Worried about your kids screen time and eye strain? Children and technology may seem to go hand in hand these days, so how can we support our children’s eye health? In this article we cover 3 different ways you can support your child’s eyes, including how to rest the eyes, how physical activity can help and proper nutrients for eye care.
Let’s get into the 3 top tips to support your kids eye health!
1. How to combat eye strain:
Staring at a screen is part of modern-day life, but it’s important to teach our kids to have healthy habits around this.
One of the most important things is to give your eyes a break. Use the 20:20:20 rule; setting a reminder or an alarm for your children every 20 minutes so they look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds, this helps with eye strain.
Blinking is also helpful to keep the eyes lubricated. Another tip is to adjust their screens to nighttime settings to reduce the amount of blue light omitting, wear blue blocking glasses or better yet, go read a book in the evening!
2. Natural light benefits eye health:
Having set times for device use can be useful, as it helps the child manage expectations of when they’re allowed on a device and for how long. But also, having set “outside time” is equally important.
Looking at distant objects instead of a screen up close, relaxes the eyes and reduces the risk of myopia (near-sightedness).
Physical activity supports circulation and micro-circulation that the eyes and brain need to function well.
Natural light in the eyes is hugely important to support their sleep patterns too.
3. Nutrients for eye health:
We all know it’s important to get good nutrition into our kids. When it comes to supporting eye health and brain health, we are lucky because often it’s the same nutrients that support both.
Omega 3 fatty acids are particularly important, especially Docosahexaenoic acid or DHA for brain and eye health. This is found in fish, in particular fatty fish like sardines and salmon. While your child may not sit down to a plate of sardines, making things like fish croquettes, or fish pie might be more appealing for the little ones.
Other nutrients such as vitamin A, C, and E are supportive of eye health, they can be found in a variety of foods like liver, citrus foods, and almonds respectively.
And then of course lutein and zeaxanthin which are carotenoid antioxidants are thought to play a role in protecting your eyes from blue light. These two nutrients are often found together in foods such as egg yolk.
Here’s an example of a sample menu for children’s eye health (and brain health!):
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs
Lunch: Mini fish and potato croquettes and side of carrot sticks.
Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese with minced liver cooked through the meat sauce (they’ll never know!)
Bonus Tip!
If you are considering adding extra support to your kids diet, then look no further than Good Health KIDS DHA and Lutein Smart Chews are here to support your children’s eye and brain health. Scientifically researched ingredients DHA, EPA and Lutein and Zeaxanthin are combined in a Smart Chew to provide optimal nutritional support. It uses the ConCordix® technology which is an innovative delivery form allowing high levels of nutrients in each smart chew. Nutrients which support the overall well-being of children’s eye health such as blue light protection and screen fatigue. A great tasting, natural strawberry lemon flavour the kids will love, and it’s sugar-free so that the parents will love them too!
Always read the label and use only as directed. Vitamin and mineral supplements should not replace a balanced diet. If symptoms persist, contact your healthcare professional. Good Health, Auckland
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