While participating in recreational activities such as contact sports or when working on woodwork craft projects, all children should wear protective eyewear. Eye injuries can easily occur when handling heavy tools and when playing sports where moving objects, balls, racquets and sticks are in play. Also, many eye injuries come from pokes and jabs by fingers and elbows, particularly in games like basketball, where players are in close contact with each other.
The good news is that eye injuries during sports are easy to prevent- all it takes is to make sure your child has the right eye protection so that the risk of eye injury is reduced and possibly even eliminated.
It is important to purchase age-appropriate toys, as toys with sharp or protruding parts are a common cause of eye injuries in children under the age of 3. Furthermore, avoid toys with laser lights, such as handheld laser pointers, light saber sticks, lasers mounted on toy guns used for aiming, spinning tops that project beams and lasers intended to create optical effects in an open room.
Many toys on the shelves these days for young children have laser features which opens the risk of permanent eye damage, therefore it is important to teach your child the dangers of laser pointers and that they are not to be pointed at the eyes. If you do purchase a toy with a laser feature, make sure that the laser light is below five mW and is age appropriate.
Since many eye injuries in children occur during gardening where a piece of vegetative material or plant scrapes the eye (often causing corneal abrasions), it is important to take extra precautions and ensure your child wears sunglasses while outdoors, especially while gardening. Aside from protecting the eyes from physical injuries, sunglasses will also guard your child’s eyes from the sun’s harmful UV rays.
**If in the case your child does suffer an eye injury, make sure that you seek immediate medical attention and make sure your child refrains from rubbing or touching the affected eye.
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Dr Aaron Wong brings cutting-edge glaucoma care home to New Zealand.
