August is Child Eye Health & Safety Month

Make your child’s eye health a priority in August, during Child Eye Health & Safety Month. You’ve heard the saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? Your child’s eye health and safety is the perfect example. You can prepare your child for the new school year and protect their eye health by your eye doctor to schedule an eye exam before school starts.

Back-to-School

The start of each school year begins with rituals: New clothes, new school supplies, orientation meetings, immunizations and well-child check-ups. Adding eye exam to that list of rituals is important because up to 80 percent of a child’s education is taught visually.

Warning Signs

Children cannot always articulate when they are experiencing a problem, so look for common signs of vision problems, including:

• Rubbing the eyes frequently
• Squinting
• Tilting/turning head to look at objects
• Squeezing eyes
• Wandering eyes

Lindberg’s Air Titanium Frame for Kids

Common Conditions

Several common conditions affect children’s eyesight, including:

• Amblyopia, more commonly known as “lazy eye”
• Strabismus, more commonly known as “crossed eyes”
• Color deficiency/color blindness
• Refractive errors, which means near- or far-sightedness, or astigmatism

Early diagnosis is an important factor in treating symptoms and restoring vision.

About Eye Safety

Like adult eye injuries, most children’s eye injuries are preventable—up to 90 percent! Make sure your kids have the right protective eyewear—not just the right prescription, but the appropriate fit—to prevent eye injury. You can take additional precautions to protect children’s eye health, such as:

• Make sure all toys are age-appropriate
• Purchase toys that meet the safety standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
• Provide protective eyewear—not corrective lenses—for activity and recreation

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