Ask the Expert Series: Caring for your kids eyes

Blue light is everywhere, both indoors and outdoors. The sun emits over 100 times more blue-violet light than digital devices. As we are mostly indoors staring at screens, especially in the last 2 months, blue light can contribute to eye fatigue and make our eyes sensitive to glare. More research needs to be done on the long term exposure of harmful blue light on our eyes. What we know today is that it can age our eyes prematurely and damage the cells in our retina. This can lead to eye diseases such as cataract, floaters, and age-related macular degeneration. Now imagine our young children starting much earlier in their lives on screen time than us! Hence some form of protection such as blue light glasses can help to reduce our risks, especially in young children’s eyes. But this doesn’t mean one can stare at screen long hours non-stop: regular eye breaks are important. Similarly UV protection is equally important, a lot of Asian parents neglect the importance of UV protect