WIN – Eye Care Essentials Health Kit #ad #ThinkAboutYourEyes

Disclaimer: I have teamed up with Think About Your Eyes in support of this campaign. We received compensation for participation in this campaign. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’ve had pretty good eyesight most of my life and haven’t put a lot of thought into eye care until recently. Now that I’m getting older I’m noticing that road signs are much harder to read than they once were and I do a lot more squinting particularly with most of my work taking place on a computer. It’s time to start thinking about my eyes and valuing the eyesight of my family.

According to the stats, I’m not the only one who has been neglecting healthy eye care. Eye exams are part of a healthy checkup schedule, yet one-third (34%) of parents have never taken their child to an eye doctor – talk about eye-opening! This number jumps to half of parents (49%) if the child is 6 years old or under – a worrisome statistic since children are recommended to receive at least three eye exams by age 6, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA).

Only 2 in 5 (40%) parents believe an eye exam is essential to a child’s healthy checkup schedule. This is roughly half as many who say an annual trip to the dentist (81%) and an annual trip to the pediatrician (78%) are essential. Younger children are more likely to miss out – parents of children age 7 and older are significantly more likely to say an eye exam is essential than parents with children 6 and younger (44% vs. 36% respectively).

Parents are waiting too long to take their children to an eye doctor for the first time. A quarter (24%) wait for their child to have symptoms before ever taking them to an eye doctor. To put this into perspective, only 2% of parents would wait for symptoms to take their child to a pediatrician – or even a dentist – for the first time. Why are parents putting replaceable baby teeth ahead of irreplaceable eyesight? 84% of parents say they know their child needs to see an eye doctor when their child starts complaining about their vision.

Half of parents falsely believe that only children who need glasses or contacts need to see an eye doctor (48%), while children who have good eyesight do not. However, the AOA recommends parents still take children who do not wear contacts or glasses to the eye doctor every two years.

The important thing to remember is that 1 in 4 children has a vision problem that can interfere with learning and behavior. 80% of everything children learn comes through their eyes, and uncorrected vision problems impact their ability to learn and interact with the world around them.60% of students identified as problem learners have undetected vision problems.*

According to the Think About Your Eyes search engine there are 5 eye doctors in my area. I think I better look one up and start modeling healthy eye care to my family.

To find an eye doctor near you, visit www.thinkaboutyoureyes.com/
Follow Think About Your Eyes on Facebook & Twitter.

WIN – Eye Care Essentials & Health Kit valued at $286

Eye Care Essentials Kit

• Chelsea Morgan sunglasses from VisionWorks ($139)
• Computer glasses from Chemistrie ($65)
• Lens care kit from Hilco ($50)
• Eyeglass case
• Eyeglass holders
• Cleaner and cloth

Eye health kit from Alcon ($32)

• Systane Ultra Lubricant Eye Drops
• Systane Balance Lubricant Eye Drops
• Systane Lid Wipes (for makeup removal)
• Zaditor Eye Drops (allergy)

To Enter: Go to the Think About Your Eyes website and locate your nearest eye doctor by using the eye doctor locator. Come back to the Rafflecopter entry form below and leave the name of the nearest eye doctor. For every Rafflecopter entry you do it’s an extra entry to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

US entries only and one entry per person. Winner will be chosen on May 30, 2015.

*Sources:

• KRC Research conducted this research via an online survey of 1,008 American parents with kids under the age of 18, from March 11-15, 2015.
• The Vision Council
• American Optometric Association