Sunglasses, They Make You Look Great!

Eye problems in children should be identified as early as possible. There are two things a parent should look out for in order to make sure his child has the best possible eyesight. These are posture and any sign of emotional disturbance.

POSTURE

Be alert to notice the first signs of poor posture. The vigorous, healthy child has a naturally erect posture and a correct use of body function. Faulty habits of posture sometimes develop as young as in the toddler, where they can be corrected as fast as they make their appearance. Because of its great importance to general health as well as its effect on eye vision, posture must be drilled into the child.

Poor posture results in malfunctioning of many parts of the body, in nerve strain, and frequently it is an indication that the general health is below par and energy at a low ebb. If the child slumps, if his spine is out of line and his head down and his chest caved in, he needs a check-up to discover the cause of this lack of vitality.

This requires more of the parent than an often repeated and querulous, “Stand up, Johnny.” Observe what muscles the child is using wrong and correct his use of them. We are coming to be increasingly aware that posture not only affects the opinion that other people have of us but the opinion that we have of ourselves. An employer hesitates to hire the person who sags dejectedly against the wall while he waits to be interviewed. No stamina, he decides to himself. No initiative. No confidence.

On the other hand, the person who sags, who walks with his head sunk down, cutting off blood and air circulation, his eyes on the ground, has a feeling of, “I can’t. I’m not up to it,” which militates against his achieving the things he sets out to do. Posture is a more potent factor than we yet realize in influencing the course of our life and the amount of zest and self-confidence and tangible success we get out of it.

Try this for yourself. Walk across the room, head down, shoulders slumping, and then walk back, head erect, shoulders back, taking long, deep breaths. You feel like a different person.

EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE

Another way in which the parent is the unconscious cause of eye problems in children is in neglecting to help the child maintain his emotional balance. Psychiatric studies reveal that most emotional disturbances originate in childhood and because we know that bad vision has a mental or emotional basis in a great number of cases, it is essential to protect the child from emotional shocks.

There is no better reason for self-control and maintaining an atmosphere of peace in the home than its overwhelming importance to the child’s well-being. An hysterical mother, an abusive father, parental scenes which are not directed at the child but affect his sense of security in his home-any one of these can lead to an emotional strain that will bring about defective vision by the time he reaches puberty.

We tend to underestimate the extent of a child’s awareness of conditions which we think he is too young to understand. Yet if we look back to our own childhood we realize that, whether we understood or not, we were frequently deeply influenced or affected by situations which our parents barely realized we saw. It is unlikely that we spoke of our awareness, that we knew what had happened to us.

It is equally unlikely that your children will speak of it. Perhaps they could not find the words even if they tried. But the fact remains that tension and shock, unhappiness and fear, leave scars on a child which time does not always heal.

The alert parent, aware of the power of fear should be on the alert to spot the first signs of it-for children rarely tell their fears-get at the root of it and eradicate it promptly.

Pay attention to their posture and emotional health and you will be able to help with many potential eye care problems in children.