Child Eye Care Tips and Guide

Child Eye Care and Vitamins
Vitamins A and B are essential for children to have sparkling and clear eyes. Vitamin A prevents night blindness, eye strain and fatigue. It also helps the tear ducts in secreting moisture, which gives eyes their sparkle. Babies can be given vitamin A drops orally, which can be fed in a spoon or by a dropper into the mouth, in the first month of their birth.

Child Eye Care – What Should you Know?
As your infant grows into a toddler, when he shows interest in seeing the pictures in a book, be sure that the room is well lit. Natural light is best during daytime, so ensure that your child's room gets plenty of sunshine and air. At night, be sure that enough light falls on the book, which he is seeing or reading.

Make sure that your child is not put to any eye strain. See that he does not read in very dazzling or dim light. Initially, check that the books the child reads has large prints. If he watches television, be sure to have a soft indirect lighting in the room, and let your child watch it from a distance of at least eight feet.

Child Eye Care Guide
If you suspect your child of having difficulty in focusing or having a blurred vision, see an eye specialist immediately. If he advises wearing spectacles for improvement of sight, see that he gets a pair as early as possible, and that he wears them at once. He should remove them from time to time, and close his eyes for at least five minutes: then blink a dozen times before wearing them again. This helps to relax his eye muscles.

A child may suddenly develop squint between the ages of two and six years. This can be cured if it is attended to immediately. It is common for a baby to have crossed eyes in the first couple of months, but by the third month they become steady and straight.

Some babies have watery eyes but they clear up by the time they turn one year. You may also notice a discharge from the comer of the eyes. White matter collects in the comer of the eye and along the edges of the lids. This discharge will make the lids stick together, caused by obstructed tear ducts. But even this is a passing phase. Wet a small ball of cotton and gently wipe the matter away. Do not apply pressure at all.

Foreign Particle and Child Eye Care
If some grit or foreign particle gets into your child's eye, you can remove it by drawing the upper eyelid down and away from the eye, and holding it by the lashes. This allows the tears to wash the grit out of the eye. Otherwise you can ask your child to open the eye into a cup of water and blink a couple of times. If this too proves unsuccessful, take him to see a doctor, but see that he does not rub his eye. He can hold a soft cloth or a wad of cotton on his affected eye till the doctor sees him.