“Eye”Care For Kids- You Do Too, So Schedule Regular Vision Checks

Confession: I had laser-eye surgery when I was 24, but before that, I was extremely nearsighted as a kid. I started wearing glasses around 8, and probably needed them long before that.

For kids nowadays, wearing glasses is so not a big deal.  There are many cool, trendy frames to choose from; glasses are almost like a fashion accessory.

But back to the 80s. As I said, I had a poor prescription. We’re talking the thickness of your average Coke bottle (back when they were still made of glass, young pups).

So every time I’d go to get a new pair of glasses, I’d long for the one of the cool pairs- you know, the wire-framed ones.

But nay- those frames were premium, not covered by my parents’ prescription plan. 

The prescription frames were on the BOTTOM shelf. And for good reason.

 I got my glasses, but:

And in case you think I’m exaggerating, here’s a picture for proof. *Sigh*

Sidenote: I’m not sure who took this picture, but I remember the events surrounding it:

The Great Burger Bet of 1986.

I had made an off-hand comment to my Dad one day about how much I loved burgers- something akin to,

“I bet I could eat burgers every day!”

And my father responded with,

“I bet you couldn’t eat two burgers a day for a month.”

Challenge accepted, Father.

And I did. I ate two hamburgers for dinner every night while the rest of the family ate the regularly-scheduled meal.

You can see that this picture was clearly taken near the end of my month-long run: the enthusiasm for beef was obviously waning.

And the prize I took this wager on for? A book.

A frigging BOOK, because I was such a bookworm.

So this picture clearly speaks volumes, making one question why any parent would think daily beef is a good idea for a kid, and why didn’t the parental units just buy this poor kid books instead of making her earn them, & how maybe they should have saved all that money spent on beef to instead buy their kid some cool specs & a decent haircut…

Anyhoo, back to the point: EYESIGHT.

Myopia (nearsightedness) can be influenced by several factors, but it can also be hereditary. We’ve got six kids here, so when we rolled the genetic dice each time, it turns out that:

Schools do yearly vision exams, and most pediatricians do, too. To their credit, they catch a lot of budding myopia issues, & let parents know that their child may need glasses.

But a lot of kids fall through the cracks; they need glasses, but it isn’t caught for a long time.

And the longer they go without glasses, the worse their vision can get.

Thankfully, I have a family member that works for a team of eye doctors. She has always reminded me to stay on top of booking yearly thorough eye exams for all of my kids. 

And good thing, because as a parent, you assume your kid can see just fine, until he’s  squinting at the eye chart in the ophthalmologist’s office:

Oops….

A thorough vision appointment is key for catching lots of things- not just myopia, but astigmatisms, farsightedness, corneal issues, etc.

Plus, they get those cool Terminator-looking shades after their eyes are dilated, so there’s that!

Through blogging connections, I recently attended a panel about childhood myopia, hosted by Cooper Vision. They talked about a lot of interesting facts, but the most obvious point made:

Make sure your kids have yearly eye exams with actual eye doctors.

Cooper Vision’s chart about how “informed” (or not so much, really) a lot of us parents are about our kids’ vision beyond the school/pediatrician exams made me realize how a lot of us wouldn’t even think to have our kids’ eyes checked yearly- other than at their pediatrician’s office).

So while we can’t necessarily prevent our kids from needing vision correction, we can catch the need earlier to make it easier for them to see. 

(And we can remind them to keep their glasses in one place, so they don’t keep losing them over & over & over… *sigh*)

Although most of them somehow manage to “see” what they want to see anyway, somehow:

Disclosure: While I was compensated to actually attend the Cooper Vision Panel event, I was under no obligation to post anything about it. I did not receive any compensation for this post; I’m sharing the info simply because I believe it’s important for parents to consider.