Protecting your child’s health starts before birth and continues throughout their life. Encouraging healthy habits and promoting good eye health is vital to ensuring they experience good vision well into the mature years. Eye health and overall health go hand-in-hand, but there are a few things you can do to focus on a child’s eye condition. Take a look how below:
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Eat well during pregnancy.
Your baby is soaking up the nutrients from your body throughout pregnancy. What you eat and drink to your overall lifestyle can affect your child, so eating well and getting regular mild exercise is a great way to start the journey to better overall health.
Eat well after pregnancy.
One of the best ways to encourage a child to eat well is to be a great role model. Children are notoriously fussy but starting them on a good diet early will install better habits over time. Kids are more inclined to try new things when they are younger as they don’t have a perceived idea of their taste or smell. Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and antioxidants are ideal for a healthy and balanced body and mind can help with your child’s vision.
Introduce interesting toys
Toys are a great visual stimulant and encourage good eye health for young children. Play also promotes fine motor skills and develops an interest in shapes and colors, so you have a great excuse to keep them playing for as long as possible.
Watch out for childhood eye conditions.
As your child develops, keep a watch for potential issues with the eyes. If the eyes are crossed or turned out, seek medical advice. Eye conditions such as cataracts can affect kids too. Children may have cloudy patches in their eyes, and this can sometimes make the lens get bigger. In this case, a cataract lens implant may be needed to treat the condition.
Protect eyes from the sun
UV-A and UV-B are harmful to any eyes, especially developing ones. However, it’s more challenging to place sunglasses on your child, as they’re likely to take them off straight away. Try to keep them out of direct sunlight. You may also have some luck adding a hat to their outfit.
Visit the eye doctor regularly.
Children may find visiting the eye doctor strange, but going for check-ups from an early age will help make it feel normal. Regularly testing will identify any vision issues or needs for spectacles. The eye doctor will also monitor eye conditions and check for any problems.
Avoid pointy objects
Avoiding sharp objects is no surprise for any person with children. However, it surprises the type of things that can cause eye injuries. Kids like to play and wave all kinds of toys and books around, which can hit the face. While you can’t predict what will happen at any given moment, it’s best to avoid anything that could potentially poke or cut the eye.
Protecting your children’s vision is the best way to avoid eye conditions and issues in the future. It is particularly important for encouraging good habits as they develop.
image source: Photo by Zahra Amiri on Unsplash
