Experts have warned that increasing the amount of time children spend in front of screens may cause them to develop an adult-only eye condition.
Dry eye disease occurs when tears do not adequately hydrate the eyes.
This disease usually affects people between the ages of 50 and 60 and can be extremely painful if left untreated.
Sufferers have compared the sensation to chopping an onion and getting a burning sensation in their eyes.
Sarah Ferrante, an ophthalmologist and dry eye specialist, said she sees this condition in young children. They attributed this in part to an increase in screen time, as staring at a screen reduces blink rate significantly.
He claims that when he first opened his clinic 15 years ago, not a single child had this condition. However, the number of children suffering from dry eyes has increased in the last five or six years.
His youngest patient was a six-year-old, which was unheard of.
He believes that the growing popularity of make-up in children may contribute to an increase in these problems. This condition, if left untreated, can cause irreversible damage to the tear glands in the eyelids.
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