Don’t Forget to Protect your Family’s Eyes

I wrote this review while participating in an Influencer campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. and received a promotional item from Mom Central to thank me for participating.

How often do you think about your eyes? If you’re not having an issue with them, then the answer to that is most likely, not often. Well, not only do we need to pay more attention to our own eyes, but our children’s as well.

My Eyes

About 7 years ago, I had Lasik eye surgery to correct my nearsighted vision. Well, now I have the vision of an eagle, but boy am I light sensitive! About two years ago, the kids and I went camping with a family that we could call our own. We were out in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no cell service.

Seriously you had to drive at least an hour to have a single bar of service. So, we ditched all devices and spent all our time enjoying the beautiful land. Adam and I decided to take a canoe out on one of the lakes. Despite me having to do 90 percent of the rowing, we had a great time out there!

Later that evening, we were sitting by the campfire sharing stories and roasting marshmallows. I was mid-sentence of an undoubtedly wonderful anecdote when it felt like someone shot me in the eye with a rubber band.

Naturally, I startled and held my hand over my eye. When I took down my hand I was immediately beside myself with confusion because I was seeing double!

I could see perfectly fine out of each eye but together the images just didn’t match. I was instantly nauseated and terrified. I could walk around only using one eye to see which left me with no depth perception. I was utterly disoriented but above all scared out of mind. I kept looking at my friends and saying “Look at me! Is there something wrong with my eyes?!”

No one saw anything! Being so far from any medical help, I decided to just take an anti-inflammatory and go to sleep. I certainly wasn’t able to drive anywhere and it was getting really late. By morning, my vision was back to normal. Needless to say, I was still nervous about what had happened so as soon as we got home I scheduled an appointment with my eye doctor.

He explained that I had strained my eyes terribly by going out on the lake on a sunny day. The sun was shining down from above and reflecting up from below so my eyes were basically getting fried despite the fact that I had on sunglasses.

Mind you, these were fashion shades and didn’t provide great coverage to begin with. I was probably slightly dehydrated on top of all that too. So one of my eye muscles just sort of fatigued causing the offset images.

Well, now I don’t go ANYWHERE without a couple pairs of sunglasses! I never want to take advantage of my eyes like that again!

Family Eyes

Just because I have suffered a traumatic eye event doesn’t mean the whole family doesn’t need to be careful. The cumulative damage caused by UV rays can eventually catch up with us all. So, as parents, we owe it to our children to protect their little peepers so that they can have a better chance at lasting eye health. Here’s a few things we can use to help protect them:

• Sunglasses
• UV Blocking Contact Lenses
• Broad rimmed hats
• Avoid long periods of time in the sun, especially on water
• Dusk and Dawn are also dangerous sun-exposure times

UV blocking contact lenses can provide an important level of additional protection from UV exposure. Not all contact lenses offer UV protection, and, of those that do, not all provide similar absorption levels. ACUVUE® is the only major brand of contact lenses which blocks approximately 97% of UV-B and 81% of UV-A rays as standard across the entire range of its products.

While I don’t wear contacts anymore, my son does and I’m thrilled to know that ACUVUE® is helping out with UV protection without any extra thought required. However, I’m still pushing hats and shades because the whole eye should really be shielded.

Travel

Since kids are out for summer, it’s up to us to make sure we stay on top of our kids with sunscreen and eye protection! Add hats and sunglasses to your travel checklist and this goes for winter months too! Sun reflecting off snow can also be very harmful. For more information on keeping our eyes healthy, check out this great resource from ACUVUE®!