Children’s Eye Health & Safety Month is Here Now!
Across the country, children will soon start a new school year and healthy vision will be key to a successful year. As a child grows, an untreated eye condition becomes more difficult to correct. These can worsen and lead to other serious problems as well as affect reading ability, focus, behavior, personality, and social adjustments. Good eyesight and eye health are especially important for the development of young children and staying on top of vision concerns should be a priority for parents because it’s not always possible for children to realize when their eyes are not healthy. Regardless of how COVID-19 affects the upcoming school year and sports season, now is the perfect time to tackle your child’s eye health during Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month.
America Recognizes Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month to raise awareness of the importance of getting your children’s eyes checked before school starts up again – or at least before they get too far into the new school year, depending on where you live. To help parents keep their children’s eyes healthy, The American Optometric Association (AOA) has established several helpful guidelines and signs to look for to determine vision problems:
An infant’s first comprehensive eye exam should be when they are about 6 months old.
The second exam should be at age 3.
The next eye exam should be at age 5 or 6, before the child enters either kindergarten or first grade.
Eye exams should then take place every two years after the pre-kindergarten/first grade exam.
In between these scheduled eye exams, parents should monitor children for potential vision problems, including:
- Frequently rubbing eyes
- Squinting to focus on objects
- Holding reading materials close to the face
Frequent blinking - Tilting or turning their head to look at objects
- Wandering eyes, especially when talking directly to someone else
- Covering one eye
- Disinterest in reading or even looking at objects from a distance
If you notice one or more of these signs, schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist or optometrist soon.
The beginning of school also means the beginning of fall sports and other activities that could lead to eye injuries. Every year, 42,000 Americans suffer a sports-related eye injury, with children making up the majority of those cases. You can help prevent your child from being part of that statistic by following a few basic safety rules:
- All children should wear the recommended protective eyewear while participating in sports or recreational activities
- Children should only have access to age-appropriate toys and avoid toys with sharp or protruding parts
- Keep cleaning supplies and sprays out of the reach of children
- Teach the proper handling of or altogether avoid projectile toys like darts, bows and arrows, or airsoft/BB guns
Regardless of how COVID-19 affects the upcoming school year and sports season, we at Security Specialists remind you now is the perfect time to tackle your children’s eye health.
