Shelburne Primary Eye Care have their eyes on you!

October 22, 2014 · 0 Comments

Business partners of Shelburne Primary Eye Care, Dr. Colette Whiting and Dr. Sandra Gillis Kennedy share special insights into eye care as October is Children’s Vision Month. Having been in school already over a month, many parents are wandering how often kids should get their eyes tested. Shelburne Primary Eye Care have the answers. “When parents are getting back to school supplies ready, it’s also the time to get the kids eyes checked,” commented Dr. Gillis Kennedy, explaining, “Kids often will not realize they are not seeing properly and so often parents will not notice. With 80% of all learning being visual, it’s essential to get a check-up, which may or may not reveal the unexpected. According to the Childhood and Eye Health Vision Awareness Program, Eye See Eye Learn, one is six children have some form of vision problem and children with poor vision often find it hard to concentrate resulting in a misdiagnosed behavioral disability. Annual exams can identifying health problems such as lazy eye or a turned eye, which are treatable and can profoundly impact a child’s learning experience.
According to Shelburne Primary Eye Care, there are five major issues people face that can impact a person’s eye health such as obesity, genetics, UV rays, age, and smoking.
Often, these issues are widely thought of as restricted to adult eye care and eye health but according to Dr. Gillis Kennedy, it’s an eye opening experience for many parents to discover children can be impacted in the future.
“Exposure to UV can cause damage cumulatively. Kids today have to wear a good pair of sun glasses. Think of it as a medical device.”
UV rays of today are far more harmful than in passed years and as damage is accumulative, kids today are getting damaged and will only notice when they are much older, a situation completely avoidable. Also, with kids of today using iPhones and iPads so much, it’s recommended that parents opt to get their children’s glasses covered with a protective coating to protect eyes from macular degeneration.
Shelburne Primary Eye Care see babies as early as 6 months old. Dispelling myths, Dr. Whiting explains, “Some parents think their kids need to know their ABC’s in order to have an eye exam. Not true. Also there’s a difference between eye care and eye health. A person can have 20-20 vision and still a situation with their eyes. Common in adults is glaucoma, macular degeneration, and even changes in blood vessels can reveal the beginning stages of Diabetes, and Sclerosis. So, sometimes eye signs precede a medical diagnosis as in the case with hypertension.”
And what about the very popular cheater readers?
Dr. Gillis Kennedy offers advice, “Cheaters are probably okay very short term, but will often cause stress and fatigue. Also most people have one eye with a different prescription than their other eye.”
To sum up eye care, the Dr.’s agree, the most important step to take is to have annual eye exams, and the second is probably to invest in a good pair of sunglasses with proper UV protection.

By Alex Sher

Photos by Alex Sher
(L to R) Rossalyn Kennedy, (front) Taylor Harris(back) Fribbit The Frog, (Ryan Dodds) Chloe Dodds, and Robert Harris took part in the Eyes See Eyes Learn Program, an Eye Health and Vision Awareness Program by the Ontario Association of Optometrists in celebration of October being Children’s Vision Month. Held at the Shelburne Public Library, kids took part in educational games, mini experiments and crafts with Fribbit the Frog! Shelburne Primary Eye Care hosted the event that was held on Saturday, October 18th.