6mth old eye injury at nursery

[daphnedoo12]

Hi,

My 6mth old scratched his eye at nursery. He's jolly, not really bothered by it. Around the eye isn't red or swollen, the eye ball itself is red and bloodshot.

Nursery rang, I've come to pick him up. There's no chance I'm getting a doctors appt today, should I take him the walk in centre to get checked?

Nursery said he cried for about fifteen minutes

I would. What caused it?

I would call a local opticians for help in the first instance, poor little man.

My surgery would absolutely make a space for a baby with a sore eye. If not, then yes to the walk in centre. You can’t be too careful with wyes

Apparently he scratched his eye and screamed and cried, he was happy as ever when I picked him up and he seems to be having no issues. That said, it's so angry looking and red on the actual eyeball

I'd call 111 for advice - they'll tell you the best place to get him seen depending on what facilities you have locally, or whether to wait.

A scratch on the eyelid I wouldn't be too worried about.

A scratch in the eyeball itself def needs looking at.

When my DS was about 7, he managed to get scratched on the eye while playing football. We spokr to out of hours GP (Saturday afternoon) who suggested we pop to local opticians. The local optician was fab, had a quick look and sent us straight up to the eye specialist clinic in a hospital in the next town. All was fine but he was given drops in case of infection and had a couple of follow up appointments.

I'd want to get it checked as a precaution (you can't be too careful with eyes), however little scratches like this always look worse than they are, because when blood gets trapped between the membranes it has nowhere to go but spread outwards (so just a tiny amount of bleeding ends up looking quite dramatic).

The GP/walk in centre/111/optician should all be able to help. I'd be surprised if my GP couldn't fit in a baby for an urgent appointment, but I guess all surgeries are different!

Definitely get it checked out. Do you know how the injury was caused?

It's probably fine but he can't tell you if his eyesight is blurry or it is getting worse or feeling gritty or any of the other things to look out for and he could make it worse if he rubs his eye. He may need precautionary antibiotics and they might want to put a dressing on to stop him rubbing it.

@chesirecat99 they said he scratched himself in his sleep and woke up screaming

You can go to your nearest opticians for eye first aid/check up. They can have a look close up, might need drops in, might not they will help you.

I was asking because if he had been hit in the eye, it is possible to have injuries that aren't visible. It seems a bit unusual that a sleeping child scratched their cornea with their eyes closed but not impossible. Did they see it happen? I wonder if he already had an injury earlier or has an infection, and scratched at his eye when he woke up because it was hurting. Whatever caused it, I would get it checked out.

Go to the opticians - I once accidentally scratched my eyeball (very badly) and the opticians saw me immediately (asked eye test people to wait) and prescribed antibiotic drops. They can refer you onwards if that's what he needs.