Don’t let myopia steal your child’s vision

According to Global Prevalence of Myopia and High Myopia and Temporal Trends from 2000 through 2050, it is estimated that by 2050, nearly half of the global population will be having myopia. Looking back to the past, all kinds of technological equipment at that time were not advanced, and the workload of students was less onerous. Myopia is also relatively rare in children compared to today.

Myopia, also known as near-sightedness, is a common vision condition without age and gender. It is also a chronic disease. It is precisely because the hazards of myopia are difficult to detect immediately, and it can be controlled through glasses.

What causes children to get myopia?

With the development of technology, today's electronics are ubiquitous. Everyone will find that the children getting myopia is becoming a more and more common situation.

Jason Teo, 41, an optometrist who has 20 years’ experience in ophthalmology mentioned that some children will get myopia because their parents start exposing their children to electronics when they are still at a very young age. Some parents are too tired of their children crying so they eventually use electronics as a tool to comfort their child. Thus, long-term accumulation action like these can easily lead to children's vision problems.

Jason said that this child will get myopia due to exposure to electronics when she is still young.

According to his work experience, he indicates that the number of children getting myopia has increased not only due to the children often exposure to all the electronics, but also some of the bad habits such as reading books in low light environments or using the wrong posture when reading or looking at their phones.

“Long-term exposure to a low-light environment will make children reading more laborious. Eye muscles will be uncomfortable, and it will easily cause eye fatigue. If a child continues this habit, the sharpness of the focal point at which the child sees the object will be affected. Over time, it will change from pseudomyopia to myopia,” he explained.

How to observe?

There are some common behaviors of children with vision problems that can be easily overlooked by parents.

Jason explained how to observe warning signs of vision problem in children.

“Generally, children will persistently be squinting, rubbing eyes, or look sideways, especially when watching TV or taking notes in class,” Jason said.

He continued that the child might feel dizziness and headaches, but with lesser chances for this type of condition. On the contrary, many parents or teachers basically discover or doubt whether children get myopia through the posture and behavior of children looking at something.

“If it is not dealt immediately or the lens is equipped with the incorrect degree, it may cause the child's eyes to become amblyopia (lazy eye) or strabismus (crossed eyes),”

“Myopia can be prevented and controlled，” Jason said.

Jason mentioned that using the right lenses can help solve the rapid progression of myopia. “If parents are concerned about their child getting myopia from deepening, it is better that using blue light protection lenses, which can effectively help children to control myopia.”

He also advised that take a 1–2-minute rest every 20 to 30 minutes or do some eye exercise.

Ms. Xu HaiDan, 44, an optometrist, said that reading books or facing electronics for a long time is equivalent to keeping the eye muscle in a state of contraction and tension. She suggested looking at green plants that can help to relax the eye muscle, but not used to help reduce myopia.

“The visual spectrum is 400-700. Green is in the center of the visual spectrum so that it is easier for our eyes to catch in the wave light. On the contrary, the red spectrum will be higher, and the eyes will feel tired easily.”

" Eye is very important, and myopia is a lifetime thing," Tan said.

Parents often treat electronics as a tool to calm their child down which is extremely wrong. What the parents did could have caused myopia. And some small actions of children may be early symptoms of myopia too.

Tan See Peng, 45, an operator who works in Infineon Technologies, said he will give her child to play with the tablet more often than usual, especially during the lockdown period.

“During MCO, as my wife and I were working from home. We had to adapt to a lot of things, and we were afraid of being disturbed or noisy by my child. So, we directly gave her the tablet,” he said.

Ahgathiyaan Thiruchelvam, a hotel supervisor, said his child used to tell him and his wife that she could not see clearly but they thought their child cannot view things that are far away, and he did not take it seriously.

“That time she was still young, and she did not know how to express what she wanted to say. I just said to her that it is common because daddy wearing specs also cannot see something too far,” he said.

" Wearing glasses is troublesome," Li said.

Li, JiaYun, a 11-year-old student said she wears glasses since 9 years old. thinks that lying down and reading books leads her to myopia. “I regret making these bad habits leading to wearing glasses.”

Eyes are as precious as our lives. Myopia prevention is important, especially for children from a young age. Do not let myopia “kill” your child's “bright” future because of your careless mistakes!