HEALTH NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1926, Page 6

HEALTH NOTES.

CHILDREN’S EYESIGHT SUGGESTIONS FOR PRESERVING. SOME COMMON DEFECTS. (Centreouted by Department of Health.) Eyes are perahps the most delicately constructed organs of the body. A good pair of eyes means much .towards comfort, pleasure, and general efficiency. Defects of eyesight in school children are very common, occurring in 5 to 10 per cent, of children in the primary schools of New Zealand. Unless treated properly these defects tend to become worse as the child proceeds through school. Defective vision is a condition of civilised life, and is consequently difficult to avoid altogether. It apparently results from continual use of the eyes for line and near work (such as sewing, reading, writing, etc.) and for short vistas such as we get in towns, compared with the long range views, stretching to the horizon, which we obtain in the country. (Defects of vision are commoner in town school children than in,country children). Further, it may be stated as a broad rule, that these conditions affect more seriously the eyes of those who are weakly from any cause, or who are of nervous temperament PRESERVING EYESIGHT. To minimise as far as possible the harmful effects to the eyes of civilised life, the following points should be noted:— Light.—(a) Lighting should be good, but diffuse, and the shadows well broken up. For reading, s'fewing. and fine work, generally try to get. light from the side, preferably the left; (b) very many eyes are exceedingly sensitive to bright light, and are injured by it. Therefore provide children (both boys and girls) with shady hats; (<■) shade the eyes of infants io prevent bright light shining directly into them. (Note the number of tiny babies seen in go-carts and perambulators with close-fitting bonnets, their immature eyes exposed to the direct sunlight from which they are powerless to protect themselves); (d) avoid artificial .light and bad light for close work. Reading.—(a) All text books and story-books should be of large and good print—well spaced. Paper should be dull, not glossy; (b) light good, but diffuse, and where possible coming from the left side; (c) children and young people should never be allowed to read in a bad light, never be allowed to read excessively, never be allowed to read in bed, or lying down. Children may always lie on their faces and read with the chin propped on their hands. Writing.—All writing. e under eight years is best done on a blackboard. If a slate or paper is used, the writing should be very large. There should not be a great d.eal of writing done under twelve years. Sewing.—No sewing under eight years. No fine sewing under eleven years. No sewing where eyes are weak, where headaches are frequent, or for nervous, delicate children. Light good, but diffuse. Picture Shows.—Too frequent attendance at picture shows is very bad for the eyes, and a frequent source of harm to them. Sitting near the front is particularly harmful. sleep.—Sleep recreates the eyes. Children should sleep from fourteen to eleven hours every night (according to age), and should have abundance of fresh air all those hours. Colour.- —Allied to the effects of dazzle are the effects of colour. Green is particularly restful to the eyes) which explains the soothing effect of a stretch of green grass, or green trees, outside a window. But such minor matters as the colour of the table-clotli, on which, for instance, a student habitually works, cannot be neglected. The various shades of green and many of the blues, especially the peacock blues, will be found the most comfortable. N. 8.: In choosing colours for papering a room, however, unless the room is very tight, it is generally better to select colours such as cream, which reflects the light well. Jf a dark paper is desirable, even in a dark room, for reasons of usefulness or taste, effective lighting is much helped by tinting the ceiling, and the walls to the top of the doors, with one of the pale colours which reflect down the light. Light reflected down from the ceilings in this way (Joee not dazzle. Convalescence.—Special precautions must be taken during convalescence, not to strain the eyes by fine needlework or excessive reading. The eyes then Share in the general weakness of the body and may be unfit even for the or-" ‘binary amount of reading. Care in this respect should not be relaxed until the lest oration to health is complete and undoubted. (This applies to convalescence after any illness, even slight ones, but more especially after influenza’ scarlet fever, and measles.) General Heahh.-Weakly children arc on the whole more subject to eye-strain than strong ones. Endeavour in every way, therefore, to strengthen and harden children by letting them live as freely and as much in the open-air as possible, by Simple regular diet— by eo’d baths, etc, POINTS TO BE NOTED BY PARENTS. Suspect defective eyesight in children who habitually take up peculiar position, who hold the head to one side, who squint, who have red eyelids, who make frequent mistakes in reading ami writing, or who frequently complain ol headache. Consult a doctor eye-specialist, not an optician, about children suspected of or known to be suffering from defective eyesight. (A doctor eye-specialist is a doctor who has made a special study of eye-defects. The glasses he prescribes are supplied and fitted by the optician Ihe doctor eye-specialist is known as an ■’oculist.”) Let defects of vision treated. The sooner they are treated the better. Treatment will cure them if they are curable. Treatment will prevent them gettin" worse, if this is possible—especially so 111 studious children, and those attending high schools. Girls often develop eye-strain during- adolescence. Treatment will minimise the handicap in the child's education and its future occpuation in life.

Treatment will at least save all Avoidable pain and nervous wear and tear. If a child develops acute pain in its eyes from light (photophobia) take it at once to an oculist. Acute pain from light nearly always means a condition which urgently requires immediate treatment to preserve the eyesight. (Such as corneal ulcer, foreign body in eye.) Vocational Placing.—All occupations are not equally suitable for children with seriously defective eye-sight. They should in particular avoid engineering, building, sewing, tailoring, wool classing. Some occupations are barred to them by regulations, and it is up to parents to find Out these points before training a child for any special service. For instance, the Army, the Navy, the mercantile marine, and the railway services all require a fairly high standard of vision. In New Zealand, applicants with very bad vision are not accepted for the State teaching service. Special School.—The Jubilee Homo is a special home in Auckland for those who. are blind, or whose eyesight is so bad as to unfit them for usual occupations. Children are trained there in some suitable trade or craft, as well as being taught ordinary school subjects. •The Jubilee Home is under the Special Schools Branch of the Education Department, Wellington, from whom all information regarding it can be obtained. COMMON DEFECTS IN SCHOLL Near Sight (myopia).—This is very serious, the child cannot see anything clearly in the distance, and hr reading brings the book close up to the eyes. This condition if neglected becomes steadily worse (often rapidly wprse in a studious child) and may lead to practical blindness. Treatment-is especially valuable in this condition, and will usually stop it getting worse. Attention to the general health means much in these cases. iar Sight (hypermatropia).—Whilst this is more common than near sight, it is less easy to detect. Fortunately the results if not treated are not quite so serious as in near sight. Astigmatism.— ; This is the most common of all eye-defects. It may be associated with either near sight or far sight. The curve of the cornea, etc., is not true, and, therefore, distorts, just as faulty glass distorts. Cross Eyes or Squint.—lt is absolutely necessary to have this defect corrected, and it should’ be corrected as soon as ever the squint appears, even in infancy. This can usually be done with glasses alone. If the condition is not treated,. the vision of the crossed eye " 11 become- poorer and poorer until at last this eye becomes blind. These four defects can all be largely corrected by suitable glasses. Colour Blindness. —-In colour blindness the eye is quite, unable to distinguish between two exactly opposite colours, In the commonest and most important variety, red and green appear exactly the same. Colour blindness is harmless, though quite incurable. It is Impel tant that anyone with colour blindness should not work on railways pr on ships, or in any other capacity where the correct reading or red and green light signals is essential. . Blepharitis . (chronic inflammation of the edges of the eyelids).—Bathe all crusts from the eyes night and morning with warm boracic acid lotion. When all crusts are completely removed, rub gently into .the edges of the lids for at least five minutes such ointment as vour doctor may prescribe. Remember that ■in blepharitis treatment cannot be successful unless it is thorough, regular and patient. The ch'ild must be kept clean m face and person. Any co-ex-isting defect of vision must be treated. It is always wise to examine the scalp in cases of blepharitis and treat scurf, dandruff, or seborrhoea, if it be present.