August is Children’s Eye Health & Safety Month and is the perfect opportunity for parents to understand the adverse effects of skipping their children’s annual preventive healthcare exams during the pandemic, including vision screenings. Dr. Glen Steele, Southern College of Optometry's professor of pediatric service, shares the effects children may have experienced during the past year and a half.
Nearsightedness accelerated among children due to increased use of digital devices with virtual learning, video streaming, and social media, adding up to 10-12 hours per day in front of a screen. “A lot of the doctors are seeing an increase in nearsightedness,” Steele says. “I would recommend that children hold their devices in their laps, instead of holding it too close to their face, and take breaks from the screen.” Be a good role model: If parents are on their device when they are talking to their kids or are on their device when the kids are trying to tell them something, the communication is not going to be as good. So parents — encourage breaks, encourage the distance, and be a role model.”
The 20-20-20 Rule
We all have heard about 20/20 vision. It can be described as what an average individual can see on an eye chart when they are standing 20 feet away. Nowadays, with new lifestyles, children and adults are likely to have higher screen times, especially since the pandemic and the move to online learning. With this, the American Academy of Ophthalmology says the use of digital devices doesn’t necessarily damage the eyesight, but it can cause eye strain and unpleasant symptoms like dry, irritated, and tired eyes.
“What I recommend parents do is to get a full comprehensive eye exam and then don’t think about just taking the device away,” say Steele. “They are going to be using the device for the rest of their lives, so I am teaching them how to take breaks.”
A break may be simply looking around for 20 seconds, following the 20-20-20 rule. If you find yourself looking at screens all day, your eye doctor may have mentioned this rule to you — every 20 minutes spent using a screen, one should try to look away at something that is 20 feet away from your eyes for a total of 20 seconds. Young children need to be eased into this. Preschool children should take a break every 5 minutes. Elementary school children should take a break every 10 minutes, and adolescents and adults without symptoms should follow the 20-20-20 rule.
If eye strain persists after trying the 20-20-20 rule for a few days, one should see a doctor, who can check for other underlying conditions. “One thing I am seeing a lot of is large pupils, and this is caused by [video] games, social media, caused by time on devices during virtual school,” Steele says. “When you focus, the pupils constrict, and when you don’t, they grow large. I used to see two to three children with larger pupils each semester, but now, I am seeing five to six a day that are like that. I am saying this to parents: Large pupils means defocus, smaller pupils means focus.
“It all started even before the pandemic, but has gotten worse since the pandemic,” continues Steele. Pupils let light into the eyes to help you see clearly. They are controlled by muscles in the iris, the colored part of the eye. Pupils naturally widen or dilate in dim environments to allow more light into the eye. If one notices a sudden change to one or both pupils, or if the pupils frequently stay dilated, one should contact the primary care physician or ophthalmologist to make sure the eyes and vision are safe and there are no other underlying health issues.
“The thing with the large pupils is that their eyesight is not necessarily getting worse, but it tells me it’s a persistent sympathetic response,” says Steele. “And the other things that are controlled by that are heart rate, digestive issues, respiratory issues — all the things connected to the nervous systems are all hyped up. It’s all a reflection of what is going on in the body. The start of a solution is to get a full eye exam.”
Taking care of health is critical, especially during this pandemic, and good eye health is as important. With the advent of online and virtual learning along with video games and social media, the importance of a comprehensive eye exam cannot be neglected. Dr. Steele encourages people to take care of their eye health as part of their overall health and wellness.