Eye protection is of vital importance and yet we regularly don’t think of protecting our own, let alone our children’s eyes. It is more common these days to protect children’s eyes from the sun by having them wear sunglasses. Which is wonderful, as ultra-violet light has been linked to cataract development along with macular degeneration and glaucoma.
Children are active beings, they like to watch us perform our jobs and even try to complete them themselves. As this is one of the many ways they learn. For example my little guy loves watching his dad doing handy man activities and while he has clear sports glasses to protect his eyes, as I haven’t yet been able to sourced little kids safety glasses. I would hazard a guess that most parents haven’t thought about their little Johnny or Jill looking over their shoulder when they don their protective equipment.
Bearing this in mind and the fact kids do compete in sporting activities it is worth thinking about wether your children’s eyes are safe. We have now added a couple of sporting glasses styles that come standard with protective lenses or can even have prescription lenses added at your local Optometrist, we can also fit lenses to these frame for an additional charge. These frames come with an adjustable strap to keep the glasses nice and snug.
We have been investigating Sporting Standards for sport and the short version is that they are in the works at the moment with the standards committee. They hope to have them completed over the next 1-3 years. In the meantime I have contacted the Australian Institute of Sport and their understanding of ball sports including soccer, hockey, netball and basketball – you are not allowed to wear spectacles. If you choose to wear glasses they advise you to have polycarbonate safety lenses.
I have been able to find out that NSW Soccer have changed their ruling at the beginning of the year to say that kids who wear glasses are not allowed to wear their standard glasses on the field. They need to wear sports glasses and we have a style that is approved the Progear Sports – the one that looks like normal glasses with the elastic strap at the back. I have also been informed that netball and footy have the same legislation in NSW. I haven’t heard about other states or sports as yet. So watch this space as more information comes forward I will pass it on.
As an aside if you come across little kids certified safety glasses to Australian medium impact standards please let us know. At the moment we can offer the petite or small size Uvex Pheos and Bolle Rush Plus which are great for the over 8 year olds.
