Children’s Eye Health and Safety: Emergency Room Near You
Our eyes are among the most delicate organs in our bodies, not to mention one of the most important ones. Children are especially susceptible to eye injuries and issues especially when you consider that most of the sporting activities and actions they perform while playing make them susceptible to suffering eye injuries. When you consider actions such as throwing of a baseball or a hockey ball or puck, swinging of a baseball bat, shooting darts and many others, you begin to see why this is the case. This is without taking into account accidents involving chemical burns among others, all of which could pose a problem when it comes to our children’s eye health and safety. Given children will be children and will get into mischief as they explore during their early formative years, it is important to keep an eye on their eye health and safety. This is brought into even sharper focus when you take into account the number of children that suffer vision loss, either partial or permanent each year according to the statistics available. This article will look to provide help when it comes to this by highlighting all one needs to know about children’s eye health and safety so as to ensure that we can prevent any unfortunate consequences.
The first thing we are going to highlight as far as children’s eye health and safety is concerned are the warning signs to look out for that indicate that your child may have a problem with their eyes and vision. They include if you child closes or coves one eye, keeps rubbing one or both of them, is complaining of an itchy, burning or scratchy eye or eyes, they complain they are having trouble reading, understanding what the teacher writes on the board or doing any close-up work or if the start to experience nausea, dizziness, a headache or feel sick after having performed a close-up task. You should always keep an eye on these symptoms which could indicate that they have a problem with their eye or have an eye injury and should react accordingly according to the urgency of the situation. It is also important to highlight some of the common eye problems that are seen in children. They include strabismus which is also referred to as crossed eyes which is the condition where your child’s eyes do not line properly. To correct this problem, your child may require eyeglasses or surgery. Lazy eye, also known as amblyopia is yet another common eye condition in children. It may be corrected through a myriad of ways from the use of eye patches, eye drops to eyeglasses and contact lenses to even surgery in other situations. Refractive errors are also common and include nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism and can all be treated through prescription contact lenses and eyeglasses.
Eye injuries are another thing altogether and when your child suffers one, it is important to know how to go about things. The first thing to do when your child suffers an eye injury is to take them to an emergency room near you as soon as possible to be attended to. On top of that, you should also ensure that you don’t touch, apply pressure or rub the injured eye, you don’t apply any ointment to the eye and you also don’t try and remove any object that may be stuck in the eye. If they have suffered an accident leading to chemical exposure in their eyes, you should rinse with water as you wait for medical attention. You should also cover gently, and not apply pressure, on any cuts or puncture wounds to the eye. You should then make sure to keep your child as calm as possible, assuring them help is only moments away, as you await help to arrive if you called 911 or as you take them to an emergency room near you to be attended to.
It is also important, as far as children’s eye health and safety is concerned, that we know what we do in order to prevent eye injuries since prevention is always better than cure. To prevent chemical exposure to the eyes, you should ensure that any sprays and chemicals are kept out of the reach of children. If your child participates in sports such as baseball, football, soccer, and hockey as well as leisure events such paintball, then you should have them wear protective eye gear to protect their eyes. When buying toys for your children, you should stay away from projectile-like toys such as darts and the likes and you should also only buy toys that are certified ASTM, which means that the toys have been certified by the American Society for Testing and Materials and are therefore safe for them. If your kids want to help with work around the house, either in the yard, house repairs and the likes, you should ensure that they wear protective eyewear to protect their eyes from any injury.
Hopefully, you will be able to know more about children’s eye health and safety and therefore be able to ensure that your child’s vision is as good as it can be while preventing any unfortunate accidents and consequences.
