August is Children’s Eye Health Month! With back-to-school underway or right around the corner, many parents are using this as an impetus to be more proactive about protecting their kids’ eyes.
With this in mind, you can take a few actions to ensure that your kids’ eyes stay their healthiest, protecting both their eyesight – which is essential for preventing headaches, enhancing focus, and supporting their performance in the classroom – and the physical health of their eyes.
1. Optimize their diet.
We’re taught from a young age that carrots are good for our eyes – which is true, being chock-full of Vitamin A, a nutrient that supports stellar eye health. There are a ton of other essential nutrients that we need to keep our kids’ eyes as healthy as possible.
Fruit is full of antioxidants such as Vitamin C, E, and A, which are vital to our eye health; antioxidants are crucial as they protect the eye from free radicals, which are thought to damage the retina (not to mention, many other parts of our bodies).
Leafy greens, such as spinach and kale, contain the carotenoid, lutein, which help protects the back of the eye (the macula) from the sun’s rays and harmful blue light.
So, to keep your kids’ eyes healthy, make sure to pack some fruit in their lunch box – and include leafy greens and other vegetables in as many of their meals as you can when they eat at home.
2. Consider eye supplements.
Some vitamins and antioxidants are difficult to obtain through our diet – especially those essential for protection against the harmful effects of blue light – or for those kids who just refuse to eat their fruit and vegetables!
More than ever before, our kids are exposed to blue light from screens, which dominate every aspect of their lives from their education to how they spend their free time.
To ward off the potential harm this may cause to their eyes, it’s a good idea to give your children supplements to combat the potential harmful effects of screens such as Viteyes® Blue Light Defender Kids. Viteyes® Blue Light Defender Kids offers the power of lutein and zeaxanthin to support healthy vision and Astareal® Astaxanthin to help eyes recover from eye strain and fatigue. Our kid’s version of the Viteyes® Blue Light Defender™ line contains a pediatric dose of all ingredients in a chocolate berry soft chew. Taken once a day, it can help defend your child’s eyes against harmful blue light and promote overall eye health.
3. Take them for regular eye tests.
For anyone at any age, going for eye tests is essential to maintaining our eye health.
However, it’s particularly important for kids, for whom eyesight is vital to their ability to habituate well in a classroom, since much of their education depends on them being able to see a board – which may be across the room from them – or focus on a problem sheet right under their nose.
As such, taking your kids for regular eye tests is essential to ensure their eyesight is up to scratch to allow them to thrive in full-time education.
Moreover, eye tests will bring to light any potential eye health problems your kids may have so you can get ahead of them and get them the treatment they need as soon as possible.
In light of Children’s Eye Health Month, ensure your kids’ diet is filled with antioxidant-rich fruit and vegetables, give them supplements to protect their eyes from blue light, and take them for regular eye tests to keep their vision in check, to make sure your kids’ eyes are the healthiest they can be.
