Avoid making these mistakes to your child’s eyes
What kind of mistakes should you avoid when caring for your child's eyes?
As a parent, your child's eye care is one of the most important responsibilities you have to accomplish. The condition of your child’s vision can make or break his future. All of his life he will use his eyes to be able to do things and to survive.
Thus, you should not make any mistake in neglecting your child’s eye health. I am sharing with you a few of the mistakes you should avoid while looking into your child's eye care.
Your child's eye care: What to remember
1. Rely on school screenings for your child’s eyes.
Your child should be screened as early as six months old and a follow-up screening at three years old and five years old. Thereafter, a regular check up every year or after two years should be done to your child’s eyes to ensure your child’s healthy vision and that vision problems can be diagnosed as early as possible. Though there are eye screenings in school when your child is in his school age, this may not be enough and some vision problems might not be detected right away through a simple and general screening. So, don't just rely the school screenings are good enough.
2. Rely on your child’s opinion of his or her eyesight.
Children most often have no idea what it is to have a normal vision or a blurred one especially if they have experienced it as an infant. They would most probably say that they see things clearly. One can only find out if a child has eye problems when it is diagnosed by an eye doctor. So it is imperative for parents to bring their children for regular eye screening.
3. Expose your child without protection under the sun.
This is a common mistake among parents. We have become unmindful of the fact that exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays can increase the risk of cataracts. The more your child is exposed to the sun without protection, the more that your child will likely have cataract. Thus, you should not allow your child to go out in the sun without sunglasses no matter how young your child is. But you should buy a pair of sunglasses that has 100% UVA and UVB protection. In addition, let your child wear a wide-brimmed hat or use an umbrella whenever walking under the heat of the sun.
4. Have your child undergo eye surgery to correct vision problems.
There are parents who thought that eye surgery can cure strabismus or squint eyes. However, only 20% of those who undergo eye surgery for a crossed eye were able to achieve normal vision. This shows that eye surgery does not guarantee correction of eye problems. Thus, parents should not hastily decide to have their child undergo eye surgery.
These are only few of the mistakes I have found some parents have done to their child’s eye health. Don't wait. If you suspect your child is having any kind of eye problems, see a doctor immediately.
