Causes of a sharp drop in vision in children. Is your eyesight falling fast? We analyze the causes and methods of struggle for eye health

The first time a child visits an ophthalmologist during a planned medical examination at the age of one month, then at 6 months and at 1 year. And at this time, congenital eye pathologies, such as myopia and astigmatism, are detected in 4-5% of babies. But by the age of 11-13, this percentage changes radically: a decrease in visual acuity, according to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, is observed in 15-17% of schoolchildren. And these numbers are growing every year.

Causes of visual impairment in children

There are many reasons for visual impairment in preschool children, but the primary role is assigned to physiological eye fatigue and impaired accommodation. A rich curriculum in kindergarten and school, educational games and watching cartoons on a computer - all this contributes to the development of myopia.

But the busy schedule of the child only creates the prerequisites, and the true enemies of good vision are:

• bad light;
• incorrect selection of furniture for classes;
• heredity;
• deficiency of vitamins and minerals in the diet;
• lack of work and rest.

Some diseases are also able to play their role - SARS, diabetes and others.

Therefore, the prevention of visual impairment in children comes down to organizing the workspace and rest regimen, tracking the diet and enriching it with vitamins and minerals. In addition, schoolchildren need to visit an ophthalmologist at least once a year, and if symptoms of myopia are detected, every six months.

Prevention

Lighting, the position of the body in space while reading and working with small details, the distance from the eyes to the book are factors that are extremely important for children.

• The desk and chair must match the height of the child. The distance between the eyes and the lying book should be 30-35 centimeters.
• While reading, drawing and writing, it is important to provide moderately bright lighting falling on the table from the left (for right-handers).
• Children get tired faster than adults. Therefore, the interval of their classes should alternate in accordance with age: for children 2-5 years old, the optimal working period is 15-20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of active play or warm-up. First-graders are required to work 35 minutes with a 15-minute break, and only at the age of 9-10 the workload increases to an academic hour.
• Similar time frames are set for computer classes, watching cartoons and types of creativity associated with small work.

For children with visual impairment, it will be useful to use exercises that train the muscles of the eyes in 15-minute breaks. The ophthalmologist of the Optic Center clinic will help you choose the ideal complex, but you can always use effective and simple techniques:

• Alternate looking at a distance and looking at objects up close. In many schoolchildren, myopia is due to a violation of the accommodation of the eye, and this exercise can help in the struggle to maintain visual acuity.
• Close your eyes and then open them wide. Such training will improve blood circulation and relax the muscles of the eyes.
• Drawing pictures in the air. Ask the child to follow your hand with his eyes and draw geometric shapes with it, observing the maximum amplitude. Exercise helps to improve accommodation and helps to resist progressive myopia.

Particular attention should be paid to the nutrition of children of preschool and primary school age, especially if the child has become worse at seeing into the distance. The causes of myopia often lie in the deficiency of vitamins A and group B, folic acid, minerals - selenium, zinc, manganese. Therefore, it is important to include whole grains, green vegetables and fruits, leafy crops in the diet. Do not forget about the "medicines" familiar from childhood - carrots and blueberries.

Visual impairment symptoms

A school-age child may himself complain that he does not see well from the board. Contributes to the rapid detection of pathology and annual medical examination. It is much more difficult to recognize pathology in preschoolers who cannot report the problem themselves. The following behaviors should be alarming symptoms for parents:

• the baby blinks often, constantly rubs his eyes;
• the child does not see well into the distance, squinting looking out the window or looking at some object;
• quickly gets tired of drawing, sculpting, loses interest.

In children under one year old, myopia signals itself with divergent strabismus.

If you notice these symptoms, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Examination of small patients and diagnostics

The plan for examining preschool children and primary school students includes:

• questioning and clarification of complaints;
• autorefractometry or skiascopy with an ophthalmoscope, determination of refraction;
• examination of the fundus after medical dilation of the pupil;
• determination of the nature of movement using a four-point color test;
• determination of the volume of movement of the eyeballs;
• determination of the angle of strabismus;
• measurement of intraocular pressure;
• biomicroscopy (examination of the anterior segment of the eye with a slit lamp);
• recommendations and prescription of treatment.

If a child's vision is impaired, glasses are selected as early as possible. And parents have nothing to fear: all modern children's models are made of plastic, which will not become a source of sharp fragments in the event of children's fights. An alternative to glasses for children from 6 years old can be "night correction" - orthokeratology. Its essence lies in the use of special lenses only at night, which correct the shape of the cornea and restore vision for the whole next day.

In schoolchildren, myopia is often temporary and is caused by disturbances in the accommodation of the eye. Therefore, the ophthalmologist often prescribes two visits with a gap of a week and the appointment of drops. In case of temporary disturbances, a repeated examination of the deterioration in distance vision will not reveal.

Myopia diagnosis: what to do?

There are no radical treatments for myopia in children. Laser correction is allowed only from the age of 18. Therefore, glasses are the main method of combating vision loss. Their constant wearing relieves children's eyes from increased stress, helps to stabilize the process.

In addition to glasses, children are prescribed physiotherapy - electrophoresis with Dibazol, magnetotherapy, electrical stimulation and a number of other methods. The diet of the child is enriched with vitamins - folic and nicotinic acid, calcium preparations.

Now there are a number of ways to correct and stabilize vision in children. Doctors of the clinic "Optic-Center" will help you choose effective and reliable options.

The main task of parents is to notice in time when the child's vision is falling. Violation of visual perception not only brings difficulties in the knowledge of the world around, but can also limit contact with peers. The number of visual disorders in childhood has increased significantly, the maximum proportion of changes falls on 10-15 years.

What are the causes of visual impairment?

In search of the culprit for the decline in visual function, you need to pay attention to the root cause that caused the problem. All factors that affect vision loss in children can be divided into two categories:

According to statistics, visual impairment in adolescents occurs due to increased eye strain during the learning process and excessive use of phones.

Types of vision problems

The most common problem for young patients is myopia.

The type of problem also influences the formation of the cause of deterioration, since several causal factors can combine at the same time. The most common types of visual impairment in children are:

• Ametropia:
  • Myopia. Elongation of the eyeball can be both congenital and acquired. With such a deviation, the child tries to pull closer to the object in order to examine it.
  • Farsightedness is a pathology in which close objects are less visible. In infants, this feature is congenital, but over time it goes away on its own. It is characterized by anatomical disorders of the organ.
• Strabismus. It is transmitted at the genetic level or indicates the presence of another pathological process.
• Amblyopia. Often, due to the constant tension of the eye muscle, even at rest, a false form of myopia develops, which is called "lazy eye". With this form of pathology, one of the eyes ceases to perform its function and the child's vision drops sharply.
• Astigmatism. A defect that is characterized by a violation of the structure of the eye, lens or cornea. As a result, the child's ability to see clearly is impaired.
• congenital cataract.

How to see the problem?

Parents should be alerted that their child will lean very close to the notebook while writing.

Eyes are under constant stress at home, at school, so it is important to carefully monitor their health. It is not so difficult to understand that a child’s vision has deteriorated, the main thing is to monitor the baby’s behavior and pay attention to such actions and reactions:

• He began to squint his eyes.
• Tries to sit closer to the TV or computer monitor.
• Often reddened and watery eyes.
• Grades dropped for no reason (the child is embarrassed to admit that he does not see what is written on the blackboard).
• Leans strongly towards the notebook or brings the book close to the face.
• Pain in the eyes disturbs, fatigue appears.

Diagnostic procedures

Noticing uncharacteristic behavior in a child, you should immediately take him to an ophthalmologist and check the visual acuity. The earlier the diagnosis is made and the cause of visual impairment determined, the faster it can be corrected. Based on the results of the examination, the doctor may prescribe the following procedures:

An ophthalmologist can additionally examine the fundus of a small patient.

• examination of the fundus;
• measurement of the angle of strabismus;
• biomicroscopic examination;
• clarification of color perception;
• determination of eye movement.

Modern medicine has new diagnostic equipment that allows you to do an accurate, objective and comprehensive examination. To do this, you do not need to go to the hospital, just give a couple of hours of free time. During such an examination, possible threats are identified and further actions are determined: correction, treatment or observation. The problem can be corrected by using lenses.

• Vision correction with optical devices:
  • glasses;
  • lenses.
• Exercises for the muscles of the eye. They need to be done every day. At first, the doctor supervises the training, and the subsequent performance of special tasks can be done independently at home.
• Exposure to pulsed electric current. Electrical stimulation is used to stimulate the muscles of the eye, retina and optic nerve in case of myopia, strabismus.
• Color therapy. The impact of light waves on the retina is used to treat myopia, strabismus or visual fatigue. Helps restore visual acuity.

Hardware methods of treatment can stop the development of the pathological process and prevent vision from worsening even more. But they are effective, as a rule, at an early stage of the disease and require periodic repetition of the therapeutic course. In special cases, special assistance may be needed.

With the beginning of the school year, the lion's share of parental attention goes to all kinds of childhood diseases and their prevention, because if in the summer the child spent more time on the street and regularly received vitamins, then in the fall and winter he is at the mercy of textbooks, notes and a computer. Today we will talk about how dangerous it is for vision, and determine the main reasons for its deterioration.

Heredity

As much as we would like to put all the responsibility for the decrease in visual acuity on TVs and computers, heredity still remains the main factor. If mom and dad wear glasses all their lives, chances are high that their children will share the same fate. For example, the rapid progression of farsightedness and myopia in adolescence is provoked by constant eye strain, but the real causes - a decrease in the elasticity of the lens and an increased length of the eyeball - are genetically determined.

Prolonged eye strain

Like any organ in our body, the eyes will get tired if they are forced to work too often and hard. According to many ophthalmologists, irreversible changes in the lenses appear due to prolonged stress and focusing on objects that are too close to the eyes. Due to the increase in intraocular pressure in the process of reading or writing, the walls of the eyeball are stretched, and its axis is lengthened, which can contribute to the development of myopia (nearsightedness). To prevent this from happening, you should try to keep a book or notebook at a sufficient distance (35-40 cm).

Bad light

Let's put the accents right away: poor lighting is not only darkness, but also an excess of light, from which retinal cells suffer. Your child will certainly be happy if you give him stylish sunglasses with 100% UV protection. But over the lighting of the workplace will have to work hard. It should not be blindingly bright, and direct overhead light without shadows and an adjustable table lamp located so that the pages of the notebook and the monitor do not create glare are the right solution for the student. Important: all light sources in the room should have approximately the same color temperature. If the ceiling light is yellow and the work lamp is bluish white, it will create extra strain on the eyes.

Bad posture

Arteries pass through the human spine, saturating the brain with blood and oxygen. Any, even minor, violations in the back area can become a potential danger to vision. For example, scoliosis or osteochondrosis causes pinching of blood vessels, which leads directly to myopia. In this case, the treatment of the child will require not only the help of an ophthalmologist, but also a neurologist and an orthopedist.

Vitamin deficiency

Schoolchildren whose diet is not controlled by their parents often neglect healthy food, preferring sandwiches, chips, sweets and other tasty but unhealthy foods. Long-term unbalanced nutrition can lead to a deficiency of essential minerals and vitamins, deterioration of vascular microcirculation and, as a result, reduce visual acuity. In this case, the main task of parents becomes to lure the child with carrots, spinach, cabbage and other fresh vegetables.

But what about computers, TVs and smartphones?

We will not stop technological progress, and it would be foolish to deprive a student of such a huge source of self-education as the Internet. But this is not at all a reason to give up on raising a child, leaving him at the mercy of computer screens, smartphones and TVs. To prevent technology from causing visual impairment, parents and children should be well aware of exactly how it can harm.

Recent studies by scientists from Ohio University (USA) have shown that the monitors themselves do not harm children's eyes. Over the course of 20 years, they followed 4,500 children aged 6 to 11 years old and concluded that watching movies or playing games for a long time does not affect the risk of developing myopia: the eye muscles move quite often, and frequent blinking moistens the lens.

Perhaps the scientists are right, but no one has canceled subjective sensations either. We know perfectly well how tired the eyes are from prolonged reading, and a headache from daily sitting near the monitor can hardly be called an invention. But such a lifestyle combines all of the above reasons: it is he who provokes a lack of physical activity, malnutrition, problems with posture and an increase in intraocular pressure. Instead of forbidding your child to use a computer or gadgets, explain to him why you should not hold a smartphone close to your eyes or read in a vehicle. Also try to interest him in the world around him and in sports: if children see that their parents spend the weekend lying in front of the TV, they will never understand why the Internet is bad in this case.

Maria Nitkina

Sad statistics says that children's eyesight is getting worse and worse every year. Bad heredity, wrong lifestyle, poor lighting, excessive mental stress, lack of sports, computer and TV abuse.
With the age of the child, all these problems are only exacerbated. Parents are chasing the child to study a lot in institutions with an increased load, they are happy when the child sits up with books, instead of playing sports and outdoor activities. Sometimes the parents themselves are so busy with work that they don’t even care about the child’s vision ...

When to sound the alarm?
You can easily notice the deterioration of vision in a child. So, for example, a baby with poor eyesight often squints, especially when he wants to see something, rubs his eyes, blinks as if something got into his eye. All these are symptoms that it is time to show the child to the ophthalmologist. And even better, several, since a visit to one doctor cannot give a complete and reliable picture.

How to help the baby?
Whatever diagnosis the doctor makes to your child, remember that his vision is still in your power and hands. As a rule, doctors prescribe glasses for the child, prescribe a set of exercises, and sometimes prescribe eye drops. This is a standard set, which, however, should still be used with caution. Think especially well about glasses. After all, by putting glasses on a child, you doom him to visual impairment. Try to do without it first, focusing on exercise and exercise.
In addition to the exercises prescribed by the doctor, find your own, more interesting and accessible for the baby. First of all, it is necessary to establish the cause of visual impairment, completely eliminate it. For example, make sure that the child does not tilt his head too low when reading and writing, keep his back straight, he has good lighting, he does not sit up for a long time at the same activity. Every half an hour it is necessary to do physical exercises for the eyes, arms, back. Limit TV viewing and computer use. Do not forget to regularly visit an ophthalmologist once a month, check your eyesight, fix any improvements.

Exercises to improve vision for young children.
If a child has been watching TV for a long time, his eyes are tired, reddened, do exercises for his eyes. For this you need:

Blink your eyes quickly, close your eyelids, sit quietly for 5-10 seconds.
Close your eyes tightly for 5 seconds, open, look into the distance, hold your eyes for 5 seconds.
- Extend your right hand in front of you. Slowly move your index finger to the right and left, up and down, follow the movement of the finger with your eyes.
- Slowly rotate your eyes to the left, to the right. Make a few circular movements with your eyes. Sit on a chair, rest your palms on your belt. Turn, without bending, your head to the right, look at your left elbow, then do the same in reverse.
- With index fingers, gently press on closed eyelids, massaging them lightly. Such children's exercises for the eyes should be carried out every day, preferably in the evening. Each exercise should be repeated 5-6 times.

This set of exercises is suitable for young children from 2 years of age.

Exercises to improve the vision of a school-age child.
For older children, there are also a variety of exercises for the eyes. At school age, the load on children's eyes increases significantly, children spend a lot of time at the computer, read a lot of literature. Eyes get tired, vision may deteriorate. To prevent this from happening, show your child a set of simple but effective exercises for the eyes:

First of all, you should relieve tension from the eyes. To do this, you need to sit on a chair, cover your eyes with your palms: with your right palm close your right eye, with your left palm - left. You can't put pressure on your eyes. Next, you need to relax and look with your mind's eye in front of you. At this time, imagine some joyful event, something pleasant. This exercise should be done every day for 10-15 minutes.
- If a child sits for a long time over a book or in front of a monitor, you need to take a break. Get up from a chair, walk around the room, making circular movements with your head. 10 times clockwise, the same counterclockwise. It is necessary to alternately bring the right hand, then the left over the opposite shoulder. Then stop, stand on your toes, stretch up to the ceiling. This simple exercise will help relieve tension from the spine, increase blood circulation in the head, neck, and relax the eye muscles.
- With eye fatigue, to improve vision, you need to quickly blink your eyes for 1-2 minutes. Then close your eyes, massage your eyelids with light movements of your index fingers. This exercise trains the eye muscles, improves blood circulation.
- Do with your child such exercises for the eyes for children. Extend your right hand in front of you, focus on your index finger. Move your gaze to some large object that is more than 3 meters away. Then the look again needs to be transferred to the finger. Do this exercise several times with each hand. Such exercises train vision, the child learns to see equally well both in the distance and at close range.
- Stick a 5 mm black or red paper circle on the window pane. Have your child sit opposite. You need to look at the circle for 2 minutes, then you should look at some distant object outside the window, carefully consider it in all details. Exercise should be done every day for 10 minutes.
- Do the following exercise while standing: Extend your arm straight in front of you, look at the tip of your index finger for 5 seconds. Then slowly bring your finger to your face, continuing to look until you see double, Then also slowly move your hand back. Repeat the exercise 6 times.

Also, in order to prevent a decline, deterioration of vision, make the child move more, play outdoor games, play sports. Watch his posture. When a child twists his back while sitting in a crooked position, the blood supply to the brain is disrupted. This condition causes visual impairment. Do not allow children to be in front of the TV for a long time, at the computer monitor, especially in a dark room. To train your baby's eyesight, buy him bright moving toys that spin, ride, jump. And, of course, regularly do exercises for the eyes with the children. Make it a daily, healthy habit.

If, after the last visit to the optometrist, you find that the child’s vision is not 100%, then many questions immediately arise and the main one is what to do? What causes provoked this pathological process? Can folk remedies help restore a child's vision? Readers of "Popularly about Health", faced with the problem of visual impairment in their child, will find answers to their questions on this page of the site.

The child's vision has fallen - causes

In general, there are three main causes of visual impairment in children. These include:

Heredity. If the next of kin had problems with the eyes, then they (most likely) will be passed on to children.

External factors - incorrect posture, reading while lying down, frequent and long stay at the computer, games on the tablet and phone, a lot of eye strain without a break for rest.

Psychological factor - after suffering a psychological trauma, the child gradually loses his sight. This happens more often with young children, their psyche is still quite unstable and subject to outside influence. For example, a toddler accidentally became an eyewitness to cruelty, and this picture penetrated deeply into his mind. Subsequently, the baby subconsciously defends himself and refuses to see such things. Vision begins to deteriorate.

Should my child wear glasses if his eyesight is deteriorating??

Turning to an ophthalmologist for help, all you can count on is the appointment of vitamins and the selection of glasses. However, it has already been proven that glasses usually do not solve the problem, they are not able to restore vision. If your baby starts wearing them, then every year or less you will again be forced to select more and more powerful lenses. According to Professor Zhdanov, wearing glasses immobilizes the muscles of the eyes, they weaken even more, which leads to further progress of the pathology.

To improve vision in a child or adult, you need to make the eye muscles work. The eyeball is framed by longitudinal and transverse muscles. They shrink and relax. In the process of compression of the transverse muscle fibers, the eye acquires an oval shape, the focus shifts, and the person sees well into the distance. When these muscles relax, the eye takes on a round shape - the child sees well at close range. Wearing glasses leads to the fact that these muscles completely cease to function, because instead of them the work is done by the lens.

What to do if the child's eyesight falls and he sees poorly?

In order for the eyes to function well, it is necessary to provide their vessels with good blood circulation and nourishment with vitamins. This is the main condition. The second is to make the eye muscles work. If the cause of the loss of vision was a psychological trauma, an experienced psychologist should deal with the child. Let's talk about nutrition first.

In the daily diet of the baby, be sure to include foods enriched with vitamin A (retinol). It is found in carrots, persimmons, pumpkins. It is worth noting that this substance is fat-soluble, that is, when using the listed products, the child must eat vegetable or animal fats. Also on the menu should be foods rich in phosphorus, vitamins B and C, as well as potassium. So what should you eat every day?

1. Fish;
2. Spinach, dill, parsley;
3. Bananas, apples;
4. Carrots;
5. Beef liver;
6. Pumpkin;
7. Citrus.

Gymnastics for the eyes

A huge role is played by special exercises aimed at restoring vision. There are many techniques that, if performed regularly, can significantly improve vision, cure nearsightedness, farsightedness, and even astigmatism. Here are just a few exercises for the eyes.

1. Let the baby stand in the center of the room and slowly look from the ceiling to the floor (10 times), then from left to right, trying to look at the walls (10 times). The head stays still! Then you need to draw a circle with your eyes, moving them clockwise, and then in the other direction.

2. Charging to focus on the object. The child stands at the window (40 cm to the glass) and looks into the distance for a minute. Then he shifts the focus to the glass, keeping his eyes on it for a minute. So do 4-6 times.

There are a lot of exercises to improve vision, it is worth watching the video of Professor Zhdanov, as well as taking candle classes practiced by yogis. You just need to do them every day for a long time.

Folk remedies, if a child's eyesight is falling, will help!

There are also folk remedies that help improve vision in children. One part of aloe juice is combined with an equal amount of honey and insisted in the refrigerator for 7 days. Then diluted with water 1:1. This healing solution is instilled into the eyes 2 times a day, 3 drops each. Treatment - a month, after a break of 10 days, and again a monthly course.

Propolis is a gift of nature, capable of restoring all living things. For children, only an aqueous solution is applicable, fortunately, it has now appeared in pharmacies. Take it 3-5 drops before meals for 30 minutes twice a day. The course of treatment is 30 days. Both treatments can be used if the child is not allergic to bee products.

If a child's vision is reduced, do not panic and immediately put on glasses. With effort, you can achieve good results in treatment. Undoubtedly, it is worth limiting the time spent by the child at the computer and taking breaks after half an hour of work at the desk so that the eyes have time to relax.