Most of the more than 42,000 eye injuries that land sports players in the emergency room every year would have been preventable had the participant been using protective eyewear. Although your kids may argue against wearing eye protection, you should take note that 72 percent of these injuries happen to people under the age of 25 and 43 percent to children under 15.
Choosing Sports Eye Glasses for Kids
Not just any glasses or goggles will do; the best sports eyewear has polycarbonate lenses for impact resistance. Prescription glasses and many styles of fashion sunglasses, on the other hand, lack the protection necessary for sports. Their lenses will usually shatter upon impact with a ball, fast moving object, or even the elbow of another child. Shards from the lenses or broken pieces of the frames can then cause a serious injury to the eyes or face.
If your child is practicing sports outdoors, you will also want to look for UV protection in eyewear. Overexposure to sunlight from playing outdoors for several hours can lead to a painful sunburn of the eyes called photokeratitis. In addition, accumulative exposure can cause serious conditions in the future including cataracts and ocular tumors, warns All About Vision.
A final feature to look out for is lens tint. Depending on the tint, your child will be able to see different colors in greater clarity. For instance, yellow-tinted lenses are useful for tennis as they increase contrast between the color of the ball and the sky. Skiers and snowboarders often choose rose and amber tints to distinguish ridges and bumps in the snow by their shadows. For similar reasons, baseball players tend to favor amber tints and golfers usually choose copper.
All the shades in the Real Kids collection contain polycarbonate lenses with 100 percent UV protection, ensuring that your kids remain safe regardless of the sports they play. Many of our sunglasses are designed specifically for sports and some styles are available polarized to significantly reduce glare. Check out our range of shades to find the perfect pair for your child.