Eye health resource
How to Choose Toys That Protect Your Child’s Eyes
Toy-related eye injuries can happen with projectiles, sharp or rigid parts, lasers, chemicals, and unsafe play. Learn what to look for when choosing toys and what to do if an eye injury occurs.
Reviewed for accuracy by Justin Bazan, OD on .
The safest toy is one that matches a child's age, abilities, and environment and does not create an avoidable risk of a projectile, sharp-object, chemical, or laser injury to the eye. Eye injuries can happen quickly during ordinary play, so supervision and how a toy is used matter just as much as the label on the box.
Projectile Toys Deserve Extra Caution
Toy guns, dart launchers, airsoft or other non-powder guns, water-balloon launchers, and similar devices can send an object toward the eye with enough force to cause a corneal abrasion, bleeding inside the eye, traumatic cataract, retinal injury, or other serious damage.
Follow age recommendations, never aim a projectile at a person's face, keep an appropriate distance, and use impact-resistant protective eyewear when the activity warrants it.
Watch for Sharp or Rigid Protruding Parts
Toys with pointed sticks, rods, antennas, arrows, fishing-pole-like parts, or broken plastic can injure an eye during a fall or collision. Younger children may also run while holding objects near face level.
Choose designs that are appropriate for the child's age and supervise play when the toy includes a long, rigid, or pointed component.
Keep High-Powered Lasers Away From Children
A laser should never be aimed at an eye. High-powered or mislabeled laser products can damage the retina, sometimes without causing immediate pain.
If a child reports a new blind spot, distorted vision, or meaningful vision change after looking into a laser, have the eye evaluated promptly.
Chemicals and Aerosols Can Injure the Eye
Aerosol products, craft chemicals, cleaning products, and other substances can irritate or burn the ocular surface. Children should not use products that can spray toward the face without appropriate supervision.
If a chemical gets into the eye, begin flushing the eye immediately with plenty of clean water or saline. Do not delay rinsing while searching for an eye doctor. Significant chemical exposure requires prompt emergency evaluation after irrigation begins.
Protective Eyewear Matters for Higher-Risk Play and Sports
For activities with a meaningful risk of impact, ordinary street eyeglasses are not the same as sports-protective eyewear. Polycarbonate sports goggles or other protection designed for the activity can greatly reduce the risk of serious sports-related eye injury.
Children who need prescription correction can use prescription sports eyewear when appropriate.
What Should You Do After an Eye Injury?
Minor irritation and major injury can initially look similar, so symptoms matter. Seek prompt care for significant pain, light sensitivity, reduced vision, bleeding, a misshapen pupil, a visible cut, or symptoms that do not settle.
If an object is embedded in the eye or appears to have penetrated the eye, do not try to remove it or press on the eye. Protect the eye from additional pressure and seek emergency care.
A chemical burn, penetrating injury, severe blunt trauma, or sudden major vision loss requires emergency evaluation rather than waiting for a routine office appointment.
Pediatric Eye Care at Park Slope Eye
Park Slope Eye provides pediatric eye care and can evaluate appropriate non-emergency eye-health concerns. We do not currently provide Vision Therapy.
If your child has a non-emergency eye concern after play or you are unsure whether an examination is needed, email the office so we can help determine the appropriate next step.
Originally published . Substantially updated .