The majority of parents and doctors consider television and personal computers to be the worst enemies for children’s vision and psyche.  That’s why parents try to minimize the time their kids spend with these entertainments. In order to understand why such restrictions are not obligatory, but perhaps should be, we should find out what happens to a child’s eyes during the process of watching.

When a baby is watching TV, the image from the screen precepts as stream of light that is refracted in the eye and is projected on the retina. In order to see the picture more clearly, a child unconsciously strains the eyes. The image on the screen is constantly moving, and the details can be too small and incomprehensible for children. That makes a child concentrate more attentively on examining the picture, and in turn this increases the eye tension. If, day after day, a child spends too much time in front of a computer or a TV-set, the load of the eyes becomes excessive. The situation gets worse if the viewing of the screen is done in a room with poor lighting. Sooner or later a baby will feel visual overload. The eyes can become red, and they will suffer pain both in the eyes and head. If urgent measures were not taken, a visual impairment such as short sightedness could appear. Don’t think that eye protection will help the matter either, so it’s no good buying your children fancy designer Ray Ban sunglasses or prescription glasses and thinking it will help, it won’t.

However, parents should not be scared and take modern devices away from their children, simply the time children spend reading or playing should be limited. Keep in mind that books, computer and TV are key elements for the development of kids. Babies need cartoons, educational programs and captivating books, and in the time of global technological progress operating a computer is a necessity, but mum and dad should check the level of loading on the eyes. Don’t forget that toddlers are not recommended to watch TV, because for them it’s just a succession of bright senseless pictures that disturb the nervous system. Children over 2 years old are allowed to watch TV for 30 minutes a day; children aged from 3-7 have a norm of 40-50 minutes and those who are from 7 to 13 can watch it for 1,5-2 hours a day.

And some useful tips:

– Watch TV sitting in a comfortable armchair.

– The screen should be disposed strictly in front of a child. Watching TV from aside is prohibited.

– In the evening effective lightening is needed. It’s better to drop the curtains.

– The distance to the screen should be at least3 meters. The type of screen does not influence a lot.