The repeated, prolonged use of tablets and similar devices is causing significant eye

damage in young children, but that damage can be reversed, says Benjamin Lane,

OD, founder and director of the Nutritional Optometry Institute, which has offices in

Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey, and Midtown Manhattan.

Lane notes that millions of 4-to-6-year-olds worldwide regularly spend four or more

continuous hours staring at the screens of digital electronic devices at a very close

distance, usually about eight inches away. To relieve the fatigue from the constant

effort to focus, their eyeballs stretch—something young children’s eyeballs aren’t

meant to do. This puts them at higher risk of developing glaucoma, Lane says.

He and the Institute have documented two distinct types of damage as a result of

prolonged device use: episodic elevation of intra-ocular pressure, which potentially

elongates the eyeball, and thickening of the anterior surface of the retina from too

much exposure to high-energy blue light.

Lane says the Institute has documented that people with this type of eye damage

can reverse it by wearing special reading lenses prescribed specifically for use of a

digital tablet or similar device.

For more information, visit NutritionalOptometry.com or call 973-335-0111