Exposure to gadgets hurts eyesight of kids

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Dr Bhamy Hariprasad Shenoy checks eyesight of a child in his clinic—ASIAN AGE

When you discover your little child is intelligent enough to operate electronic gadgets like personal computer, mobile phones, iPad and iPods with complete accuracy — you might be feeling extremely proud of his or her talent and ability.

But the doctors have found early exposure of child to electronic gadgets can seriously damage their eyesight. Empirically, more than 70 per cent of the parents are concerned about the longs the hours their children spend on using these gadgets.
According to Dr Bhamy Hariprasad Shenoy of L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Bhubaneswar, parents nowadays tend to give children exposure to electronic gadgets at a tender and still developing age of two and three years.
“These gadgets have become synonymous with toys and things that are used to pacify a crying child or engaging the children with gadgets so that they do not disturb parents in their work and so on. When a child gets addicted to an electronic gadget, he or she would start spending a lot of time with them. This in turn means the child is continuously doing a near task that puts strain on the eyes and also staying indoors all through the day,” says the doctor.
Various studies from the West and Southeast Asia have shown that excess near work leads to development of myopia (near sightedness, where the distance vision is not clear) in a child who is previously emmetropic (no refractive error, clear vision for distance and near without glasses) and also progression of myopia. The range has shown to be anywhere between 0.5 to 1 diopters over a period of 1 to 3 years, which is a significant progression.
Does wearing spectacles at a young age pose any threat/danger to young children?
“If a child does have a refractive error then he or she would need to wear glasses. Wearing glasses at a young age does not pose any threat or danger. On the other hand, not wearing glasses at young age when it is necessary may lead to permanent drop in vision, what we call amblyopia or the lazy eye. Also studies have shown that regular wearing of glasses in young children with refractive error helps in slowing the progression of the error,” adds Dr Shenoy.
When adults also get affected with eyesight problem, they exhibit different other symptoms.
“Most of the ocular growth occurs by seven years of age and the refraction of the eye stabilises completely by 18-20 years of age. Hence in adults the growth has already occurred and therefore a problem like progression of refractive error doesn’t occur unlike children. However, adults do get other symptoms like headaches, eye pain and dryness of eyes,” he informs.
Genetic and environmental factors determine if a child develops a refractive error. If the child is genetically prone to get a refractive error, i.e. if either of the parents/ grandparents have refractive error since childhood then there is higher risk of the child developing a refractive error at a young age.