How to Place Eye Drops In Child's Eyes

How to Place Eye Drops in Child's Eyes

From the library of

Frank Barnhill, M.D.

Putting medication in a child’s eyes can be one of the most frustrating things for a parent and can be terrifying for a kid. Let’s quickly look at the problem. The human eye is very sensitive to temperature changes and the slightest pressure. Eyes normally blink in reflex when even puffs of air hit them, so they will definitely blink with the pressure of eye-drops. If the drops are cold or hot, the muscles around the eye socket, called an orbit, will go into spasm causing intense pain lasting a few minutes. This pain trains children to avoid getting things in their eyes, thus making it difficult for you to instill drops. Here is a method I started using over fifteen years ago and fortunately it still works well today.

Make a sort of game of putting medicine in your child’s eyes.
Let her lie on her back on the bed or a table. Be sure she can’t accidentally roll and be hurt.
Tell her to close her eyes tightly and not to open them until you say so.
Then, put the drops on top of her eyelids in the corner closest the nose. This will allow them to warm to skin temperature and help avoid the reflex muscle spasm as he pressure of dropping will not occur.

Naturally, after two or three minutes as the child can no longer feel the drops, she will open her eyes and the medicine will run in. Let your child look at her eyes in a mirror and tell her how the medicine is making them get better. Congratulations, you’ve learned how to avoid your child associating medication and trauma. Most experts feel doing so will allow your child to grow to respect being well and probably take better care of themselves.

Dr. Frank

These health tips are offered for your common sense use and are not intended to take the place of a visit to your doctor. Your use of the materials implies your understanding that nothing herein contained represents individual medical advice.

drhuggiebear, drhuggiebear.com and contained materials are the copyrighted and/or registered properties of Frank Barnhill, M.D. and may not be reproduced for profit without the express written permission of the author. All materials may be photocopied in whole for educational use. For information please contact us at drfrank@drhuggiebear.com.