How to protect your kids from too much screen time

Everywhere you go these days all you see, whether you are at the shopping centre, the grocery store or a restaurant is kids hunched over screens, their eyes glazed over and almost in a trance state.

It’s not a shock that small children are becoming even more obsessed with gadgets than us adults are, considering how much screen time their getting.

According to a study that was recently done, kids aged 2 – 10 years old spend an average of 2 hours and 7 minutes a day with screen media. And even babies are getting screen time, especially with the new products on the market like the Fisher-Price Apptivity Seat and the Snugg Wugg Interactive Baby Pillow.

Some symptoms from staring at a screen for too long are dry eyes and strained vision. But, kids are still developing their eye sight, so it makes you think about the effects all this screen time has on their long term eye health.

It is important to remember that it may have an even worse effect on babies’ eyes than those whose vision has already matured. According to a doctor from Boston Children’sHospital and a professor from Harvard Medical School, they don’t really know that exposure to screens does to a babies’ developing sight, especially since vision develops rapidly over the first year of life and continues to improve in visual acuity, colour and contrast over the first few years.

Here are the top recommendations for parents for preserving eye health in this digital age:

Get screening for eye disease
Kids of all ages, especially preschoolers should have vision screening to detect treatable medical problems like amblyopia (“lazy eye”) and strabismus (misaligned eyes).

Limit screen time
While there is really no evidence that screen time is damaging to the eyes, use your common sense and realise that too much screen time can’t be good for a developing child’s brain.

Get the kids out of the house
There is evidence that more time spent outside in early childhood can reduce the likelihood of becoming nearsighted later in life.

Look away
Staring for a long period of time without blinking can dry your eyes out and cause eye strain. To prevent that, it is good practice to regularly look away from the screen and also to remember not to suppress the normal blink reflex.

Remember that debate about sitting to close to the screen? Well, doctors agree that there’s no real evidence indicating that any one distance is best. So, as a parent you can continue to shout at your kids about sitting to close to the screen, but in reality is doesn't really matter (but, don’t tell the kids that!)

*TIP: Kids that are two years of age and younger should be completely screen-free. All other children should get no more than two house a day.*

While you’re busy making sure your kids are healthy, you should remember these tips for yourself too. With the amount of time we spend every day looking at our gadgets, we have to preserve our eyes for all the new technology that’s going to come in the future.

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Written By: Christine Romans
CopyWriter at The Computer Guyz Cape Town