Every month the American Academy of Ophthalmology focuses its educational efforts on specific ocular health advocacy. The Month of August has been designated Children’s Eye Health and Safety month! With Back-to-School right around the corner, its time for parents to remember to include annual eye screenings in their list of “To-Do’s” for back-to-school. Children should have their eyes examined during their regular pediatric visits starting around the age of three. Eye screenings will help to detect issues such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. They also detect diseases such as Amblyopia (Lazy eye), Strabismus (Crossed eyes), Ptosis (drooping Eyelid), and Color Deficiency (colorblindness).
If you or your pediatrician suspects that your child may have vision or sight problems you can make an appointment with your local ophthalmologist for complete testing.
Some additional warning signs that your child may be having vision problems include:
- Squinting
- Sitting too close to the television or computer screen
- Tilting their heads
- Rubbing their eyes frequently
- Short attention spans
- Turning of an eyelid in or out
- Light sensitivities
- Poor Eye-Body-Hand coordination
- Avoiding visual activities with details, such as coloring, painting or puzzles
- poor performance in school or preschool
Children’s Eye Safety
Keeping your child’s eyes safe is an important part of maintaining a health vision. Many injuries are preventable, but continue to be the leading cause of vision loss in children each year. Sports related injuries are among the highest preventable eye injuries. Follow these simple rules:
- Wear protective eyewear while playing sports or recreational activities. Invest in proper eyewear protection with polycarbonate lenses for sports like Baseball, Basketball, Football, etc.
- Be Sure to check Age Requirements for all toys purchased. Avoiding projectile toys such as darts, arrows, projectile-firing toys and be sure to check for the ASTM mark, which mean the toy has met the national safety standards from the American Society for Testing and Materials.
For more helpful eye care and vision care tips, please visit our main blog page
Source: lowvisionmd.org
Image by Виктория Бородинова from Pixabay