Dr. Omondi Nyong’o : 4 Ways to Protect Your Child’s Vision

How do we gauge the health of our child’s eyes and determine if they have vision problems?

• Kids must be screened for eye problems at the primary care doctor’s office or at their schools in order to detect problems. It is best to begin as early as possible.

How do we ensure their vision remains optimal?

• Kids should wear protective eyewear or helmets when doing potentially dangerous sports including fastballs involved in sports.

Can children wear contact lenses?

• Kids should not wear contact lenses until they are mature enough to take care of them usually in teenage years. There are a few medical exceptions to this rule.

Will watching too much TV spoil my child’s eyes?

• Prolonged exposure to video display screens affect the mind perhaps but not the eyes. It only makes their eyes dry because you don’t blink as much due to the hypnotism of staring at the screen.

Reasons you should rush your child to an eye doctor:

The eyes look misaligned. One or both eyes have a white reflex coming out of the pupil. The child has arthritis. Those children need their eyes checked to rule out inflammation.

Surprising  Facts:

All children are born functionally blind. You have to be alert to see if they will have a normal visual experience.

Unless treated by a doctor, misalignment of one eye in a child under 8 will cause irreversible loss of vision. Wearing of eyeglasses does not make vision worse neither does it make one dependent on glasses. On the contrary, glasses can successfully treat eye issues in children, such that they will not need to wear them again afterwards.

Learn more about protecting your Child’s vision early from Dr Nyong’o at the Kid Eye Event.

You might also like to read: Taking care of my Child’s Eyes