many phone calls from affecting the children’s studies, cell phones are only allowed to talk to family or school numbers.”
As for whether there will be children secretly take out cell phones to play during class, Feng Xin’en said that their classes are small class teaching, there are only 30 people in the class. If once a child takes out a cell phone, the teacher will see it at a glance.
”At present, our school is no iPhone, generally children play iPhone are home, take the parents to play.”
say the law
Watching cell phones for 15 minutes is equivalent to watching one hour of television
”The greatest impact on children’s eyesight is the cell phone, followed by computers, TV and other electronic products. This is mainly due to the phone itself screen is relatively small, closer to the eyes. Sometimes, children usually like to hide under the covers to play with cell phones in order to avoid their parents, all of which can lead to vision loss.” Chen Yan, attending physician in charge of the optometric treatment center of the provincial eye hospital, pointed out that when people use electronic products such as cell phones, the reading distance is often closer than when reading a book, which increases the angle of the eyes when focusing, causing the ciliary muscle of the eyes to contract more, and over time, the ciliary muscle naturally tends to feel fatigue, leading to a decrease in elasticity.
”If the visual fatigue has been continued, it will greatly accelerate the development of myopia. We have done a comparison, almost look at the phone 15 minutes equivalent to watch half an hour IPAD, watch 1 hour TV. It is recommended to watch TV and read books for 50 minutes to relax and rest your eyes, but if you look at the cell phone, almost 15 minutes to relax and rest immediately.”
Playing chess and piano is also a “myopia killer”
Due to the hot summer weather, children often stay at home, some crazy addicted to online games, some lying in bed watching discs, watching TV, rarely participate in outdoor sports. Often a holiday down, many children’s eyesight significantly reduced, after the start of the school has been unable to see the words on the blackboard in front.
Chen Yan said, the causes of myopia formation mainly include congenital genetic and acquired environmental influences. Environmental factors include both the external natural environment and the child’s eye habits. Many children usually have poor eye habits, such as incorrect posture when reading and writing, reading in bright and dim light, and frequent exposure to TV and computers, which can cause myopia.
”In the clinic, there are some other causes of myopia that you wouldn’t expect. Many parents say, “My child usually does not watch TV, computer is not allowed to play, let him go to hobby classes to learn chess in his free time, and practice piano at home, why is he still myopic?” Chen Yan said, in fact, the same reason – long-term visual fatigue.
Chen Yan said, six or seven-year-old children in piano practice, while reading the music, but also look at the keys, need to constantly adjust the eye ciliary muscle to align the focus, see the music, plus this age, the child’s eyes are still in the developmental stage, it is easy to cause myopia due to visual fatigue; and chess, the child needs to concentrate on the chess pieces for a long time, a game of chess is as short as half an hour, long as one or two hours, the child’s eyes can also be myopic due to visual fatigue.
Services
The best way to prevent myopia is to play table tennis
During the interview, many parents gathered around the ophthalmologist to ask for advice on ways to prevent myopia and improve myopia.
Dr. Chen Yan recommended table tennis to many parents. “When we play table tennis, both eyes take the ball as the target and keep adjusting and moving far and near, up and down, making the ciliary and extraocular muscles alternately contract and stretch, greatly promoting the blood supply and metabolism of the eye tissues and improving the tension of the ciliary muscles, in my opinion, playing table tennis is the best myopia prevention exercise.”
In addition to the sports advice, in terms of diet, in addition to a balanced diet and comprehensive nutrition, Chen Yan also reminded especially young children, sweets should be eaten less, because sweets can also quietly steal your eyesight.
”This is because sweets contain a lot of sugar, sugar into the blood into blood sugar, increased blood sugar content will cause atrial water, crystal osmolarity change. When the osmotic pressure of the atrial water is lower than the osmotic pressure of the lens, the atrial water will enter the lens, prompting the lens to become convex and causing myopia to occur.”