Children and Contact Lenses: Is Your Child Ready?

Perhaps your child wears glasses and wants to switch to contacts. Maybe your child was just diagnosed with the need for corrective lenses and he or she wants to wear contact lenses, but you aren’t sure they are ready. These scenarios, and others like it, raise the question: at what age are children ready for contacts?

Every child is different as is every situation, so there is no correct age set in stone. There are however, several factors to consider when deciding if your child is ready for contacts.Physically, most children’s eyes can tolerate contact lenses at a relatively young age so you are looking more at factors such as maturity and responsibility, personal hygiene, their main activities, and self-esteem.

Maturity and responsibility 

Studies have shown that over 90% of children ages 8 through 11 have no problem putting in or taking their contacts, and keeping up with proper maintenance. It’s really about your child’s maturity level and how responsible they are. Does your child perform their chores and homework in a timely and orderly fashion? If not they may not be ready for contacts yet, if so they are a great candidate.If your child can be responsible enough to follow the doctor’s instructions in how to care for and maintain their contacts then they are ready.

Personal Hygiene

This is very much related to maturity and responsibility. If your child can’t keep their room clean and needs to be reminded to shower or take a bath they might not be ready for contacts just yet. If they are clean and orderly then that’s another story.In regard to personal hygiene and preventing infections, make sure your child knows:

• Not to share or swap contacts
• To never use saliva, tap water, distilled water, or anything other than sterile saline solution for storing contact lenses.
• Use hypoallergenic skin products and cosmetics marked "for contact lens wearers" or "for sensitive eyes
• For girls: remember to apply make up after applying contacts

Your Child’s Activities: Sports

If you child is active then contacts may be a better option than glasses. Face it: contacts are better for sports than glasses. If your child is responsible and is involved in sports then your child should be ready for contacts. Contact lenses also provide better peripheral vision which allows for better awareness and performance.

Self-esteem

Many children would prefer not to wear glasses to school, at events, or many places where their peers are present. Children are very self-conscious about looking different or standing out. Wearing contacts can help boost their self-esteem and this will likely spill over into their studies, relationships, and over all well-being.

If you think your child is ready for contacts call us today to set up an eye appointment!

5 Bad Habits That Are Prematurely Aging Your Eyes

Do you love your fast food? Staying up late? Smoking? We all have vices and many of us can laugh them off. However, some of our bad habits can affect our eyesight and leave us with poor vision or blindness much earlier in our life than expected.

The following are several bad habits that are aging our eyes:

Smoking

This shouldn’t be that much of a surprise since smoking can negatively affect many aspects of our health. Smoking cigarettes can your increase your risk for optic nerve damage, macular degeneration and developing cataracts. All of these conditions can cause eventual vision loss.

Poor Nutrition

Eating lots of junk food and fast food while not consuming enough fruits and vegetables can leave your body lacking the essential vitamins and minerals necessary for healthy eyes--not to mention lack of anti-oxidants. You need a well-balanced diet to obtain essential vitamins and minerals as well as anti-oxidants. You also need fatty acids that are in foods such as fish and olive oil for optimum eye health.

Soaking Up the Sun without Sunglasses

Sunglasses protect your eyes from UV light, any sunny day, any month of the year. They also protect your eyes from Blue light, which is important since long term exposure to the blue and violet lights of the solar spectrum can lead to macular degeneration.

Wear those shades: look good and feel good!

Not Being Hydrated

The American Medical Association recommends that you consume at least 8 glasses of water a day for optimum health. If you don’t keep adequately hydrated your eyes may not be able to produce the necessary tears to keep your eyes moist and properly nourished. Since your tears carry nutrients to the cells on the surface of the eye and carry antibodies to prevent infection, being properly hydrated is key to maintaining healthy eyes. So drink up!

Poor Sleeping Habits

Obviously not getting enough sleep can wreak havoc on the body and age you faster. For your eyes, not getting a good night’s rest can cause puffy, bloodshot, and dry eyes. The long term effects of not getting enough sleep can potentially damage your optic nerves and lead to impaired vision

If you engage in any, or several, of the bad habits discussed above, then eliminating them will go a long way in optimizing your eye (and overall) health. Keeping up with regular eye exams can go a long way too!

If you would like to set up an appointment to discuss optimizing your eye health or are due for an eye exam please give us a call today!