The monsoon season brings much-needed relief from the heat and dust, but increases the risk of various eye infections such as conjunctivitis, styes, and dry eyes. To protect your eyes, maintain proper hygiene, avoid sharing personal items, wear protective eyewear, and ensure your contact lenses are clean. Dr Neepa Dave Thacker Senior Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmology Narayana Health SRCC Children’s Hospital, Mumbai shares with us tips to manage eye allergies and infections during monsoon season.
If you experience any symptoms, consulting an ophthalmologist is crucial for timely treatment. Stay safe and maintain good eye health this monsoon. When your eyes are exposed to things like pollen, dust mites, cats, dogs, or anything you’re allergic to, your body releases a molecule called histamine. Histamine is a vasodilator, meaning it makes your blood vessels wider, and it causes itchy eyes, runny nose, watery eyes, and sneezing.
One of the worst things that happens with eye allergies is it makes you want to rub your eyes, but too much pressure and frequent rubbing can damage your cornea. So if you have eye allergies, you can use eyedrops as prescribed by the doctor and work with an allergist to consider immunotherapy, which will desensitise you to the allergens.
Constant eye allergies can cause inflammation around your eyes, it can irritate your eyes, and it can even cause vision problems.
Common Eye Allergies during Monsoon
There are different types of eye allergies that affect people during the monsoon season. Being aware of the conditions can help you seek medical attention at the earliest.
Stye: An eye stye or hordeolum, is a painful, pimple-like bump that forms near or on the eyelids. It is caused by the staphylococcus bacterium, which lives harmlessly on our skin.
Our eyelids contain three glands – the gland of Zeis, the gland of Moll, and the Meibomian gland. The gland of Zeis secretes an oily substance to lubricate our eyelashes. Gland of Moll is a sweat gland, while the meibomian gland prevents the evaporation of our eye’s tear film. Sometimes, in the above glands, dead skin cells and bacteria get trapped, leading to an infection. This gives rise to a stye.
If infection occurs in the glands of Zeis or Moll, it is called an external stye. However, if the infection occurs in the meibomian gland it is called an internal stye. Also, as an internal stye presses against our eye, it proves to be more painful than an external stye.
Dry Eyes: Dry eye syndrome, especially in children, is not easy to detect as children cannot communicate their discomfort properly. Some common dry eye syndrome symptoms that parents should be able to pick up from their childrens’behaviour include redness around the eyes, constant eye rubbing, burning sensations in and around the eyes, blurred vision, or difficulty in reading or working on digital devices.
Here’s how one can help overcome dry eyes with simple remedies:
➔ Drinking adequate water can help produce a healthy volume of tears, which is important to prevent dry eyes.
➔ A humidifier adds moisture in the air and with more moisture, tears evaporate more slowly, thus keeping the eyes more comfortable.
➔ Preservative-free artificial tears can help retain moisture on the outer surface of your eye but need to be applied regularly throughout the day.
➔ Eye gels can be used at night as they are thicker and stay in the eye longer.
➔ Avoid putting kajal/ kohl in the child’s eye can clog the oil-producing glands of the eye, leading to dry eyes and even infection.
➔ Use warm compresses to open up the tiny glands in the eyelid to improve oil gland function, improve oil flow to the eyes, stabilise the tear film, and slow down tear evaporation.
➔ Use wrap-around sunglasses to protect your eyes from dust, wind, debris, and UV rays, all of which aggravate dry eyes.
Conjunctivitis: If you’re experiencing red or pink discoloration in your eyes, along with other issues such as tearing, itching, burning sensation, and sensitivity to light, this might be an indication of eye flu (also called pink eye or conjunctivitis).
Conclusion
If you see any of the following eye infarctions in your child’s eye, consult an ophthalmologist. Use eye drops / creams as prescribed by the doctor. If there is any burning sensation with use of eye medications, the doctor may recommend use of cool compresses. Avoid rubbing eyes.