Leading Health Information Source for Women Offers Guidance on Children and Contact Lenses

RED BANK, N.J., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Parents and children don't always see eye to eye when it comes to vision correction. Children often feel they are ready for contact lenses before their parents do, and parents often don't know how to determine if their child is indeed ready.

To help parents, caregivers and others better understand options and benefits for fitting children in contacts, HealthyWomen, the leading independent health information source for women, is offering a free educational resource, Fast Facts for Your Health: Contact Lenses for Children.

A growing body of research demonstrates that contact lenses provide significant benefits to children beyond correcting their vision and that some children are capable of wearing and caring for their lenses.  Studies have shown that children who wear contacts feel better about their physical appearance, athletic ability and social acceptance compared with kids who wear glasses.  

While studies have shown that contacts can benefit children, it's important to understand whether contacts are the right answer for a child's vision problems. Fast Facts for Your Health: Contact Lenses for Children offers guidance on how parents and eye care professionals can decide if a child is ready to take on the responsibility of contact lenses. Doctors will typically evaluate a child's maturity in deciding whether he or she is ready for contact lenses.  

"Fitting your child in contacts is about more than just improving their vision. It might also help improve their self-esteem and confidence in the classroom," says Elizabeth Battaglino Cahill, RN, and executive director of HealthyWomen. "Wearing and caring for contacts can also help instill self-care habits that will build over a lifetime."

Fast Facts for Your Health: Contact Lenses for Children was developed with the support of VISTAKON®, Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., and can be viewed or downloaded at www.healthywomen.org/children-and-contacts.

VISTAKON® is a trademark of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.

SOURCE HealthyWomen