Comment by princeb
4 years ago
https://www.nature.com/news/the-myopia-boom-1.17120
> In the early 2000s, when researchers started to look at specific behaviours, such as books read per week or hours spent reading or using a computer, none seemed to be a major contributor to myopia risk
> Rose's team tried to eliminate any other explanations for this link — for example, that children outdoors were engaged in more physical activity and that this was having the beneficial effect. But time engaged in indoor sports had no such protective association; and time outdoors did, whether children had played sports, attended picnics or simply read on the beach ... what seemed to matter most was the eye's exposure to bright light.
if your child loves watching tv, bring the ipad to the park and make her watch it outside.
> if your child loves watching tv, bring the ipad to the park and make her watch it outside.
I was in agreement until this.
Doesn't this defeat the purpose of being outside? To actually use their eyes to see things near and far, run about and get those muscles working? I don't know what it is about modern parenting that seems wholeheartedly dedicated to the task of making children worship at the altar of Disney and Youtube while denying any chance of developing mental and physical toughness.
The whole point of the comment is that time outside matters more than what is done outside. I don't know the degree to which this is true but if you're going to watch something anyway, doing it outside instead of inside seems like not a bad plan. I don't think they intended anything by specifying tv and you could replace it with reading, board games, drawing, any activity commonly done inside.
Okay if that's the case wouldn't you see similar result if kids watch at a sunny window. Light wise that's pretty similar.
Glass absorbs a huge chunk of the spectrum, both UV and visible. Without studying the actual difference, it is risky to assume that the effect would be similar.