August is kids’ eye safety month and we would like to use this time to remind people to think about their children’s vision safety.  A simple check to start.  Do they have sunglasses to wear outside?  Have you brought in the ‘No hat, No Sunscreen, No sunglasses – No Play rule for playing outside.  As the sooner that you start your children wearing sunglasses the easier it will be for you.

The benefits for people wearing sunglasses include protecting your eyes from damaging ultraviolet light (UV).  The flow-on effect from less UV exposure means that the development of cataracts is delayed, hopefully indefinitely.  UV damage has also been linked to the eye diseases of Glaucoma and Macular degeneration, along with cancers of the eye.  Therefore not having exposure to UV damage can have a significant impact on your child’s overall eye health.

Does your child play a sport?  If so does the sport carry a high risk of eye damage?  Such as basketball, soccer, football, or squash for example.  If so, do they have protective equipment to help prevent these injuries from occurring? Eye injuries can lead to permanent changes to your child’s vision.  Possibly impacting their life choices and employment options in the future.

What about home handy tasks?  Do you or your partner do any home repair/maintenance or renovation?  If so, does your child follow then around and try and help?  If this is the case, then you need to think about some size-appropriate safety glasses for your child.  As the vast majority of accidental eye injuries happen at home.

To sum up, we need to think about what our children will be doing and what we need to provide to keep them safe.  As vision is a precious gift that deserves protection.