Washing Powder in babies eye!

[Neverlandd]

Help! I knocked over a box of washing powder and a big cloud of it dusted over my 1year old!

She immediately cried, I think from the shock, and rubbed her eye. I rinsed it and rinsed it, and washed her all over. She cried a lot because I was pouring water onto her face. (As awful as it is I’m hoping tears would help wash it out too?)

She stopped crying as soon as I stopped washing her and gave her a cuddle. And fell asleep (it’s past her nap time so that’s not unusual, she was tired before.).

Have I done enough by washing her skin and rinsing her eyes? My thinking is that she can’t be uncomfortable or in pain or she wouldn’t be asleep. And her skin and eyes don’t look red. But maybe I’m wrong and I need to wake her up and keep rinsing her? Or take her to A&E?

Phone the GP for advice, if you can’t get through phone 111 for advice

Straight to an opticians or. A and E when she wakes up.

If she’d eaten it I’d say go to A&E obviously but not for what you describe. By all means call 111 if you feel you want to

You’ve done everything that would be advised and what they’d do at the hospital etc… they physically couldn’t do anything other than washing her eyes out with water.

I’m sure DC will be just fine OP. As you say, if she was in discomfort you’d know about it.

I would have gone straight to a and E. This would be the protocol if this happened to me in the lab.

In the lab we have special eye washes as some times water is not always the best and you need to neutralise the contaminant.

Eyes are incredibly sensitive to chemicals

Myself, I’d not bother. However, she can’t tell you how she feels so I’d second A&E. It’s a bit of a bun fight these days but I have observed over the past few visits that they see children quickly.

@Neverlandd what did you decide in the end?

I waited until she was awake then spent hours looking at her eyes in various lights and sending photos of them to people to check they looked ok. General consensus was they aren’t red or anything or bothering her in any way and I’d already rinsed, don’t even know if powder went in them in the first place, so left it as nothing more to do.

Then I had a cry about how awful it feels to let your babies down 😢

Thank you to everyone who answered.

I once had liquid detergent on my finger and stupidly rubbed my eye. Given what happened to me and how young your child is there's no way I wouldn't have taken her to be checked.

Take your child to get checked.

When you say ‘given what happened to me’ what do you mean? That it hurt?

Because she’s not acting in any way that it hurts.

Trying to add a screenshot of the warning label on the packaging but can’t figure out how to add a photo. Anyway it says ‘If in eyes: rinse for several minutes, if eye irritation persists get medical advice/attention.’

Our hospital has an eye casualty.

My teenager damaged the surface of her eye with a different medication for her eczema. She didn't realise what had happened for ten days, she just thought her eye was a bit irritated.

This was eighteen months ago and at one time we were going to the hospital every three days, now once a month.

You don't arse around with eyes I've learned.

Washing powder and liquid is packed with chemicals. Harry Judd (McFly) his son squeezed a washing liquid pod and some went into his eye. He had to have hospital treatment, I think he was in for a few days and they had to wash his eye out regularly for at least 24 hours. Check his wife Izzy's Insta page if you want more info on what happened. It can be really dangerous so I would definitely be calling 111 even if DD seems OK now. You can't really know if any damage has been done or is being done by not getting medical attention. Please seek medical advice OP.

I’ve booked an appointment with an optician tomorrow.

I burned my eye really badly when a washing capsule burst. Powder might not be as bad but I’d still be taking her to an optician asap

It didn't hurt beyond a sting but I had to go to hospital for several days of treatment, sent by the optician where I went first.

My son got liquid powder in his eye when he played with a gel capsule with wet hands and it burst, then he rubbed his eye. He would have been about 3.

The hospital said that because it was non-biological detergent he just had a minor chemical burn. Apparently biological detergent can do much more damage.

It was non-bio here too. That must have been so scary for you both, I’m sorry that happened. What did they do at the hospital?

Put yellow stuff in his eye to see the extent of any injury which revealed a minor chemical burn to the cornea. Then eye drops for a week.

It's ok, it was 20 odd years ago :)

What did they say?