What factors affect the occurrence of myopia in children and adolescents? When should parents start paying attention to their child's vision? Can myopia be cured?
In the 2022 FM95.4 "Life Home" program, we had the honor to invite Xu Jiangtao, a well-known domestic strabismus and pediatric ophthalmologist and president of Kunming Aier Eye Hospital, to the live broadcast room to answer questions about children's vision problems that have attracted much attention.
In the 30-minute live broadcast, President Xu Jiangtao combined his more than 30 years of experience in pediatric ophthalmology, and brought a feast of eye health science for children and parents with vivid explanations, taking children and parents out of the misunderstanding of vision prevention and control. The program attracted the attention of the audience outside the venue, and everyone actively commented on the message and praised the wonderful content.
What factors affect the occurrence of myopia in children and adolescents?
"Generally speaking, myopia is mainly caused by genetic factors, poor eye habits and poor eye environment." President Xu Jiangtao introduced that according to relevant research, myopia has a certain hereditary nature, if one parent has myopia or both, especially if there is a high degree of myopia, the probability of children suffering from myopia will be greatly increased, it is recommended that children in infancy and childhood that refractive screening, if necessary, check every six months. In addition, long-term reading in an environment with insufficient light or unstable light, too close to the eyes, unclear printing of books, and too long time for using the eyes at close range are all related factors that promote the occurrence of myopia.
Therefore, Dean Xu Jiangtao suggested that parents should give their children no less than 2 hours of outdoor activity time every day, and strictly control the time for children to watch electronic screens every day, the younger the time should be shorter, when looking at the screen, they should follow 20 minutes per eye, rest for 20 seconds, and look at 20 feet (6 meters) away; children's reading and writing posture also needs parents' attention, when reading and writing, the height of the table and chair should be appropriate, so that the book is one foot away from the eyes (33cm), the chest is a fist away from the table, and the pen finger is one inch away from the tip of the pen (3cm).
When should parents start paying attention to their child's vision?
In life, many parents take their children to check their vision for the first time, but they find that the degree of myopia is already very high, missing the best time to correct it, and regret it. So, how do we detect our child's vision problems as early as possible?
President Xu Jiangtao said that the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents is a scientific system, which not only requires professional knowledge in preventive intervention, functional examination, refractive correction, myopia prevention and control, but also requires scientific technical means, "It is recommended that parents regularly take them to professional ophthalmic medical institutions for examination from the age of 3, establish refractive development files for children, clarify the development of the child's refractive system and physiological farsightedness reserves, at least once every six months, so that myopia risk factors can be detected early, early prevention, and early intervention." If the child has developed myopia, it is necessary to go to a regular ophthalmological medical institution to correct it through scientific methods to avoid developing into high myopia (degrees exceeding 600 degrees). ”
Can myopia be cured?
"Once myopia occurs, it is irreversible." President Xu Jiangtao introduced that for now, myopia is incurable. Whether it is wearing glasses or having myopia surgery, it is a correction, not a treatment or cure. The principle of correction is to make the image of external objects imaged on the retina through certain technical methods or means. Changes in the eyes due to myopia, such as the elongation of the eye axis, will not be "cured".
(Normal eye axis length is about 23.5-24mm, myopia eye axis length is greater than 24mm)
Therefore, no matter what kind of correction is adopted, we must pay attention to scientific and reasonable use of the eyes every day, maintain regular optometry examinations, and prevent the continuous deepening of myopia.