Eye Exercise for Kids

While parents are very particular about nutrition needs of their kids, there is big oversight for eye exercise. Surprisingly not much importance is given to short-sightedness by doctors or media. After all, a poor eye-sight can be corrected by glasses or contacts.

In this article, I focus on simple 10-minutes eye exercise for kids. Ofcourse every one can do this, but eye exercise is especially important for kids. I also discuss about a product that I incidentally came across in Singapore.

Some Statistics and Facts

• Fifty years ago myopia (or short sightedness) was not very prevalent. Today one in every four people have myopia. It is predicted that by 2020, one in three will be shortsighted. (See Myopia on the rise). This is tantamount to having epidemic!
• The percentate of children with myopia is higher in countries where the children are subjected to heavy school work loads, watch computer games, or TV.
• Any person with glass will tell you, that the short sightedness worsens progresively, till you reach the age of 20-25 years. This is when the body (including the eyes) stops growing.

The above facts indicates two things. One is, eye care should be taken since young age and secondly environment plays a big role in myopia. To counter the environmental effects, one can emphasize on good sitting posture, watch less computer games and TV (especially moving game where intense focus is needed), and some eye exercise. If you are socially vocal, try to introduce eye-exercise in your school curriculum.

Here are some yoga exercise for eyes that I learnt long ago in India. It is definitely soothing for tired eyes. Try it. Only if you feel comfortable, ask your kids to do as an every morning or evening activity.

Eye Exercise Instructions

	Exercise: For half a minute, look into your forehead. Relax: When done, close your eyes for half a minute. Warm your eyes by firstly rubbing your palms and putting it over the closed eyes, gently massaging the eyes.
	Exercise: For half a minute, look into your nose. (People with mongoloid feature can look on their lips) Relax: see above
	Exercise: For half a minute, look into your left shoulder without turning your head. Relax: see above
	Exercise: For half a minute, look into your right shoulder without turning your head. Relax: see above
	Exercise: Start with looking to your nose, gradually move the eyes clockwise till you are back to your nose. Then retrace your eyes in counter-clockwise till you reach your nose again. Do this about 10 times. Relax: see above

Some commonsense rules should be followed such as not to do exercise if there is inflammation or injury to eye. Best consult the doctor, if in doubt.

After writing this article, incidentally, I encountered a Singapore product, EyeRelax, claiming to remove or reduce myopia, lazy eye and even delay presbyopia (long sightedness) that comes to people over forty years of age. I also saw the demo of one of the product and here is the description:

When you peek at the EyeRelax product, as if you are viewing in a microscope, it shows many colored spots stringed together gradually coming-into and going-out of focus at the rate of every five seconds or so (I have both myopia and presbyopia). At any given time it shows only one color, but every cycle that last about 10 seconds, it changes to different color.

The product is quite expensive (about S$600 or US$400). I did not purchase because it is not pressing need for my family and for high price. In my opinion adults could and simulate this with the following exercise described as follows:

Close your one eye and look at letters in a normal book without corrective lens (glasses or contacts). Put the book at right distance so that the letters are in focus. Do not read, just look at the same letters. Gradually move them out of focus till it is very fuzzy. Do this about 25-30 times (should take about 5 minutes). Do the same with other eye. Do once or twice every day. This procedure put pressure on accommodative system of the eye as you move the letters in-focus to out-of-focus.

However, I would recommend purchasing if you have kid with lazy eye or substantially poor eye-sight. If you do not have access to this product. Try to gently convince him/her to do the above exercises mentioned.

The product information can be accessed from www.eyecollege.com . For concerned parents the advertisement of EyeRelax is as follows:

• For low myopia, 0-300 degrees, high chance to regain perfect eyesight
• For moderate myopia, 300-600, improved eyesight and prevent worsening of myopia
• For High myopia, >600, use immediately to prevent worsening. Avoid blindness disease
• For adult Long Sightedness, delay presbyopia