Technology is growing at a never seen before pace and while we are trying to cope up and comprehend its nature, it has us hooked. Majority of us can say with absolute certainty that a day doesn’t go by where we don’t check our social media at least once. Hence, it doesn’t come as a surprise when kids these days want to use a gadget too. Why? Because they have been noticing our mannerisms and want to follow suit by engrossing themselves in something interesting.

Certain lifestyle changes in the past 10 years have given easy access of gadgets to kids but the real question is – how harmful is it? How does it impact children’s behavior? How early should parents start nurturing their kids’ eyes? To answer all such questions, we have renowned Ophthalmologist and Eye Surgeon, Dr. Varshini Shanker, in an exclusive interview with Petit Clouds. She has an experience of over 20 years and specializes in guiding parents to avoid excessive usage of screens among kids.

 When asked about her opinion on increasing screen time among kids, she said, “Children need a comfortable bed time routine and any kind of screen should be switched off at least an hour before sleeping. Screen usage should be a complete no-no for kids below the age of 2 years because it’s too much for them to process; instead, they need toys to play with and something that’s always within their reach to awaken physical stimulus.”

 In a more detailed context, she added, “When we, as parents, normalize the use of gadgets, we are creating a barrier for children’s visual and social communication. While visual communication can be monitored to an extent, social impact is much higher because it leads to increased mood swings and unwanted behavioral tendencies.”

Dr. Varshini also revealed that continued lockdowns due to COVID-19 have been responsible for a rapid increase in myopia among children. They prefer looking at screens for hours because they were conditioned to do so while staying at home – for studying and staying occupied. Not just this, a good number of parents visited her clinic because their kids complained of irritation in eyes and squinting. It’s surprising but this condition is becoming quite common owing to the fact that there is minimal or no social interaction for children these days. They need it now more than ever. Dr. Varshini also mentioned the reason for early damage to eyes, she said, “Kids need glasses more than they did before because there’s no exposure to sunlight. Children need to go out, they need to be active in order to stay healthy throughout.”

 
She also said that there’s nothing to be scared about because these issues can be averted or controlled by keeping a close eye on kids’ activities, especially when they are below 2 years of age. It is at this age that they respond quite enthusiastically to bright colors and prints, especially if they are red, black and white. They don’t have a proper understanding of shades and patterns but if the hues are pleasing to their eyes, kids react immediately. In addition, this age is also crucial for babies because they experience swift growth in terms of vision. Therefore, if their activities are not supervised, they could experience difficulty in focusing their eyes and recognizing faces, to say the least. There are also a variety of toys that can help with the visual movements and to find out whether or not their eyes are able to track the object when it’s moving from one direction to other.

 We, at Petit Clouds, try to understand where we could contribute through our organic cotton products. We have introduced one such category in our catalogue that primarily focuses on stimulating kids’ senses and keeping them cheerful - happy prints. From cot sheets to muslins, these vibrant prints, featuring animal figures and bold colours, is our way of saying we care for parents and their bundles of joy.

          Time to introduce your kids to Petit Clouds - https://petitclouds.com/