OPSM Partners with Healthy Harold

OPSM
PARTNERS WITH
HEALTHY HAROLD

OPSM and Healthy Harold partner to educate Aussie kids about eye health

OPSM has partnered with Life Education and Healthy Harold, the much-loved Australian children’s icon, to address the need for early and regular eye health checks in children to help combat myopia.

One in five Australian kids currently experience eye problems in some form with myopia being the biggest eye health issue affecting children today. It is estimated that by 2050, myopia will affect at least 49.8% of the world’s population - or nearly five billion people*.

Is your child complaining of sore or tired eyes? Moving closer to the screen? Headaches? Squinting? Reduced focus and concentration? Avoiding reading? Short attention span? These are identified symptoms of a child with myopia*.

What do I need to do?

Peter Murphy, Director of Eyecare and Community recommends a number of things you can do for your children which may minimise the future progression of myopia. Remember, your kids mirror your actions, so choose to introduce these suggestions into your lifestyle, as well as your child’s.

An OPSM professional can help you and your child minimise the risk of myopia.

Schedule an appointment with your local OPSM optometrist

As a priority, book in regular eye examinations for your child based on their eye health needs. Speak with your optometrist about any symptoms you have noticed. In an ideal world, you want to detect the condition prior to your child starting school, and remedy as required.

We all scream for screen time

Introducing restrictions on screen time for your family is important. For necessary screen time, put reminders on your device to take a 2-3 minute break every 45 minutes. Place any other materials you need to look at, at the same distance as your screen to minimise the need for your eyes to readjust. Blink frequently, and if screen time is excessive, look into ordering anti-reflective coating on your glasses to minimise glare.

Take regular eye breaks

Peter suggests, “giving the eyes regular breaks using the ‘20/20/20 rule’ – after every 20 minutes of screen time, shift your eyes to look at an object around 20 metres away, for at least 20 seconds. The ideal addition to this practice would be to take regular breaks throughout the day by getting outside and going for a stroll.”

Time for play!

Encourage interactive play with your child from a young age. From stacking building blocks to colouring in, this will help improve your child’s visual skills, and visually-guided eye-hand-body coordination, fine motor skills and visual perceptual abilities.

Keep an eye on your child

Look out for any delays in your child’s development as this may indicate a vision problem. This could include difficulty with the recognition of colours, shapes, letters, and numbers. It is also important to be aware of the presence of vision problems like crossed eyes (strabismus) or lazy eye (amblyopia).

Protect your protege

Buy the proper safety equipment for your child’s activities. From sports to science, it is crucial your children have the correct equipment for these activities. Don’t forget about protecting from things you can’t physically see - like UV rays!

Fun in the sun

Make time for outdoor play with your children. Focus on activities that promote hand-eye coordination. This could include throwing and catching a ball, or bike riding.

Healthy habits

Your eyes are big fans of food rich in antioxidants and omega oils. Ensure your child’s diet includes foods with these nutrients weekly. Suggestions include salmon, fruit (particularly berries), leafy green vegetables, and eggs.

Early detection is key

At OPSM, we encourage our customers to have regular check-ups. If caught early, there are several ways your optometrist can help correct myopia and reduce its progression.

Book An Eye Test

Colouring in Facebook competition

To celebrate our partnership with Healthy Harold, we’re giving away one lucky winner a $500 OPSM gift card and Healthy Harold merchandise. To enter, simply download and print one of the Healthy Harold colouring in pages, colour it in with your child, take a photo of your masterpiece and share it on our Healthy Harold Facebook competition post. Happy colouring and good luck! See OPSM Facebook Notes section for full T&Cs.

Download Printable Healthy Harold PDFDownload Printable Healthy Harold PDF

To help support Life Education’s work in empowering children to make safer and healthier choices, donate here.

*Source: https://goodvisionforlife.com.au/your-vision/children/.
**The impact of myopia and high myopia: Report of the Joint World Health Organization – Brien Holden Vision Institute Global Scientific Meeting on Myopia. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. 16-18 March 2015

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