Before school parents prepare their children for the new school year by buying the necessary stationary. It will a good idea to combine this with a visit to the ophthalmologist.  Good vision will allow a child to follow both lessons and extracarricular activities with  ease.  With a simple visit to the ophthalmologist parents can  ensure:

1. The health of teh child’s eyes

2. The improvement in school performance

3. Better socialization for the child through his participation in extracarricular activities (eg sport)

For this reason parents must have some understanding of the for treh developemental process of a child’s eye.

The eyes are visible in the fetus from week four after conception. Vision starts with birth and develops rapidly. New borns can tell different colours and moving forms (shapes) and sometimes react to the sight of the mother’s face. Focusing starts at 6 weeks and is perfected at four months. At this age it is not natural anymore for the child’s eyes to be cross eyed or unstable. The eye’s lens and the length of the  προσθιοπίσθιου axis (length of the eye) are teh two most important  factors in the developement of refraction. The curvature of the lens changes  ενώ η δύναμή του αλλάζει – κατά μέσο όρο – περίπου κατά 20 διοπτρίες from the infant stage and during the childhood period. The cornea develops up to teh age of 2.από το νηπιακό στάδιο και στη διάρκεια της παιδικής ηλικίας. Ο κερατοειδής αναπτύσσεται μέχρι την ηλικία των δύο ετών. Up to that point its refractory power is changing by about 5 διοπτρίες. The most critical period for the developement of vision is from birth to 3 years old and great changes take pleace due to growth up to the age of 7. Eye developement , therefore,  is completed between 8 and 10 years old. μεταξύ οκτώ (8) και δέκα (10) ετών.

It is nowadays proven that in the case that the child has myopia  υποδιόρθωση (the use of glasses with fewer degrees from those needed), no correction at all (no glasses) as well as the limited use (for short periods of time) increase the degree of myopia. This results to the myopia growing far more before stabilization.  In recent years we have the developement of methods that can reduce the final degree of myopia. Check the following web sites:

http://www.myopiacontrol.org/

https://www.myopiacare.org/

Early diagnosis of any vision problem that may exist is very important to therapy or controlling the symptoms to order to obtain natural developement of two eye vision and depth perception. From the moment eye developement has been completed many refractory anomalies like strabismus and amblyopia cannot be corrected and result in permanent problems like bad depth perception or loss of vision from one eye.

It is, therefore a good idea for parents to follow closely the developement of their childrens’ vision with yearly visits to an ophthalmologist.

As far as the childrens’ vision glasses it is good practice to follow your optician’s advice in the choice of frame and vision lenses. Frames must be made by a hypoallergic and sturdy material. Good quality frames are more expensive but they last longer and they can be repaired many times. so, on a life cycle basis they are far cheaper.  Also parents must keep in mind that children will bend the frames a lot. For very young children it is advised to use round or oval frames so that the child is “forced” to look through the glasses and not from the top  (as it will be the case with an oblong frame).

There is a wide choice of construction materials for vision lenses. The lenses must be made of  organic materials that are  resistant to hits to offer maximum protection to the child’s eyes. If the child is participating in sports Trives from reputable companies is the material of choice. THis material is very sturdy (more so than Polycarbonate) with very good optical properties (Higher Abbe value, ie lower colour distortion)Οι φακοί οράσεως θα ήταν προτιμότερο να έχουν αντί ανακλαστικές επιστρώσεις έτσι ώστε να είναι πιο διαυγείς και να προσφέρουν καλύτερη όραση. Parents often choose lenses without these properties on price grounds. However, in such a case, children do not use the glasses as they are annoyed by reflections with the end result that vision deteriorates over time.