Ms. Vu Thi Huong (Hung Yen) took her daughter who is in 8th grade to Hanoi Eye Hospital for periodic check-ups. Not only coming to the re-examination schedule, recently she noticed that her child looks worse than before, so she is even more worried.
In 4th grade, after often not seeing the board clearly even while sitting at the third desk, her daughter was taken to the doctor and was diagnosed with 2.5 degrees of nearsightedness.
After 4 years, the baby's nearsightedness has increased to about 7.5 degrees. Although the family has their child increase outdoor activities, limit the use of phones, register for swimming lessons and skills classes during the summer, the baby still has to have regular check-ups every 3 months to monitor the condition of nearsightedness.
According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh - Head of the Outpatient Department, Hanoi Eye Hospital, every summer, the number of children coming for examination for nearsightedness increases significantly. The main reason is that children spend a lot of time at home, using phones, computers, and TVs at high intensity, while exercising less outdoors.
Doctors recommend that parents should limit the time of using electronic devices of children to about 1-2 hours per day depending on age. At the same time, it is necessary to guide children to follow the 20-20-20 rule: After every 20 minutes of close-eyed vision, spend 20 seconds looking away about 6 meters so that eyes can rest, and at the same time, the screen should also be placed about 20 degrees lower than the eye level.
Parents also need to pay attention to warning signs such as children squinting, tilting their heads when looking, often rubbing their eyes, and having to approach the board or screen to see clearly. When these signs appear, children should be taken to an eye specialist facility for examination.
According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh: "Many cases of children increasing nearsightedness rapidly due to not having regular eye exams, glasses removal at unreliable facilities, or not wearing glasses as prescribed. In addition, focusing only on close eyes for a long time, little outdoor activity, or having a habit of using phones and watching TV in dark rooms are also factors that make nearsightedness progress faster.
Experts recommend that parents should take their children for regular eye exams every 6 months at specialized facilities for accurate monitoring, early detection of refractive errors and appropriate intervention measures, contributing to limiting the risk of increased nearsightedness.
