Parents always want the best for their kids. They want their kids to be healthy, happy and successful. A critical part of a child’s development is healthy eyes and vision. In order to safeguard the long- term sight of their children, parents need to ensure routine eye checks and vision care part of their children’s medical care. It is important to take extra care for maintaining eyesight since vision is an extremely important part of an individual’s quality of life. A large number of kids today suffer from eye strain and poor vision. Although contacts and glasses are a viable solution to correct a child’s vision, they won’t really fix the problem.
The news of parents neglecting the need to protect the eyesight of their children from harmful UV rays has been making the headlines. Irreparable damage to the lens and retina can be caused by exposure to UV rays from sunlight, and it can subsequently cause conditions like age-related macular degeneration and cataracts later in life, leading to long-term damage. Before the age of 18, approximately 80% of an individual’s exposure to harmful UV rays takes place according to research.
Despite this information, more than three-quarters of parents do not make sure that their children wear glasses. And half of them put price over protection while buying sunglasses, only a quarter of them go on to buy sunglasses of a trusted brand. Extra care for protection of their eyes should be taken by people living in high mountainous areas and sunnier climates. When it comes to protecting your children’s and your eyesight, it is recommended you follow these guidelines:
- The prescription glasses or sunglasses you buy should have 100% UV Protection. Full UV Protection can also be offered by transparent prescription lenses.
- Make your children wear a sunhat if they refuse to wear sunglasses, it will help shade their eyes due to its wide peak.
- People with light-colored eyes should always wear sunglasses as they are most at risk. Upgrading to Photochromic lenses is recommended if you wear prescription glasses since they darken automatically in sunlight.
- As long as they offer 100% UV Protection and CE mark, sunglasses do not have to be too expensive.
- Your sunglasses should fit your child well. Your child might as well not be wearing any sunglasses if they are able to look over the top of the lenses.
- Do not buy discounted sunglasses particularly from service stations, auction websites or market stalls. These sunglasses do not provide any UV Protection at all which is even worse since it will allow more of these harmful UV rays into the eyes because of the dilation of pupil.
These are some ways in which parents can take care of their children’s eyes to ensure healthy eyes and vision for life.
