August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month
For Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, educating ourselves on many eye conditions that could affect children and go unnoticed is important. Because most children may not be able to figure out when their eyes are not healthy, it is necessary for the adults in their lives to look out for their eye health.
For the “Year of Children’s Vision” and Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month in 2022, Prevent Blindness launched a flurry of events dedicated to educating people on eye conditions and illnesses. They also launched The Zenni Scholarship to Advance Children’s Vision, which provided professionals free access to Prevent Blindness’s vision screening certification program. Prevent Blindness and its partners also provided many children with free accessibility to vision services and aids.
There are many ways to spot eye problems in children. Remind parents to take notes of how their children interact with the environment because that can show parents whether their children are struggling. How is their general coordination? Do they have to move closer to objects to see them properly? Are they often squinting? These actions can represent the development of an eye problem. Children’s eyes appearing inflamed, swollen, crusted or eyes that are not lining up are also very common signs of many eye problems. Other signs of eye problems in children include complaints of headaches, dizziness, nausea and even more specifically, itchiness or pain in their eyes. Read about more signs of eye problems here.
Remind parents to also make the effort to protect their children’s eyes from the sun, fireworks and injuries. Ensuring that children wear hats and sunglasses that will protect them by shielding their eyes from UV Rays.[1] Also, children should not be allowed to use fireworks and parents should not keep them in their homes as they can easily harm people. It is always safer to attend authorized public fireworks displays.[2] Moreover, in the event that a child is interested in playing sports, parents can get protective gear to protect their children from injury.[3]
This month, take time to raise awareness for Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month because the health of children is very important. Children are more vulnerable than adults and need us to advocate for and look out for them. Click here to view resources with more information on child eye health.
https://nationaltoday.com/childrens-eye-health-and-safety-month/
https://preventblindness.org/2022-childrens-eye-health-and-safety/
https://preventblindness.org/your-childs-sight/
