Visual impairment - causes and prevention

The problem of visual impairment is especially acute now. In the first class every fourth child has problems with sight, to the sixth class - every third, and graduates - every second. Let's figure out which are the most common visual impairments in children, what is the reason for this, and what can be done for prevention.

Visual impairment occurs when, for one reason or another, the eye loses its ability to adequately refract (light refractive), and the person begins to see objects distorted. Depending on this, several main types of disease are distinguished.

Myopia

In this state of vision , only objects that are literally at arm's length are clearly visible. And distant subjects can not be considered well, the image blurs, does not have a clear contour.

The eyeball in patients with nearsightedness is usually longer by 5-6 millimeters than in healthy people. This disease occurs because of a prolonged and regular load on the eyes. If the child too often focuses on the close objects, the eye muscle gets used to and spasms in this state. The ability to rebuild a view of disparate objects is greatly lost.

There are several degrees of the disease:

- Weak myopia: up to - 3 diopters;

- Average myopia: up to -6 diopters;

- Severe myopia: above 6 diopters.

A hereditary predisposition to nearsightedness is very clearly monitored. This is due to the peculiarities of metabolism and the sensitivity of the eye muscle, which are transmitted from generation to generation.

With myopia, glasses are worn to clearly see distant objects on the street and small details in the apartment. When reading or writing glasses need to be removed.

Hyperopia

This condition is the reverse of myopia. With farsightedness, the closer the object, the more vague its contours. Accordingly, distant objects are seen clearly. And with a large degree of farsightedness, only objects at a certain distance are clearly visible.

In this disease, the lens changes in such a way that light is not refracted enough, and the focus is formed outside the retina.

Hyperopia is divided into several degrees in the same way as nearsightedness.

The causes of its appearance are heredity, eye strain, frequent inflammations and age-related changes in the eyeball.

With farsightedness, glasses are worn for reading and writing, and in other cases they are not needed if the degree of the disease is not very large.

Astigmatism

These visual impairments are caused when the spherical shape of the cornea is curved. Then at it different radii are formed, because of what light is refracted at different angles. With astigmatism, both myopia, hyperopia, and normal vision are observed simultaneously. In this case, the patient sees several contours of objects at the same time.

Distinguish between corneal and lens astigmatism - depending on which part of the eye is deformed.

For the child, special glasses and lenses are selected, which are manufactured taking into account his individual manifestations of astigmatism.

Most often, this disease is associated with heredity and the congenital structure of the eye.

Prevention of visual impairment in children.

To prevent visual impairment is not at all difficult. To do this, you must follow several rules and techniques.

- You can start such prevention from the cradle. To do this, hang the rattles of green, yellow and orange at a level of 30 cm from the baby's eyes. It is also useful to drive a toy closer and further away from the child, so that he can train himself to focus his eyes on different distances.

- Limit the TV and computer. By norms, a preschooler can spend no more than 40 minutes a day on this, a junior high school student is no more than an hour, and children over 10 years old are about an hour and a half. At the same time every 20 minutes, you need to make small breaks for visual gymnastics.

- The child should walk in the fresh air 1,5-2 hours a day to provide the body with enough oxygen.

- Ensure that the child receives all vitamins and trace elements necessary for health. For the eyes, in particular, vitamins A and C are important.

- Do it yourself and accustom the baby to a simple visual charge, so that they can relax the eyes and strengthen the eye muscles.