When we think about eye health, many of us tend to think about the things that afflict us as we get older: the loss of our near-sighted vision, glaucoma, cataracts, to name a few. But eye health is incredibly important even at a young age. Vision testing can begin as early as three, which is also a great age to start teaching your children about eye safety in general.
Vision Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
Did you know that pediatric eye care is a benefit included on all marketplace plans as part of the required minimum essential coverage under the ACA? It’s true! All children under 19 years of age must be offered vision benefits.
Why Eye Exams
Good vision impacts how a child sees and interprets the world. And with back-to-school time around the corner, it’s also important to consider that 80 percent of classroom education is taught visually. The inability to see clearly affects academic and athletic performance as well as self-esteem.*
If there’s a problem, it’s always better for it to be caught early. If you see your child frequently rubbing his or her eyes, squinting, tilting or turning their head to look at objects, or squeezing eyes—they may have a vision problem. Below are some of the more common eye conditions:
Amblyopia (lazy eye): Lazy eye occurs when the vision in one of the eyes is reduced because the eye and the brain are not working together as they should; the brain is favoring one eye over the other.
Color deficiency (color blindness): Color deficiency is the inability to distinguish certain shades of color. Difficulty with shades of reds and greens is the most common form of color deficiency. Trouble with blues and yellows is less common. Even less common are the folks who are completely color blind, a condition called achromatopsia, who can only see things as black and white or in shades of gray.
Ptosis (drooping of the eyelid): The upper eyelid may droop only slightly, or in more severe cases, it may cover the pupil entirely or limit normal vision.
Strabismus (crossed eyes): There are six nerves that connect to each eye, controlling how they move. In the case of strabismus, these nerves are affected, causing eyes to turn in or out, either constantly or intermittently. It can affect one eye or both eyes.
Refractive errors (nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism): When you have a refractive error, the type of vision distortion you experience depends on the shape of your eye. When the length of the eyeball is longer or shorter than it should be, light can focus properly on the retina, causing nearsightedness, farsightedness or an astigmatism.
Keeping Young Eyes Safe
Eye injuries are one of the leading causes of vision loss in children. If we teach our children from a young age ways to protect their eyes, we can hopefully reduce the amount of eye injuries and keep the little ones’ vision safe.
Ways to keep eyes safe:
- Wear protective eyewear while participating in sports or recreational activities
- Wear UV-protectant eyewear when out in the sun. Children filter UV light much less effectively than adults, which can cause long-term damage from overexposure.
- And speaking of UV, teach children to not stare at the sun. It may sound like a no-brainer, but you can never be too careful!
- Make sure toys are age-appropriate and don’t have any sharp or protruding parts that can cause damage.
Take advantage of your children’s eye coverage and head down to your local eye doctor. Make yourself an appointment while you’re at it…children learn by example, after all.
