How to Protect Your Child’s Eyes

Eyes are among the most delicate parts of the body. They require care and attention to ensure they remain healthy. From preventing sports eye injuries to knowing when to start regular eye exams, keep reading to find out how you can protect your child’s eyes. 

1. Ensure they wear protective gear when playing sports.

For children, one of the most common ways that eye injuries occur is because of playing sports. Generally, most of these eye injuries occur from sports that feature a ball, puck, stick, bat, racket, or flying object. 

Of course, you don’t want to stop your children from being active, but you do want to make sure their eyes are appropriately protected. Unfortunately, your child’s regular eyeglasses, sunglasses, or contact lenses aren’t going to protect their eyes when they are playing sports. Instead, you need to purchase additional protection. 

When it comes to protective eyewear, there are various options available depending on the sport that your child is playing. There are safety goggles, face guards, and other forms of special eyewear designed specifically for certain activities. 

Luckily, wearing protection can prevent the majority of sports eye injuries. To ensure your child is protected, make sure you are purchasing eyewear made from durable polycarbonate. This material will protect your child’s eyes from both impact and ultraviolet (UV) rays. 

For sports posing a high risk of eye injuries such as baseball, softball, basketball, and squash, your child needs to wear safety glasses with polycarbonate lenses. For sports such as hockey,  lacrosse and tackle football, your child needs to be wearing a helmet with attached polycarbonate face masks. For water sports, you want to protect your child’s eyes with safety goggles fitted with polycarbonate lenses. 

2. Educate your child about the risks.

Between the ages of 10 and 17 years, children are most likely to injure their eyes from sports. However, before that, they are also at risk of damaging their eyes in other ways. Therefore, you must educate them on these potential risks of playing with toys or household items. 

To reduce the chance of anything happening, children should always be given age-appropriate toys. When they are younger, play should be supervised if they are using a toy with detachable or potentially harmful parts. 

Furthermore, children may accidentally damage their eyes because of contact with hazardous substances, household cleaning supplies, hot grease or oil, and sharp kitchen tools and utensils. Toiletries such as deodorant and perfume sprays are also potentially dangerous for your children’s eyes. For this reason, these items should be kept out of reach until your child is old enough to understand the risks. 

3. Understand eye injury symptoms.

Some of the most common symptoms of eye injury include a cut eyelid, unusual pupil size or shape, obvious pain, difficulty seeing, an eye sticking out, or blood in the white part of the eye. 

If your child complains about any of these symptoms or you notice them, get medical help immediately. As the eyes are very delicate, even a minor symptom can result in a severe injury, although it may not be necessarily apparent at first. 

If your child does have symptoms of eye injury, then you want to make sure you don’t touch or rub the eye or apply ointment to it. Similarly, refrain from attempting to remove an object that is stuck or has penetrated the eye. Instead, immediately see a medical professional who has the knowledge to deal with it appropriately and safely. On your way to the doctor, lightly place a gauze patch over the eye. 

4. Schedule regular eye exams.

In addition to protecting your child’s eyes when playing sports and reducing the chance of something happening at home, you also want to prioritize having regular eye exams with a top eye specialist in Dubai (or wherever you reside). 

Going to see an eye doctor is an integral part of maintaining your child’s eye health because it reduces the chance of a serious eye issue going undetected. 

During an eye exam, the eye doctor will check for potential vision problems such as amblyopia, misalignment, nearsightedness, and farsightedness. Your child should have their first comprehensive eye exam around six months and then again at age three and age six. Once your child is in school, they should have an eye exam at least every two years. 

Regrettably, too many children have vision issues that go unnoticed because they aren’t getting regular eye exams. This can negatively affect their ability to learn as good vision is essential for learning – especially at a young age. In many cases, vision issues can be corrected, as long as these are detected and treated early.  

What steps do you take to ensure that your child is protected from eye injuries? Do you have any additional insights or suggestions? 

Let us know your thoughts and any relevant experiences in the comments below!