HEALTH UPDATE: mother's milk helps prevent myopia

Children who are breastfeed are about fifty percent less likely to be short sighted, Singapore researchers said on Tuesday (June 28). Docosahexaenoi acid or DHA, a substance found in breast milk, could be the main element which improves early visual development in babies, resulting in more ordered eyeball growth which then reduces the development or severity of myopia.
Myopia is the most common eye problem. It affects as much as 40 percent of the population in the United States and Europe but between 70 and 90 percent of some Asian populations such as Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Saw said the DHA is also important for the development of photoreceptor cells in the retina, which play a major role in whether children become short-sighted.