Eye Safety Tips for Parents

Eye safety for children is about creating safe environment that will be able to protect your child from injury. As parents you certainly want to protect your child from any type of injury and your child's eye injury is no exception.

The chance of injury for your under age children, which are extremely inquisitive and unpredictable, is high. At times most infancy spills and knocks result in little more than a few tears but occasionally more serious injuries happen.

Eye injuries are among the common types of injury seen in young children. Every year, thousands of under age children have accidents that cause eye injury. About half of these take place at home or during sporting activities. Many of these injuries cause eyesight damage or even blindness.
 

Most Eye Injuries are Easily Avoidable

No matter how careful you're as a guardian, you can't supervise a child every split second. Reducing risks to your child eye safety is all about recognizing and avoiding possible eye hazards.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology over 40% percent of childhood eye injuries happen during sports or recreational activities. Among the more common findings:

• Baseball is the number one source of sports-related injuries for 5 to 14 year olds.
• Basketball is the most common cause of eye injuries for 15 to 24 year olds. Most injuries come from contact with fingers and elbows.

At home the most common causes of eye injuries to children include:

• Accidents with sharp toys and objects such as forks, knives and pencils. Even a paperclip can be unsafe at times.
• Injury from harmful household chemicals and cleaners. Alkaline based cleaners such as dishwasher detergents can be dangerous to eyes.
• Falls from stairs and furniture or when playing with toys.
• Yard accidents such as stones and debris thrown up by lawnmowers.

Eye Injury Prevention Tips

There are many simple steps you can take as a parent to prevent most eye injuries:

• Make sure your child wears appropriate eye protection when playing sport. This is especially important if your child has poor vision in one or both eyes. You may require them to wear eye protectors with polycarbonate safety lenses for active sports such as baseball, basketball and hockey.
• At home it's vital to keep cleaners and other harmful chemicals stored securely out of your child's reach.
• Keep children out of areas where lawnmowers or other powered gear is being used. High speed debris thrown up and hitting an eye can cause major damage.
• Make sure there are no sharp edges on benches or all over play areas and keep all sharp or pointed objects and toys out of young hands.

In case you suspect an eye injury to a child seek eye doctor immediately. A direct hit to his or her eyeball, for example, can seriously damage the interior of the eye even when there is no obvious external injury.
 

Safe Habits are Essential for Eye Safety

As well as being watchful, it's just as important to set your child a good example.

Using protective eyewear yourself when working with tools and power equipment is an excellent way to teach children the value of eye safety. Not only will it keeps your children's eyes safe but it also make sure they can see long into the future.