there was a convo during one of the main weekly threads about the dangers of rubbing your eyes. after i read the convo, i started telling my kids to stop rubbing their eyes. My son is a chronic rubber when he first wakes up and we go back and forth on this. At any rate, this morning he looked sleepily at me and said "Ma, you keep saying stop rubbing them but you never say why? Why can't I rub them?" and you know what? I have FORGOTTEN what rubbing does to them. HELP!!!
tikanique ~~ How are you? Long time no see!! I hope all is well
I'm the one with the eye problems, personally I think, because of eye rubbing. I have keratoconus (KC) because; I'm sure, not 100% sure, but 99% sure, caused by eye rubbing... I've had allergies for ever and always rubbed my eyes, I mean drill my eyes out morning and evening because of the itchiness... I go to a KC site where a good majority of the people with this disorder have allergies, for some reason, and also have the vicious habit of excessive eye rubbing... Although there are many other factors, eye rubbing seems to be common and outweighs a lot of other reasons...
You can tell your son that eye rubbing can just plainly cause eye infections, because truly it can, if you rub enough to irritate the skin and your hands are dirty, there’s a perfect opening for bacteria... Then if you get an eye infection you go to the doctor, kids rarely like doctors ...... another reason not to rub your eyes is it can scratch your cornea AND that is not good at all because it can leave a scar on the cornea and cause thinning of the cornea, and KC patients have thin and cone shape corneas...
Don’t scare the poor child with all this info, but just explain to him that he can get eye infections and have to go see the doctor...
I hope to see you on the main thread, I miss your posts...
Later!
Last edited by 3fcuser1058250; 01-16-2004 at 06:27 PM.
Thanks much. My son actually doesn't mind going to the doctor, but he hates the idea of having anything happen to his eyes. His dad wears glasses and he does NOT want to look like him. I think telling him that rubbing his eyes will change the shape of his corneas and may cause him to need glasses in the future should do it. Thanks much for the response.
I was at my eye doctor's just an hour ago and asked the eye rubbing question.
They said DON'T DO IT!!! If your eyes are bothering you, (or your son's eyes!) my optician said to use artificial tears (NOT a product that "gets the red out" like Visine) or put a cold compress over your closed eyes.
I used to be a CHRONIC eye rubber, but after abrading my corneas years ago, I managed to kick the habit...
Right on Karen!! When I get itchy eyes now I use a cold or warm, depending on theweather, clean face cloth and ever so "gently" barely rub the top of my closed eye lid...
My son is a sleepy eye rub addict. When he first wakes up, he rubs them so much I am surprised they don't pop out. He learned the hard way that he shouldn't rub them when his allergies kick in. He got a pretty bad eye infectin so now he has eye drops that he uses for when we go to Tennessee and his allergies kick in. If I can just get him out of the habit of his AM rub, his eyes should be okay. This morning, when he went for his eyes, I asked him did he really want to end up looking like his dad? He dropped that hand immediately :-)
hahahahahahaha! actually Dad is kind of cute. However his hairline is boldly going where so many other hairlines have gone before, and he wears glasses. This morning, i told him AGAIN to stop rubbing his eyes, so he asked if it was okay if he rubbed his nose. He is so silly.
rubbing the eyes
What does dad look like? Enquiry minds wanna KNOW!! 
