Mai Eyes Optometry

When should I take my child in for an eye exam? Answers may vary depending on who you ask, however the American Optometric Association recommends our first eye exam at between 6 and 12 months old to make sure visual development and health is on track and generally every 1-2 years after! Is your child on track?

Eye exams with an eye care professional can help detect a number of conditions, some of which your pediatrician may not be aware of or have the ability to evaluate during a pediatric annual wellness visit. These conditions may include: eye turns (strabismus), high refractive error (glasses prescription), amblyopia and occasionally pathologies such as congenital cataracts and even cancers within the eye (retinoblastoma).

Unsure of where to take your infant for their first eye exam? A good place to start is to check out: https://infantsee.org/

This website can help you find a participating InfantSee provider who has volunteered to provide one time free comprehensive eye exams for infants between 6 months and 12 months old.

InfantSEE Home InfantSEE®, a public health program, managed by Optometry Cares® -The AOA Foundation, is designed to ensure that eye and vision care becomes an essential part of infant wellness care to improve a child's quality of life.

The CDC has updated their guidelines and many activities have now become safe again for fully vaccinated individuals. But what does "fully vaccinated" mean and what does that mean for every day activities, travel and international law? Check out the CDC's information below!

Have You Been Fully Vaccinated?
In general, people are considered fully vaccinated:
- 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
- 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine
If you don’t meet these requirements, regardless of your age, you are NOT fully vaccinated. Keep taking all precautions until you are fully vaccinated.

If you have a condition or are taking medications that weaken your immune system, you may NOT be fully protected even if you are fully vaccinated. Talk to your healthcare provider. Even after vaccination, you may need to continue taking all precautions.

What You Can Start to Do
If you’ve been fully vaccinated:
- You can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic.
- You can resume activities without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
- If you travel in the United States, you do not need to get tested before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel.
- You need to pay close attention to the situation at your international destination before traveling outside the United States.
- You do NOT need to get tested before leaving the United States unless your destination requires it.
- You still need to show a negative test result or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before boarding an international flight to the United States.
- You should still get tested 3-5 days after international travel.
You do NOT need to self-quarantine after arriving in the United States.
- If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms.
- However, if you live or work in a correctional or detention facility or a homeless shelter and are around someone who has COVID-19, you should still get tested, even if you don’t have symptoms.

What You Should Keep Doing
For now, if you’ve been fully vaccinated:

- You will still need to follow guidance at your workplace and local businesses.
- If you travel, you should still take steps to protect yourself and others. You will still be required to wear a mask on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation traveling into, within, or out of the United States, and in U.S. transportation hubs such as airports and stations. Fully vaccinated international travelers arriving in the United States are still required to get tested within 3 days of their flight (or show documentation of recovery from COVID-19 in the past 3 months) and should still get tested 3-5 days after their trip.
- You should still watch out for symptoms of COVID-19, especially if you’ve been around someone who is sick. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested and stay home and away from others.
- People who have a condition or are taking medications that weaken the immune system, should talk to their healthcare provider to discuss their activities. They may need to keep taking all precautions to prevent COVID-19.

What We Know
- COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 disease, especially severe illness and death.
- COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of people spreading COVID-19.
What We’re Still Learning
- How effective the vaccines are against variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. Early data show the vaccines may work against some variants but could be less effective against others.
How well the vaccines protect people with weakened immune systems, including people who take immunosuppressive medications.
- How long COVID-19 vaccines can protect people.

As we know more, CDC will continue to update our recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

Want to learn more about these recommendations? Read our expanded Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People.

COVID-19 Vaccination COVID-19 vaccines protect against COVID-19. Get safety info and more.

Is there such a thing as too much zinc? Short answer: Yes. But why?

Zinc is an essential mineral that can help improve immune function, wound healing, vitamin A metabolism, and slow progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Zinc is typically present in high amounts in the eyes and works as an antioxidant to help prevent damage from oxidative stress.

But how much zinc is too much? The National Institute for Health (NIH) states most adults can tolerate to up 40mg of zinc per day. Long-term intake greater than this can increase risk of harmful side effects - in some cases, excessive zinc intake can even damage the photoreceptors in our eyes that give us vision.

Zinc toxicity can cause nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea and headaches, lower HDL levels (i.e. our good cholesterol), and in more extreme cases, kidney damage, pancreatic damage, liver damage, increase risk of prostate cancer and increase hospitalizations for genitourinary issues (see extreme case examples below of patients ingesting over 800mg of zinc per day). Excessive levels of zinc can also decrease the effectiveness and absorption of certain medications (including antibiotics like cipro, penacillamine used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, and diuretics like hydrochlorothiazide) as well as decrease the body's ability to absorb copper. Copper is an essential mineral for the formation of red blood cells, maintaining healthy bones, blood vessels, nerves, immune function and iron absorption.

Our bodies work best when they have a healthy balance of essential vitamins and minerals. In the case of most things, sometimes less is more. Check your supplements to make sure you are not exceeding recommended values (unless prescribed by your doctor) and make sure your multivitamin isn't putting you over the top if you are taking additional supplements on top of your multivitamin. Always be sure to give a list of all your medications and supplements with dosages to all of your physicians. In this day and age of multiple specialists we are seeing, to help us better help you it is also important to make sure your physicians know which supplements were prescribed to you for what purpose and which were not.

For more information on zinc:
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/%20Zinc-HealthProfessional/
https://patient.info/doctor/zinc-deficiency-excess-and-supplementation-pro
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554548/
https://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20030701/too-much-zinc-linked-to-prostate-cancer #1
https://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20030701/too-much-zinc-linked-to-prostate-cancer #1

Cases of acute zinc toxicity in patients taking over 800mg per day: https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62239-8/fulltext

Studies on excessive zinc damage to the eyes:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16799065/

Excessive zinc intake related to prostate cancer: https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/Zinc_and_prostate_cancer

Office of Dietary Supplements - Zinc Zinc overview for health professionals. Research health effects, dosing, sources, deficiency symptoms, side effects, and interactions here.