PREVENT YOUR CHILD FROM SUFFERING AN EYE INJURY
About one-third of all eye injuries in the US happen to children 17 years old or younger. The team at King LASIK is dedicated to your child’s eye safety. In this post, we discuss how to prevent your child from suffering an eye injury, as well as steps to take in the event that an injury does occur.
Causes of Eye Injuries
The main causes of eye injury among children include:
- Misuse of toys
- Falls from beds, stairs, and furniture
- Misuse of everyday tools and objects like garden tools and knives
- Contact with harmful household products like paint and fertilizers
- Auto accidents
Preventing Eye Injuries
Parents should use common sense and take several basic precautions to reduce their children’s risk of sustaining serious eye injury. The following is a good checklist to get started:
- For very young children, ensure there are gates at the top and bottom of staircases
- Make sure staircases have handrails that a child can easily grip
- Install cabinet and door locks that restrict access to dangerous household products
- Store utensils out of reach of children
- Parents should encourage their children to wear sunglasses with impact-resistant lenses that block 100 percent of UV rays. Over time, prolonged sun exposure, especially for individuals with lighter eyes, can lead to cancer of the eye or eyelid, and to cataracts later in life.
With toys, parents should look for obvious hazards like projectiles and sharp edges that could lead to injury. With the arrival of summer and new adventures, a quick scan of a playground is advised to check for potential danger zones.
Care in the Event of Injury
- Scratched cornea: a light scratch usually heals completely without complications but a severe cut requires immediate treatment and probably surgery
- Foreign matter in the eye: usually blinking or, if needed, careful irrigation will remove dust and small particles from the eye; for embedded material, cover the eye and go to the emergency room
- Chemical burns: the eye should be flushed with running water for 15 minutes; do not attempt to neutralize chemicals by introducing another substance in the eye
- Eyelid laceration: the cut needs to be sutured and stitched
- Blood in the eye: a trip to the emergency room is required; eye drops and/or a patch will probably be needed
- Black eye: most black eyes will heal completely without additional treatment
Consult with King LASIK
Dr. Joseph King, King LASIK’s lead surgeon, has performed over 85,000 eye surgeries. King LASIK’s offices offer leading-edge technologies, and the practice boasts an impressive record of success with very few complications. Please call us for a consultation at 877-551-2020.