How can you help your child have healthy eyes and clear vision?

As parents, we all want the best for our children including clear vision and healthy eyes. Oftentimes in the office, parents ask what they can do at home to help prevent worsening vision.

Regular Eye Exams: 

• Yearly exams are necessary to examine the clarity of vision or changes in prescription and the health of the eyes
• Children should have their eyes examined at 6 months, 3 years, and every year afterwards. The most critical time to start annual exams is just before starting schooling at around 5 years old.

Make sure their prescription is up to date

• The wrong prescription or one that is too weak can not only cause blurry vision and eye strain, but can actually contribute to the prescription worsening faster or potentially permanently reduce best corrected vision.

Reduce Near Work: 

• The amount of work our eyes have to do increases with near objects. The more time spent on computers, tablets, and cell phones causes the eye to elongate and become more myopic (or nearsighted).
• Try to limit near work to less than 3 hours a day
• Take frequent breaks when working on the computer or tablet for many hours. The rule is every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away, and blink for about 2 minutes.

Get Outdoors

• Studies have shown us that not only should children reduce near work, but also spend more time outdoors.
• Children should spend 1-2 hours outside a day

It is important to note that children may not have complaints for a variety of reasons:

• They may not want glasses or think they are “not cool” so they don’t complain
• They may not be aware that what they see is abnormal or their vision can be clearer
• They may be able to read letters but may not understand that double vision, squinting, or straining their eyes to do so is not normal.
• If they see well out of one eye but poorly out of the other eye, their brain may start to suppress the “bad” eye (or shut it off) and only use the good eye to see. This can lead to a “lazy eye” or amblyopia where the poorer eye has permanently reduced vision.

It is important to have your child’s vision examined regularly, even with no complaints, to monitor for these concerns, worsening prescriptions, lazy eyes, or other visual and ocular health problems. Book your appointment online or call our office to schedule your child’s eye exam.

AUTHOR

Dr. Brianna Rhue

FAAO Board Certified Optometric Physician

West Broward Eyecare Associates

High blood pressure (hypertension) and Diabetes are diseases that affect the blood vessels in your body. These diseases are very common and can affect many organs including the eyes. Since the eye is the only place we can view the blood vessels directly (without surgery), an eye examination can provide a small glimpse into your overall health and identify signs of hypertension and diabetes.

Patient symptoms and signs:

• Fluctuating vision – If the blood pressure or blood sugar spike due to diet or not taking medication as directed, the lens inside the eye can swell or fluid in the retina can actually temporarily change the prescription of the eye.
• Blurry vision – vision which stays blurry could be due to more significant findings including fluid or retinal bleeding (hemorrhages)
• Double vision – more often due to diabetic neuropathy where the disease is actually affecting the nerves which control the muscles around the eye.

Any of these symptoms should be a sign to visit your eye doctor to check the health of your eye and discuss with the doctor managing your high blood pressure or diabetes to determine if a different treatment is necessary.

What does your eye doctor see?

Signs of Hypertensive Retinopathy:

• Arteriolar compression or Venous nicking – when the walls of the arteries thicken they can compress the underlying veins limiting blood flow back to the heart
• Cotton wool spots – white fluffy areas in the retina signifying ischemia (or obstructed blood flow)
• Retinal hemorrhages – due to leaking blood vessels
• Other possible findings: optic nerve swelling, macular edema (fluid)

Signs of Diabetic Retinopathy:

• Venous tortuosity: when the blood vessels supplying the back of the eye become
• Retinal hemorrhages: due to leaking blood vessels
• Retinal exudates: lipids and proteins leaking from weakened blood vessels
• Macular edema: fluid that has leaked out of blood vessels can accumulate in the macula, the most critical area for sharp vision often leading to blurry vision
• Other possible findings: optic nerve swelling, neovascularization (new blood vessel growth)

Treatment

The main goal for any of these findings is to treat or manage the underlying cause which is high blood pressure and/or diabetes. Your eye doctor will report the findings to your primary care doctor or endocrinologist in order to be evaluated for lifestyle changes, start medication, or change medications to better manage your condition. If you have significant hypertensive or diabetic retinopathy and your vision is impacted, treatment with a retinal specialist may be required to reduce further damage to the eyes and preserve vision.

If you have been diagnosed with High Blood Pressure or Diabetes, it is important to evaluate the health of the eyes every year, even if you are seeing well. Call to book an appointment for your comprehensive eye exam today at 954-726-0204 or book online!

AUTHOR

Dr. Isabel Carvajal

Board Certified Optometric Physician

West Broward Eyecare Associates

Inflammation is your body’s appropriate response to an injury or infection in order to heal. This normal process becomes a problem when an overreaction of the immune system produces excessive inflammation without a specific cause leading to chronic inflammatory diseases. Some of these diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and lupus. While often these conditions have other symptoms, occasionally signs in the eye could be the first clue to systemic inflammation throughout the body.

Possible symptoms related to inflammation:

• Repeated red eyes
• Sensitivity to light (photophobia)
• Blurred vision
• Pain in the eyes

What does your doctor see?

• Episcleritis or Scleritis: one or more episodes of red eyes related to inflammation (not infection) could be associated with a systemic inflammatory condition
• Uveitis: inflammation of the front and or back of the eye, often associated with pain and light sensitivity
• Retinal findings: these can include inflammation surrounding the blood vessels that supply the retina or inflammatory cells within the vitreous gel of the eye

What to do if you have some of these symptoms?

Make sure to visit your optometrist to have your eyes evaluated. It is important to rule out many other causes of red eyes, blurry vision, and pain in the eyes. If your doctor suspects a systemic inflammatory cause, they may send a letter to your primary care doctor or a rheumatologist for additional blood work or work-up to rule out potential causes.

To book an appointment, call 954-726-0204 or book online at any time!

AUTHOR

Dr. Brianna Rhue

FAAO Board Certified Optometric Physician

West Broward Eyecare Associates