Eye Safety Is Child's Play
Help your kids appreciate their eyes and empower them to take steps to protect themselves from activities and situations that can damage their vision. It’s not because you said so. It’s because they can are making good choices. Talk about why/how these action steps are ones they want to take:
• Wear goggles in classes where debris or chemicals could go flying, such as wood shop, metal shop, science lab, or art.
• Wear eye protection when playing racquetball, hockey, skiing, or other sports that could injure your eyes.
• Wear sunglasses. Too much light can damage your eyes and cause vision problems, such as cataracts, later in life. If the eye lens gets cloudy, it's called a cataract. A cataract prevents light from reaching the retina and makes it difficult to see.
Let kids help select the protective eyewear they need, especially sunglasses. Use the sunglass guidelines on this page to choose the most protective ones.
Post-Accident Strategies To Protect Injured Eyes
Accidents happen. When your child, or your spouse, or you get hurt and it involves the eyes, these do’s and don’ts can make all the difference:
1. Do not delay medical attention even if the injury seems mild at the time.
2. Don’t rub the eye. It can cause more damage if tissue is torn.
3. Do not attempt to rinse the eye. This can be even more damaging than rubbing. (If you have gotten a chemical or irritating substance in your eye, start irrigating with water and call your eye doctor.)
4. Shield the eye from pressure. Tape or secure the bottom of a foam cup, milk carton or similar shield against the bones surrounding the eyebrow, cheek, and bridge of the nose.
5. Don’t give (or take) aspirin or ibuprofen or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (N-SAIDS) to reduce pain. Those are blood thinners that increase bleeding.
6. Do not apply ointment or any medication.
Save Your Eyes With Irrigation
Irrigate the eye (flood with water) to reduce irritation or lessen damage when you get either harmless or harmful chemicals in your eye. Use lukewarm tap water, and only water. You can 1) immerse you face in a basin of water, 2) pour water slowly into the eye from a glass or pitcher, or 3) put your head under a gently running faucet or shower.
Harmless chemicals - 2 to 3 minutes. (bubble bath, cosmetics, deodorant, lemon juice, shampoo)
Stronger chemicals - 5 to 10 minutes (ammonia, vinegar, alcohol, household bleach)
Acids - 10 minutes continuously. ( any acid including hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, oxalic acid)
Alkalis - 20 minutes continuously. (lime, lye, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, industrial-strength ammonia.)
After flushing acids and alkalis, go to the ER.
Sources: KidsHealth.org and Kids Growth Child Health, The Children’s Hospital, Denver.
Doctor Who? continued from page 1
Optometrist is a doctor of optometry (OD) trained to examine, diagnose, treat, and manage some diseases and disorders of the eye and visual system, including conditions such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia. He or she has not attended medical school, but has completed pre-professional undergraduate education and four years of professional education at an accredited college of optometry. An optometrist does not perform eye surgery.
Optician is an eye healthcare professional who has a two-year technical degree. He or she works with ophthalmologists and optometrists to provide vision services related to the diagnosis and treatment of vision problems and eye disease. They analyze and interpret eye prescriptions; determine the appropriate lenses; oversee ordering of eye-related products; dispense, replace, adjust, repair and reproduce previously ordered contact lenses, eyeglasses and frames.
Source: Web MD. Reviewed by the doctors at The Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute.
The WELLBEING™ is published monthly by HRMS. Information in The WELLBEING™ is intended as general health information and should not replace medical advice or
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