Guidelines For Children's Eye Care

The prevention of eye defects is a very important subject, particularly for parents. As many eye problems develop in childhood, children's eye care is of ultimate importance .

At what age should you begin to watch out for eye troubles in your children and to prevent them? Faulty vision grows out of faulty habits. The moment to begin, therefore, is the moment at which the baby first begins to see objects around him.

It is the bright-colored objects hung in a baby's crib above the level of his eyes as a pacifier which lay the foundation for much of the muscular imbalance which later on causes refractive errors and eyestrain.

The baby stares at the motionless object and acquires the habit of staring while the little muscles on the eyeball become fixed instead of flexible. And the parents congratulate themselves that the baby is so "good," and that it will lie quietly in its crib without creating a disturbance.

In babyhood, too, the imitative child is surrounded by well-meaning adults who, in order to amuse him. make exaggerated faces with their eyes wide and staring, an attitude which he unconsciously adopts.

Children's eye care must certainly include dealing with cross eyes. Cross-eyes frequently make their first appearance in babyhood-the condition often exists soon after birth -and the distracted parents either (a) neglect the condition, hoping that it will clear up as time goes on; (b) have the eyes operated upon, which results in a constant pull and nerve tension; (c) or put glasses on the young child.

Glasses are a trial to anyone. How often you hear someone complain, "I haven't got used to my glasses yet." For a child glasses are infinitely more regrettable, for psychological reasons as well as for visual reasons. To see a small child, with round spectacles on its tiny nose, is nothing short of a tragedy. It is grotesque.

Cross-eyes in a baby can be cured by the simple process of fastening a patch over the good eye so that the weak one is forced to carry its share of the work. Otherwise the vision in the weak eye becomes fainter while it gets stronger in the good eye, until the condition is fixed.

It must be stressed that the earlier you become aware of the signs of defective vision, the easier it will be to correct it.

Another point that must be made about children's eye care is that countless children every year are being fitted with glasses when there is nothing whatever the matter with their eyes. In some cases the complaint of visual difficulties- even of blindness-is a deliberate form of malingering, or an attempt at self-dramatization or the psychic symptom of some underlying emotional disturbance.

In other cases, children who complain of headaches or faulty vision-and every eye shows temporary signs of abnormal vision-are rushed by their anxious parents to an ophthalmologist and so the helpless child is shackled with glasses. And yet the headache may be the result of any one of innumerable causes and the faulty vision may be due to faulty habits into which the child has slipped without his parents observing the fact.

The eyes are the first to show results of bad health and rundown condition. If you wish to maintain normal vision in your child, therefore, make sure that his physical condition is up to par. Bad teeth, tonsils, adenoids, glands that are malfunctioning-any poison in the system-all of these immediately affect the eyes.

Proper diet is important for eye health. We are, to a far greater extent than we realize, a product of what we eat. A lack of any essential food has its effect in the long run upon weight, energy, our capacity to throw off or guard against disease.

Every parent who wants to guard and protect his child's health is alert to see that the proper vitamins and calories, the right amount of milk, greens, vegetables and fruits appear in the child's daily food.

It is worth pointing out, however, that while all these things are essential for the growth and building of a healthy body, Vitamin A is particularly important to the health of the eyes.

Prevention is better than cure when it comes to your child's eyes. Attention to children's eye care can never start too early.