3 Ways You Can Protect Your Child’s Eyesight From Birth
The idea that a child may lose their eyesight is a horrible thing to imagine. While it is rare, sadly, children do lose their eyesight sometimes, either partially or fully. This may be because of an accident or a degenerative condition or illness.
However, there are many things parents can do to minimize the risk of this happening. These include making regular contact with an ophthalmologist and taking adequate steps to prevent accidents and eye damage.
Even the slightest damage to eyesight should be avoided as much as possible. Eye problems can affect every aspect of a child’s life, from completing schoolwork and being able to complete everyday tasks, to being able to enjoy the activities of their choosing.
There are crucial things that you should stay alert to. Following these steps below should result in the best possible outcomes for your child’s sight, both for the short term and long term.
1. Take your child for regular eye exams
Children should have their eyesight checked regularly from birth at an eye clinic. This is the only way to be certain that their eyes are healthy.
Why? Unfortunately, eyesight problems can be very easily disguised. The brain is very good at adapting to and compensating for vision problems. Without the expertise of an eye doctor, problems could go undetected for a long time. They could cause fatigue, headaches, and concentration or memory issues.
When?
Your child’s eyes should be checked shortly after their birth. Depending on where your child was born, this may take place while still in the hospital. Some countries offer national screening programs for children around the time they start school.
However, these vision checks are often basic. It would be preferable to visit your family eye clinic regularly from the earliest age. If a problem is detected with these more thorough checks, then it can be acted on quickly.
Why?
When you take your child to an eye exam, the ophthalmologist will be watching for these common childhood problems:
Amblyopia
This is a condition often known as “lazy eye.” One eye sends a weaker signal to the brain than the other. It is very common; around one in 50 develop this condition in childhood. However, it is also hard to spot without expertise and the prope medical equipment. The brain can easily compensate and ignore images from the weaker eye.
Amblyopia can become permanent if not treated. However, if it is detected early enough, it is easily treated using glasses or an eye patch.
Squints and alignment problems
Squints, crossed eyes and outwardly drifting eyes are relatively common. They can cause eye strain, headaches and fatigue.
Myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism
Refractive errors myopia (short-sightedness), hyperopia (far-sightedness), and astigmatism can all develop in childhood. These issues can be treated using glasses or, for older children, Ortho-K lenses. Again, these problems must be detected early to minimize the stress caused to your child.
Rarer problems
Occasionally, an ophthalmologist will find the early stages of a more serious vision problem. There are several possibilities, but examples could include pediatric glaucoma or juvenile macular degeneration, which results from rare, inherited diseases.
To rule these out and give you peace of mind, you should take your child for regular examinations.
2. Prioritize eye safety in the home
Accidents can cause catastrophic damage to your child’s eyesight in an instant. Sadly, thousands of children are treated for eye accidents each year. Many incidents could have been prevented.
Damage to eyesight can be caused by a fall or trip, an object being poked into the eye, or by chemicals, like cleaning agents and toiletries.
Here’s how to improve safety in your home:
Prevent babies and toddlers from climbing stairs unsupervised by using child-safety stair-gates.
Encourage your family to help you keep your home tidy and all floors clear of trip hazards.
Check around your home for sharp corners on furniture. These could cause disastrous problems if your child’s eye were to strike one during a fall. You could consider moving furniture out of harm’s way, if possible. Alternatively, you may be able to find cushioning designed to keep your children safer.
Always keep household cleaning and laundry products, toiletries and chemicals well out of reach of children. Again, check around your entire home and garden, not forgetting the garage and outbuildings. Transfer possible hazards to places you are sure your child won’t reach.
Only ever allow your child to play with age-appropriate toys. Check that older children can use a new toy safely, and understand the potential hazards before allowing them to play with it alone, especially toy guns. Younger children should be supervised in their play.
Screen time
Time spent looking at screens can also pose a hazard to your child’s eyes. Excessive use of any type of screen can cause digital eye strain. This will result in headaches and temporary blurred vision.
You may want to consider setting a daily limit on how much time your child can spend looking at screens each day. As a guide, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours per day for school-age children. They also believe that children under two years old should not be allowed to use screens at all.
3. Protect their eyes
Spending time outside can be seen as a double-edged sword. Ophthalmologists recommend that children spend more time playing sports and games outside. This is because there are proven links between increased outdoor play and a reduction in childhood myopia.
However, vigorous games and outdoor play can come with a different set of risks from which you should protect your child.
Sports
Sports and exercise are really important for everybody’s physical health. However, many sports can pose a risk to eyesight. Emergency rooms in the US treat 100,000 sports-related eye injuries every year. One in three of these involves a child’s eyesight.
Bats and balls, pokes and knocks during play can all cause big problems. It is therefore recommended that your child wears the appropriate eye protection for the sport they are playing. This is likely to be shatterproof sports goggles for medium-risk sports, like soccer or tennis, or face guards for the riskiest sports, such as hockey.
Your child’s coach, teacher or club should be more than happy to supply more information and insist that the children in their care wear the right protection as part of their sports kit.
Sunglasses
It is also wise to make sure your child wears good-quality sunglasses outdoors (unless they are playing sports). Ultra-violet (UV) light can damage the eyes and can speed up age-related degeneration and the forming of cataracts. Look for a high UV rating that can block out 100% UVA and UVB.
By following this advice from the earliest age, you will be taking all the most sensible steps to keep your child’s eyes safe and healthy. If you ever have any concerns about your child’s eyesight, your trusted ophthalmologist will happily address them and reassure you. After all, very few things are as important as the health of your growing family.
AUTHOR BIO
Dr. Millicent M. Grim, Specialist Ophthalmologist & LASIK Specialist, is the Medical Director of Gulf Eye Center in Dubai. Since 2002, Gulf Eye Center's highly qualified ophthalmologists and optometrists/ODs have been successfully treating a wide range of eye conditions using advanced techniques. They also provide comprehensive eye care and vision restoration procedures for people of all ages.