It’s a given that most parents will do everything in their power to keep their children out of harm’s way. However, we often remind parents here at our Utah optical practice that it’s not all the time that they get to protect their children from eye injuries. Fortunately, they can take measures to reduce their children’s chances of sustaining eye damage from accidents both inside and outside the home.
Below is a quick guide to preventing eye injuries among your little ones:
- Never allow your child to play sports or similar activities without an eye protector. Sports such as football, baseball, racquet sports, lacrosse, hockey, and soccer have specialized eye protectors made of polycarbonate lenses.
- Be an example to your children. When dealing with hazardous detergents, solvents, and similar substances, wear safety goggles. In addition, make sure to keep these substances out of your children’s reach.
- Make sure that your child wears protective goggles during laboratory work at school.
- Avoid projectile toys for children such as bows and arrows, missile firing toys, and darts. The same goes for pellet guns and non-powder rifles. If your child will insist on playing with the aforementioned, let them wear protective eyewear.
- When you’re on the road, children that are below 12 years old should never be allowed to sit in the front seat and should be securely positioned in child safety seats. Keep loose objects in the trunk or place them securely on the floor as they can become dangerous projectiles in a crash.
- If possible, provide pads or cushions to sharp corners at home.
When to Seek Emergency Eye Care
You are to seek emergency eye care with the following circumstances:
- an object has punctured your child’s eye
- your child has difficulties seeing
- your child is in pain
- your child has double vision (seeing two of the same objects)
- your child feels that there’s something stuck in the eye
- unusual pupil shape and size
- blood is present in the white part of the eye
- a chemical substance has splashed into the child’s eye and you find it difficult to remove with gentle flushing
- a forceful blow has hit the eye
Emergency Eye Care in Tooele, Utah
If you find yourself or your child in a situation that requires emergency eye care, call us at 435-843-8333! You can also choose to fill out this contact form if you’d like to set up an appointment with us. We look forward to helping you and your little achieve optimum eye health.
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