6 Tips to Protect Children from Digital Eye Strain
Written By: Chatty Garrate
Electronic devices can be a problem for children’s health. While they’re fantastic for education, gadgets can harm the eyes. If you’re looking to prevent digital eye strain on your children, you want to take precautions and change their general habits.
You would think the solution is to take away all the electronics from them, but that’s not it. The device is not a problem here but instead, its operator. Here are six tips on how you can protect children from digital eye strain.
What Is Digital Eye Strain?
Digital eye strain is a progressive health problem for people with extensive screen time with electronics and gadgets. With digital eye strain, the eyes are constantly exposed to a glare-heavy screen. If your child spends a lot of time in front of a computer, smartphone, or tablet, the eye muscles must work harder.
The visual system needs to adjust to the stimulus coming from it. Therefore, the brain sends signals to your eyes. The pupils dilate, forcing your optic nerve to send more light to the fovea. This layer of the retina is responsible for sharp vision and color perception.
Some symptoms include:
Headaches
Focus issues
Dry eyes
Neck and shoulder pain
Nearsightedness
Teary or reddened
Eye fatigue
Blurred vision
“Burning” sensation in the eyes
Children are often unaware that they’re doing things wrong, so it’s up to you to teach them how to protect their health.
Monitor Screen Time
One of the most effective ways to prevent eyes on screens is limiting usage. But instead of setting hard limits, like banning all electronic use throughout their free time, you have to monitor their activity yourself.
Adults spend an average of two hours with their eyes glued to their screens. Kids, on the other hand, can spend hours every day. Their activities can range from watching cartoons to playing computer games. Regardless, too much device time can wreak havoc on their health.
You can use many programs to monitor the children’s online activity and track how much time they invest into their favorite games, apps, and websites. Limit their use up to 3 hours per day outside of class work. To get accurate results, you should install tracking software on your device.
Let Them Take Frequent Breaks
While monitoring their time on electronic devices is essential, you should also pay attention to the length of time they do. Having long sessions is even worse for their vision than a shorter one. Teach your kids to keep breaks in between the doze.
Teach them how to do the 20/20/20 method for their break. Every 20 minutes, they should get up from their desks and stare into an item 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This will give the body enough time to readjust and function better. If you can, encourage naps in between sessions.
You can also make them pause regularly, which can be initiated by you or the child. For example, you can set up a schedule where they spend some time in front of the PC. They can use the device for 1 hour, then take a break. They can do something else, play outside, hang out with friends, read a book, etc.
Adjust Text Size and Refresh Rate
When the text is too small, the brightness of the background becomes an issue. Dark backgrounds and small fonts on your smart devices can cause headaches, irritation, and blurred vision. The same goes for the refresh rate. The faster the texts come, the more havoc is wreaked on your child’s eye.
The eyes are accustomed to black and white when looking at a computer screen. But the colors are vivid and have high contrast when playing games or watching videos. You want the correct size font to reduce the strain on the eyes.
To help contrast text and backgrounds, you can lower the brightness level. You can change the resolution if the problem is not solved with the adjustment. Some phones and computers have settings that make it possible to reduce the size of the pixels. This will fix the blurred texts and images.
Blink Frequently
The best way to help your retina is by blinking. You need to blink every 5 to 10 times. This is a good way of refreshing your vision and helping with dry eyes. But the eyelids are too heavy when working on a computer or watching TV.
You can remind them to occasionally close and open their lids. This will help them relax and let the moisture flow. When your child is busy, however, they won’t remember to. You can teach them to raise their chin periodically and look up. This can help prevent redness, soreness, and dryness.
Hydrate
When the body is dehydrated, manifesting with dry skin and chapped lips, it can also take a toll on the optical nerve. When a child is in front of an electronic gadget, they are losing a lot of water. They get so focused on what’s happening that they forget to rehydrate.
When children use their smartphones, tablets, or laptops, they are usually not aware of the hydrating of their bodies. Having children drink water gives them a two-fold advantage: it helps add much-needed moisture to their eyes and breaks their attention enough to make them blink.
You should give them a water bottle they can carry around with them. Ask them to sip on it now and then. It’s essential to stay hydrated throughout the day, not only when sitting at the computer.
Get Regular Vision Screening
When they reach the age of 3, all children should have an annual eye exam. This is because many problems can be identified early on. A kid’s vision problems can include near or farsightedness, astigmatism, and other issues that can cause dizziness, nausea, and distorted or double-vision.
Regular eye exams can significantly reduce the likelihood of severe health issues. The earlier you catch poor eyesight, the better. If you or one of your family members is concerned that they may have a problem with their sight, be sure to see an eye doctor as soon as possible.
A doctor can easily detect and treat these and other childhood conditions. It’s always better to opt for a professional opinion if your kids have problems with their sight. You shouldn’t wait for them to complain to a stressed-out parent.
The Bottom Line
Teaching kids to use computers and smartphones responsibly and without overdoing it, is one of the most challenging tasks. Most parents don’t want their kids to lose interest in technology. They recognize that it can be a great educational tool.
Follow these tips to protect your kid from digital eye strain and keep their eyes healthy for a good life ahead.
