Children's Eye Safety In & Around Your Home | Home Eye Safety & Eye Injury Prevention Month

As a parent, of course one of your top concerns is your child’s safety. You teach your kids to look both ways when crossing the street, wear a bike helmet, and buckle up in the car, but accidents also happen in the home. In fact, according to the AAO, about 50 percent of eye injuries occur at home. While young children may be especially vulnerable to eye injuries, older children and teens are also prone to eye injuries in the home.
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Let’s start by looking at common causes of children’s eye injuries at home, before we dive into how to prevent them and what to do should one occur.
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Common Causes of Children's Eye Injuries at Home

We’ve all heard the cautionary warning: “Don’t run with scissors.” That’s because common products and everyday household situations such as that can cause serious eye injuries at home. Common causes of children’s eye injuries at home include:

• Misuse of tools and toys: Children may misuse tools, such as pens, pencils, and scissors, as well as toys. Some misuse may be unintentional. In other cases, kids may use common tools in unintended ways, such as using pencils to have a “sword fight”. Either way, misuse can lead to injuries, including eye injuries.
• Contact with dangerous products: Children may accidentally get chemicals from bleach, pesticides, and other household products, such as cleaners, detergents, and self-care products, in their eyes. Chemical splashes or contact can lead to burns, including serious burns to eyes.  
• Run-ins with sharp corners and edges: Encounters with sharp objects, such as running or falling into furniture corners or counter edges, can lead to eye injuries and other serious injuries.

• Falls: Falls in the home can cause all types of trauma, including eye injuries. Younger children are especially at risk for falls in the home.

 
Now that we’ve established how children commonly sustain eye injuries at home, let’s look at how to prevent them.
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Eye Safety Tips for Children Inside the Home

Getting a little relaxed about safety precautions at home is easy to do, but it’s important to look around your house and determine what you can do to decrease the chances of your child sustaining an eye injury. Consider the following tips:

• Prevent exposure to chemicals: Store chemicals where children cannot reach or get. It only takes a second for a young child to knock a bottle over and get splashed in the eye with hazardous chemicals. If older children or teens are using chemicals to help clean, be sure they know the hazards and use protective eyewear.
• Store tools and personal use items out of reach of children: Young children are naturally curious and may grab any item they see. If you have young children, keep items such as kitchen utensils, screwdrivers, wire coat hangers, and office supplies out of reach. Remind toddlers and older children not to run if they are holding sharp objects, such as a pen, fork, or scissors.
• Prevent injuries from toys: Toys, while lots of fun for your children, can cause injuries. Some are sharp or made of hard materials, which can lead to cuts and other trauma if thrown or fallen on. Make sure toys are picked up and your children know not to throw them at one another.
• Baby proof your home: Don’t underestimate how quickly your little one can get into trouble in your home and injure his or her eyes. Install drawer and cabinet locks, so children can’t get their hands-on kitchen utensils, chemicals, or other harmful products. Pad sharp edges and corners of furniture to avoid eye injuries if your baby or toddler takes a tumble. Keep baby proofing in place until your child is mature enough to know to avoid potentially hazardous objects or situations.

• Prevent falls: Install safety gates at the top and bottom of your staircases, as well as handrails on stairs. Make sure you have adequate lighting in hallways and night lights in bedrooms and bathrooms to prevent eye injuries from falls.
• Keep laundry packets out of reach of little hands: Something as common as a laundry packet can injure your child’s eye. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), almost 500 kids sustained an eye injury from laundry packets in 2015. Always store laundry and dishwasher packets in a secure place, out of the reach of little hands.

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Playing Outside and Eye Injury Prevention

While it’s great for kids of all ages to spend time away from the TV, computer, or tablet and spend time playing outside, it’s also important to make sure they play safely outdoors. Keep the following safety tips in mind to decrease your child’s risk of an eye injury:

• Decrease the risk of dog bites: According to the AAO, children who are bitten by a dog sustain eye injuries about 15 percent of the time. Always supervise young children around dogs. Teach older children to ask the owner before petting a dog. Also remind your children not to put their face close to a dog they don’t know.
• Be careful when having a snowball fight: A snowball fight can be fun, but it’s important to play safe. Remind kids never to aim for the face and don’t throw snowballs that contain chunks of ice.

• Use proper equipment when playing neighborhood games: A pick-up game of kickball or street hockey with the neighborhood kids can be great fun, but it can also lead to eye injuries if the proper equipment isn’t used. Know what you’re children are doing outside, and make sure they have the proper safety equipment available and know to use it, as well as how to use it.
• Don’t throw sand or dirt: Sand or dirt that’s thrown can land in an eye and cause a corneal abrasion. Make sure children understand it’s not acceptable to throw sand or dirt at someone else under any circumstance. Also make sure they know not to rub their own eyes when they have sand or dirt on their hands.

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How to Handle an Accidental Eye Injury

If your child does suffer an eye injury, do not put ointment in your child’s eye or try to remove a foreign object from the eye yourself. Although older kids and teens can let you know if their vision is out of focus, young children may not be able to express vision disturbances. Have your child examined by an eye doctor immediately, even if you don’t think it’s serious. Some injuries may not be obvious at first.
 
By taking the steps above, you can decrease your child’s risk of an eye injury and help protect their vision. Please call our office at 508-746-8600 if you have any questions or concerns.  
 
Thanks for reading our posts for Home Eye Safety Month / Eye Injury Prevention Month. Please check back with us soon as we cover Diabetic Eye Disease Month and “Five Things to Understand About Diabetic Retinopathy”.