A 5-year-old boy in China was recently diagnosed with 1000 degrees of nearsightedness. The boy's parents stated that because they work away from home for extended periods, the child is mainly cared for by his grandparents. On one occasion, upon returning home, they discovered the child was 'pressing his face against the screen' watching TV, squinting at things, and even using a phone during meals. Upon further inquiry, they learned that whenever the boy cried, his grandparents would hand him a mobile phone to soothe him.
Experts pointed out that this is not an isolated case and urged the application of the '3x20' rule to protect eyesight.
According to Chinese media reports, a 5-year-old boy from Zhengzhou, Henan, is mainly looked after by his grandparents. Whenever the child throws a tantrum, to calm him down, they habitually hand him a phone, allowing him to divert his attention with cartoons, short videos, or music. Ophthalmologists indicated that hereditary factors combined with excessive mobile phone use will cause his nearsightedness to increase rapidly. In addition, a lack of adequate outdoor activities led to such severe vision deterioration, up to 1000 degrees.
However, severe nearsightedness in young children is not uncommon. With the growing prevalence of electronic products, affected ages continue to drop. Children aged 0–3 should completely avoid using mobile phones, televisions, computers, and other electronic devices. Meanwhile, the '3x20' rule should be applied, ensuring that each screen time session does not exceed 20 minutes, that they look at something 20 meters away for 20 seconds, and that daily cumulative screen time should not exceed 1 hour to reduce eye fatigue.
Experts emphasized that increasing outdoor activity time is also very important in preventing childhood myopia. More than 2 hours of outdoor activity daily can significantly reduce the occurrence of nearsightedness, relax the eyes, and sunlight's ultraviolet B (UVB) rays have a protective effect on eye development. Therefore, parents are urged to let children participate more in outdoor activities while reducing the temptations of electronic products. (News source: Mirror News)