1. Children should play or roam outside the house for at least one hour every day.
2. Screen time needs to be reduced to use devices like cellphones and laptops.
3. Ophthalmologists sometimes recommend applying atropine 0.01 percent in the eyes to slow the progression of myopia.
4. If glasses are required, use glasses with the correct power.
Of these four tips, outdoor movement and sports are the most important.
A comparative study between two educational institutions in the United States showed that the risk of myopia was 50 percent lower in children in the school that allowed one hour of recess for playing outside. Many such researches have also been done in educational institutions of China. At the same time, compared to urban children, vision related problems are less than 50 percent in rural school students.
That is why many countries have made it mandatory to go outside and play for one to two hours during school. Our neighboring countries are also trying to launch this system. Give your child an hour every day to play outside in daylight. Get them enrolled in the educational institutions where the area is. Raise your voice so that there can be one hour holiday in schools.
Myopia is not only a glasses-related problem but also a source of serious vision damage, including blindness due to retinal detachment. Therefore, we must think about the vision of children and try to keep their vision normal. In fact, it is possible to save a child for much less than the cost of eyeglass frames.
*Gauhar Naeem Wahra is a researcher and can be contacted here [email protected]
*This report appeared in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo and was rewritten for the English edition by Naureen Ahmed Monisha.