Childhood Myopia

Childhood myopia is a progressive form of short-sightedness (myopia) that occurs during a child’s growing years and worsens throughout childhood. Myopia (myopia) refers to a state of refraction where the parallel light rays refract through the refractive system of the eye and fall before the retina when the eye is relaxed. Childhood myopia has the characteristics of abnormal regulation, progress, and susceptibility to multiple factors. The condition is easily corrected with corrective visual aids like glasses, and the condition usually stabilizes when a child reaches his or her mid-teens.

Causes of Myopia in children

Genetics and environmental factors may play a role in causing childhood myopia, however it doesn’t follow a specific pattern, even in the same family. Clinical researches found that creating a harsh visual environment, form deprivation and restricting distance viewing can make young children become highly myopic through children’s plenty close-range works and poor vision. The environmental conditions are also an important factor for the development of myopia in children and adolescents. Therefore, prevention and treatment of myopia should start by improving children’s learning environment, developing good eye habits, increasing outdoor activities, and enhancing physical fitness.

Symptoms of myopia in children

1. Vision loss due to gradual decline of far-sightedness, blurred distant vision with normal near vision,
2. inherited genetic condition, with marked eyeball stretching and growing which can lead to retinal and choroidal degeneration. In this case, both far and near vision areblur, sometimes accompanied by the shadow floating in front of him.

• Exotropia; a form of strabismus (eye misalignment) in which one or both of the eyes turn outward. It is the opposite of crossed eyes, or esotropia.

1. vision fatigue: Myopia patients have good adjustment ability, but they need to overwork their eyeswhen working at close distances, which destroys the balance and coordination between adjustment and radiation, resulting in muscular vision fatigue symptoms. It manifests as self-conscious symptoms such as watery eyes, eye pain, headaches, and double-edged virtual edges.
2. protruding eyeballs: due to the growth of the eye axis, the eyeballs become larger, and the appearance of the eyeballs protrudes outward.

What age children are prone to myopia?

Genetic factors is the main cause of myopia in early childhood and should be addressed at an early stage. Pathological myopia may also develop after the age of 20. Simple myopia mostly occurs in the period of vigorous growth and development.

Statistics have proven that the low vision in third grade students is mainly caused by hyperopia, astigmatism, and congenital myopia. After the fourth grade, the proportion of myopia increases. The high and middle school students’ low vision is mainly caused by myopia.

Children and adolescents with far-sightedness mostly decline at the age of 10-15 years old, and more than half had it at 12-15 years old. But in recent years, with the improvement of gadgets and screen technology have made the age of onset of myopia tend to be earlier. Simple myopia tends to be stable around the age of 20.

Preventing myopia in children

1. Cultivate children’s correct reading and writing postures, without lying on the table or twisting the The book and eyes should be kept at a distance, the body should be an adult fist away from the desk, and the hand should be one inch away from the pen tip. School desks and chairs should be proportionate for children’s size.
2. The reading and writing time should not be too long, and there should be a 10-minute rest after 30-40 minutes. Look at objects placed in a distance and green plants
3. Proper lighting for writing and reading, preferably natural lighting. Do not read or write in spaces that are too dark or too bright and take a 10-minute break between classes to reduce visual fatigue
4. Schedule at least one hour of physical activity everyday for your child
5. Encourage your child to do eye exercises
6. Place the television (tv) at eye level and the distance between the eye and the tv screen should not be less than 5 times the diagonal length of the tv screen. When watching tv, a dim light should be turned on to reduce glare and improve the indoor lighting. Take a short break after watching tv continuously for 30 to 40 minute
7. Encourage your child to eat more foods rich in alpha-vitamins, livers and egg yolks from various sources of vegetables and animals. Carrots containing vitamin A are good for the eyes while eating animal livers can treat night blindness. Children with myopia generally lack chromium and zinc, and children should eat more foods containing more zinc. Foods such as soybeans, almonds, laver, kelp, lamb, yellow croaker, milk powder, tea, meat, beef, liver, etc. contain more zinc and chromium but should be taken in  Zinc supplements are best taken with protein zinc. Also try to cut down on sugar.

Prevention of Myopia                                               

  The best treatment for myopia is to get the eyes corrected by an optometrist and appropriate glasses. Pseudo myopia can be corrected by far fog method, massage or crystal gymnastics, physiotherapy, drugs etc.

Playing badminton and table tennis can also help prevent myopia. During the playing process, the eyes must quickly follow the trajectory changes of the shuttlecock and tennis ball, which are very flexible and has unbelievable benefits.

Preventing myopia with food

Eating less sugar, high carbohydrate foods or over-cooked protein can help reduce the occurrence of myopia. Here are a few suggested recipes that you can try:

Recipe 1: Good-for-vision juice

10 grams of wolfberry

3 grams of tangerine peel

8 red dates

2 tablespoons of honey.

• Put wolfberry, orange peel, and red dates in a pot.
• Add appropriate amount of water.
• Boil for 20 minutes. With a simmer, take the first juice.
• Then add water to boil. Take the second juice twice a day.
• Take the first juice in the morning, the second juice in the afternoon, add 1 tablespoon of honey after serving.

Jujube is rich in protein, sugar, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C and calcium, phosphorus, iron etc. can strengthen your eye muscles. Wolfberry supplements liver and kidney, orange peel enhances appetite, while honey is good to address symptoms of pseudomyopia.

Recipe 2:

1 egg

1 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of honey

• Heat the milk.
• Break the eggs, pour into the heated milk and mix well.
• Boil on low heat, then add honey.

This serves as a good breakfast when taken with bread.

Eggs and milk are rich in protein, while vitamins, calcium and phosphorus are easily absorbed and digested. Soy milk can also be used instead of milk, but eggs cannot be placed in soy milk, because the mucinous protein in eggs and trypsin in soy milk will lose certain nutritional value .