Protect little eyes during the eclipse
Be prepared to gasp with delight on April 8. A solar eclipse – partial in our area – will bring the unparalleled experience to an anything-but-ordinary Monday afternoon. With many schools shifting to e-learning that day, pediatric vision experts from Prisma Health Children’s Hospital want to make sure parents get the word about ways to keep their children safe, while still sharing the memorable experience.
“It’s safe to go outside and it would be awesome to view the eclipse with the proper equipment, but only with the proper equipment,” Grant Brown, pediatric optician with Prisma Health Children’s Hospital, said. “If you’re going to look at the sun, even when it’s mostly occluded, you still need the proper vision equipment to protect your eyes.”
Sunglasses will not work. Grant said special eclipse glasses are actually 100,000 times darker than the darkest pair of sunglasses.
For children, Grant said making a mask from a paper plate and eclipse glasses can help keep children from looking around the edge of the glasses. (Download instructions here.)
Janette White, pediatric ophthalmologist with Prisma Health Children’s Hospital, said damage to the eyes from looking at the eclipse without the proper glasses can be profound and can happen in seconds to minutes. The visual effects will become apparent over hours or days and may lead to a hole in the central vision. Even as the eyes heal, which can take months, damage can be permanent.
White is concerned that because this event will be a partial eclipse in our area, it has not received the coverage of the 2017 total eclipse, which could mean that people are not as aware of the risk.
“You don’t notice any pain,” White said.
Children are at greater risk of damage than adults, because the lens on their eye is “crystal clear,” according to White.
White said it is important for parents to talk with children in advance about how to keep their eyes safe and set the expectations around wearing the glasses or mask.
“Practice with them inside,” White said.
For safety reasons, White recommends keeping infants inside, but she said children can, with proper precautions, enjoy this event.
Make sure your eclipse glasses are protective. Look for an ISO marking inside the glasses. More information is available at science.nasa.gov/eclipses/safety and eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/how-to-tell-if-viewers-are-safe.
Look down and put on the glasses before looking up at the eclipse. Look away before taking them off. Remind children to do that as well.
Find eclipse learning resources at science.nasa.gov/learn/experience-the-total-solar-eclipse-with-science-activation.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Protect little eyes during the eclipse
