If children stare at mobile phones too much they risk going blind, top eye surgeons have warned
- Children from the age of four now wear special contact lenses
Top eye surgeons warn that more and more children are at risk of going blind because they stare too much at mobile phones and spend too little time outside.
British children from the age of four wear special contact lenses to combat a growing problem with doctors increasingly seeing teenagers with the worst possible myopia score.
The worrying increase is thought to be due to children struggling to look at mobile phones up close, while not spending enough time concentrating at further distances outside in daylight.
Dr. John Bolger, an ophthalmologist and director of a private eye clinic in north London, says he is deeply concerned about the increase in the number of children developing short-sightedness, known as myopia, describing it as a ‘pandemic’.
He told the Mail on Sunday: ‘More and more nearsighted children are coming to the clinic. It goes up and up. As far as I can see, there is no delay.
Top eye surgeons warn that more and more children are at risk of going blind because they stare too much at mobile phones and spend too little time outside
Doctors are increasingly seeing teenagers with the worst possible myopia score
‘Myopia not only means that you have to wear glasses, people can become blind due to myopia. This is not a trivial event, this is a serious threat.”
The surgeon explained that looking at screens for long periods of time can lead to elongation of the eyeball – and that the effects of the Covid pandemic have exacerbated ‘a pandemic of myopia’.
Not spending enough time outdoors also hinders a child’s exposure to natural light, which is essential for regulating the growth of the eyeball and reducing the risk of nearsightedness.
He said: ‘We’ve had children say that four or five days went by during lockdown when they didn’t go out of the front door, and I’m absolutely convinced that there are many of them who wouldn’t be myopic if they did Has been. not been before lockdown.
‘We have children as young as four or five years old wearing contact lenses and children with prescriptions as low as -20, and this is causing major challenges to the way they live their lives. It is not easy. It’s a disability, there’s no other way to say it.’
Dr. Bolger said some of his young patients sleep while wearing special contact lenses that change the shape of the cornea. It slows the progression of myopia and allows them to see normally when they wake up.
British children from the age of four wear special contact lenses to combat the growing problem
Last week, Prince William urged people to spend less time on their phones and said ‘we need to get better at it’ during a visit to the opening of a new youth club in White City, London.
He said “the adults are guilty of that too” when a youngster admitted he was scrolling for too long.
Research shows that myopia has doubled in the UK over the last fifty years and children are becoming myopic at an earlier age; more than a quarter of 15- to 16-year-olds now have myopia.
Dr. Irfan Jeeva, consultant ophthalmologist at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, says that in recent years he has seen more and more children need glasses to correct their myopia.
He told the Mail on Sunday: ‘It’s definitely down to too much screen time. Children strain their eyes to read up close and now spend very little time outside. I have young patients with such severe myopia that it makes their lives very difficult.
‘The only places in the world where myopia is not increasing are the farming communities where children spend all day outside and constantly shift their focus far and near.
‘Parents need to find the right balance and ensure their children use as few screens as possible for entertainment, and get as much daylight outside as possible.’