How to take care of your Eyes

We frequently encounter posts on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube educating us on how to care for our health, skin, hair, lips, and even our feet, but very little attention is devoted to our eyes. That’s unfortunate, given how much we rely on our vision in our daily lives. First, I’ll explain why I’m stressing “Why” and “How to take care of your eyes”?

It was the first day of school after lockdown and I couldn’t wait to pick up my tween son from school. I arrived half an hour early as if I were a mother picking up her kid from playgroup. All of the children began to emerge from their respective classes, and my gaze was drawn to my son. Then, while watching the youngsters, I observed something odd: the vast majority of them were wearing glasses. It was astonishing to find that 70% of the children were wearing glasses, which obviously concerned me as a mother.

The COVID-19 outbreak compelled parents to adjust the restrictions on their children’s internet access. If children were previously urged to spend as little time as possible in front of a computer screen or mobile phone, the challenge now is to persuade them to spend more time online and pay attention during remote classes.

This paradigm change has left parents and children perplexed and more vulnerable to the internet’s hazards.

About 25.5 percent of school children in India, between two to 17 years of age, have been found to have abnormal vision, as per a recent school health screening survey.

10 Tips For Taking Care of Eyes:

Healthy eyes and vision are extremely critical for the overall development of a child, so it’s very important to take care of children’s eyes in the same way you care for the rest of the body. Here I am sharing tips for taking care of eyes.

When you go for a walk in the open air, try to look into the distance rather than focusing on what is under your feet or in immediate proximity.
Follow healthy diet.
Drink carrot juice every day. If you want to get the most benefit, add a drop or two of olive oil. It won’t ruin the taste and instead helps you absorb the nutrients in carrot juice more efficiently.
Pamper your eyelids with a warm compress every day.
When you feel your eyes get tired, wash them with lukewarm water during winters and cool water during summers’.
Try not to work on your computer, TV, or smartphone screen from at least two hours before going to bed.
Get adequate sleep.
Dont rub your eyes unnecessarily. Itching in eyes may sometimes occur due to dryness of eyes, use of eye-lubricant can be helpful (seek advice of an opthalmologist).
Go for regular eye check-ups.
Try any eye exercises or Trataka. This will help your eyes and mind to stay focused.

Check for Trataka eye exercise: https://www.kresent.com/yoga-for-eyes/#How_is_Trataka_performed

Tips For Parents to Look After

Avoid using screen media with kids younger than 18 months. Parents of children aged 18 to 24 months who wish to introduce digital media to their children should select high-quality digital screens.
Adjusting the screen brightness to the optimum level reduces stress to the eyes to a great extent. AV gadgets these days come with Adaptive Brightness, which adjusts the backlight of the screen according to the surrounding lights.
Further to the above, I would like to advise that you should enable a blue light filter for the screen of your media gadget. A blue light filter is simply a screen setting that changes the tint of your screen to a slightly Warmer side from the usual Blue tint. Blue light is thought to be more harmful to our eyes.
Limit screen time for children aged 2 to 5 years to one hour per day of high-quality programming.
Set regular limitations on screen time for children aged 6 and above, and ensure that screen time does not replace proper sleep, physical exercise, and other health-promoting habits.
Spend more time with your kids or play indoor games with them.
Ask them to drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration and dry eyes.
Most important teach them regularly about cyber safety.

carrot fruit beside lemon fruit on black wooden table — Healthy juice for eyes

Follow 20- 20- 20 rule for eye

The 20-20-20 rule is the simplest way to refocus and relax your eyes regularly. The formula is simple enough- Every 20 minutes, take a break from staring at your computer or phone and look into the distance 20 ft away for 20 seconds.

Prolonged exposure to our laptop and smartphone screens is a cause of general burnout, headaches, eye strain. This is why our parents used to warn us not to spend too much time watching TV. In today’s world, laptops and mobile phones are the new adversaries.

“A healthy balanced diet and a healthy balance of time outdoors” are crucial.
- Anjali

Taking care of your eyes isn’t all that difficult, and many of these behaviours are beneficial to our general health. Always consult a doctor before applying any eye drops.

Image source: Pixabay

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