They help us learn, bring us joy, protect us from danger, and aid us in interpreting daily situations. Your eyes are vital organs that often get overlooked. With the school year almost underway, we want to remind parents that on top of picking out back to school outfits and school supplies, to also make sure to take your kids to get their comprehensive eye exams to help catch vision issues early.
“Theoretically, it’s a law that you should have your children examined by the age of 4”, Dr. David Boothe, Ophthalmologist with Covenant Health Partners stated.
Vision issues not only impact your child’s academic performance but also their athletic abilities. According to the National Eye Institute, “Eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in children in the United States and most injuries occurring in school-aged children are sports-related.” That means you need to be proactive with protection.
“You look at children and you look at yourself in the mirror, you’ll find your eyes are deeper set, where your orbital rim protects that eye…children with their shallower orbits are more at risk.”
Therefore, it is imperative to wear protective eye gear whether playing sports like basketball and racketball, while using projectiles like paintball guns or BB guns, or while using tools in the yard.
“Any time you are around any potentially high speed foreign body, weed eating, cutting the grass, you name it, anything that could generate a high speed foreign body, some type of physical protection over the eye is necessary.”
And finally, don’t underestimate the importance of sunglasses to protect eyes from the sun’s UVA and UVB rays as well as the West Texas sand and dirt that we all unfortunately know so well.
Finally, just remember it is important to monitor your kids and stress the importance of keeping their eyes safe and healthy.