Caution is better than short-sightedness!
Although the study situation is not yet 100 per cent clear, the trend is quite clear: there are more and more short-sighted children.
Why is that? It most likely has to do with the fact that children no longer spend as much time outside and therefore the time they spend looking into the distance is decreasing. Instead, children spend too much time indoors, use media for too long and look at their smartphones too much. It is assumed that this promotes short-sightedness.
The smartphone again ... it just keeps popping up in our videos and factsheets. And indeed, one of the major tasks of the current generation of parents is to maintain a healthy level of media and smartphone use - and above all to make sure that the children go outside!
The recommendation for preventing short-sightedness is to spend at least 80 to 120 minutes outside per day.
Once again, there is still no conclusive evidence on the subject. But there are clear trends that make it worthwhile to avoid this risk. "Better safe than sorry" or "Caution is better than short-sightedness".
Further interesting tips
Lice
First things first: I know of almost no family with children, including my own, who have not had a visit from these little creatures. Head lice infestations have nothing to do with a lack of hygiene. Lice don't care whether they crawl on freshly washed hair or walk over an unkempt head - they take what they get.
U9 screening
Our series on the U examinations continues with the U9 - which is almost like a repeat of the U8.
Stork bite
Not a disease, but an interesting phenomenon that occurs in babies and sometimes causes irritation in young parents: the so-called stork bite.