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How can you tell if your kid needs eyeglasses?

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Dr. Marc Weinstein

4 MINUTES READ
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Kids Sunglasses can be the coolest part of a kid's outfit, until you find out that your cute little munchkin has to keep those glasses on for a while. It's a bit hard to deal with the realization that your child has had some visual issues for a while, and you hardly noticed.

So here's the big question. As a parent, How do I know when my kid needs to replace sunglasses that are recommended for good looks, with eyeglasses that are recommended for good sight?

Here are some tips to help  you determine if your kid needs Eyeglasses

Squinting

Squinting may be a sign that your child has a refractive error. A refractive error is a vision problem that distorts the eye focus, thus causing difficulties in seeing. Anatomically, a refractive error occurs when the shape of your eye prevents light from reflecting on the right part of your retina. The retina is the part of the eye that sends images to the brain. So if light does not fall on the right part of your retina, the image that gets communicated to the brain comes out blurry. Bringing it all the way back, a child that has such an issue may have to squint so that the light focus on the retina is better, and so the image sent to the brain comes out better.

When your child squints, he or she may just be suffering from near-sightedness, far-sightedness or astigmatism. These are the types of refractive errors that children are prone to.

Refractive errors are so popular that at least 150, million Americans have one type or the other. This should give you a tangible reason to take your child for a test once you notice frequent squinting.

Thankfully, prescription for kids glasses could correct most refractive errors in kids, so there's no cause for alarm.

While refractive errors are the most probable causes of squinting in children, there are other causes. This is why you should take your child for an eye test before grabbing a pair of kids eyeglasses off the counter.

Tilting head or covering one eye

Children actually imitate a lot. It's one of the reasons we tend to ignore when we notice funny habits in them. One of those habits may be closing one eye or tilting the head while looking at something. To you, it might just be something your child picked up from a favourite character in a kiddies pirate movie.

In actual fact, kids tend to close one eye or tilt their heads when they need to see things clearly or adjust the position of what they are looking at. This particular habit may be a symptom of lazy or misaligned eyes. These are also common eye problems in kids. They however can be corrected with the right prescription of kids glasses.

Sitting too close to the television or holding hand-held devices too close to the eyes

This is another one that can easily be written off as enthusiasm. When a child likes a game or some cartoon program, they watch with rapt attention, right?  Well, such attention should not include sitting so close to the TV or holding devices so close to the eyes.

When this happens so often, it becomes an indication that your child needs to take a test for near-sightedness. This is an eye condition that makes things blurry when they are far away. Mind you, it's also a refractive error.

Rubbing eyes excessively

While rubbing eyes can be a symptom of stress in kids, it might be a hint that they've been straining their eyes. Eye strain is also a possibility when your kid's eyes frequently aches, sheds tears or there are frequent headaches.

Except there's an issue, your kid shouldn't strain the eyes. When you begin to get the vibes that your kids have been straining their eyes, then you just might need a prescription for kids glasses.

Clumsiness and low concentration

There's the claim that a healthy eye can notice up to a thousand things at a glance. However, some eyes can barely notice more than one thing at a time. This is why some kids trace numbers outside the dotted lines, take more time to copy notes or even bump into things as they walk. When you notice that your kids lose concentration easily, then you might need to get kids eyeglasses for your child.

After taking the appropriate eye tests, the next thing is to get the kids eyeglasses. Sometimes, a pair of sunglasses is all you need to correct the problem. You don't have to get the glasses over the counter. You can look for where to buy kids glasses online. The advantage is that you get your kids' eyeglasses delivered to you at the comfort of your home. Though you may worry that a lot of fake stuff flies around online, you can as well get some of the best prescription kids glasses online.