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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Lifestyle -> 
How to help your child’s eyesight
    2017-12-29  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

KIDS seem to spend endless hours on smartphones, games consoles, computers and tablets these days.

Playing on electronic devices certainly doesn’t help their waistlines, but do you ever wonder what regular device use is doing to their eyesight?

While there isn’t much research out there yet about the impact of screens on eyesight — after all the iPhone was just unveiled by Apple in 2007 — experts are concerned about growing levels of short-sightedness in children.

And they suggest the best thing parents can do to prevent it is to encourage youngsters to spend more time outdoors in the sunlight.

There has been a massive rise around the globe in short-sightedness — or myopia as it’s officially known — over recent decades.

“We know that myopia or short-sightedness is becoming more common,” says Chris Hammond, professor of ophthalmology at King’s College London and consultant ophthalmic surgeon at St. Thomas’ Hospital.

“It has reached epidemic levels in East Asia, Singapore and South Korea, where approaching 90 percent of 18-year-olds are now short-sighted.

“It’s potentially getting up to 40 percent to 50 percent of young adults in their mid-20s who are short-sighted now in western Europe. It’s been gradually rising over the decades of the 20th Century from around 20-30 percent.”

Why has it become so much more common?

Annegret Dahlmann-Noor, consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, says lack of natural light seems to be the key issue.

“The main factor seems to be a lack of exposure to direct sunlight, because children who study a lot and who use computers or smartphones or tablet computers a lot have less opportunity to run around outside and are less exposed to sunshine and because of that seem to be at more risk of developing short-sightedness.”

Hammond says, “It may be that there’s no coincidence that in East Asian countries, the most myopic ones, all correlate with the maths league tables.

“These kids are being pushed with very intensive education from a very young age and spend a lot of time indoors studying everything close up and very little time outdoors.

“Therefore the concern is that all close work — like playing with the iPad and iPhone — carries the potential that it could make them more short-sighted.”

Any parent will know that youngsters are like dogs with bones when it comes to their beloved phones and trying to get them off their devices is pretty much impossible — certainly without a massive argument.

Dahlmann-Noor, who is a mother of three, says trying to stop screen use is probably an unrealistic aspiration.

“You can only tell them that it might make their eyes uncomfortable, it might make them short-sighted and they should not use it as much as they like to.

“But, hand on heart, I don’t think we can get away from this because they also have to do their school homework on laptops and iPads and they do their searches for background information on screens.”

Time outdoors is the key.

The best thing to do, say the experts, is to get children playing outside as much as possible.

“Protective of myopia development is time outdoors — port and leisure outdoors are protective of eyesight,” says Hammond.

“In a perfect world, probably on average across the week and the weekend, two hours a day outdoors is protective of becoming short-sighted in children.”

He says myopia research done in Sydney, Australia showed that only 3 percent of Chinese-heritage children living in Sydney — who spent two hours a day outdoors — were short-sighted by the age of 6, compared to nearly 30 percent of 6-year-olds in Singapore.

This again is suggestive that the outdoor lifestyle is good for our eyes.

Don’t forget your vegetables.

Dahlmann-Noor says diet is also an area where families can help with eyesight.

“We always tell parents about omega-3 essential fatty acids, and vitamins A, C and E and nutrients that are good for the back of the eye.

“Healthy diet really is important — in terms of getting oily fish, avocados, green vegetables, green leafy vegetables as much as possible.

“All these supplements that you can buy over the counter that are good for the brain, also happen to be good for the eyes — they’re just not marketed for that.”

She also recommends regular annual eye checks.

Signs that your child may be short-sighted include:

▪Needing to sit near the front of the class at school because they find it difficult to read the whiteboard;

▪Sitting close to the television;

▪Complaining of headaches or tired eyes;

▪Regularly rubbing their eyes.

When someone’s short-sighted, the eyes have grown slightly too long, which means light rays focus just in front of the retina, at the back of the eye, so distant objects appear blurred, but close objects are seen clearly.(SD-Agencies)

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