Children and eye drops. (Otrivine)

Member Name: Little Miss

Product:	Otrivine
Date:	01/06/01 (277 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: you don't have to spend summer locked in the house, instant relief

Disadvantages: they sting

The reason I'm writing this opinion is not only to recommend this product but to maybe help anyone out there who has to give these to their child.

I started using these eye drops for hayfever when I was a child. Actually my Mum, my Aunt, my teacher, or which ever adult had the misfortune of looking after me at eye drop time had to use these on me. The thing was I hated having these put in my eyes, like any child I didn't like any kind of medicine but eye drops were the worst and my mum never understood why. I'll give you a list of reasons. Firstly how comfortable are you on a normal day with someone else going close enough to your eye ball to actually touch it? Now imagine you eyes are red, swollen, itchy and sore, you really don't want anyone else touching them.

Then there was the technique of how they were administered, everyone who looked after me had a different way but most people generally went with tilting my head back asking me to look up. They then put one hand on my face to steady it (this is really not a comfortable position to be in) and then waved the drop bottle somewhere above my eye and sqeezed, sometimes they went in, other times they didn't (most often they didn't due to my squwirming from the uncomfy position and knowing the drops were going to sting) and had to try again. This may sound familiar to you, if it does please read on, there is a better way of doing this for both parties.

So now the drops were in my eye and oh did they sting, as most children would do, my hands went straight to my eyes and started rubbing. As adults we know this is wrong but as a child my eyes didn't hurt whilst I was rubbing only when I stopped, so applying a childs logic, I rubbed!

Now this went on each summer for a number of years but over time things got better. We developed a more comfortable way of getting the drops in my eyes which made me accept having them put in. Hence the screaming ta
ntrums ended.

The best way we found of getting the drops in my eyes was for me to lay down on the sofa with my head hung over the arm rest, of course this depends on the structure of your sofa, so supporting the neck with a cushion to tilt the head best is probably best for most people. My mum then used a finger from one hand to gently pull down my lower eye lid. This kind of opens it up creating a little well into which she dropped the drop. This made sure the drop entered my eye properly, so only one drop had to be used, instead of drops going all over my face as I wriggeled and squwirmed from the standing head tilt position.

I would then close my eyes and mum would give me one of those frozen ice packs to put on my eyes which I'd keep there for five minutes. After which I'd be back on my feet off outside to play with my friends.

Ok we developed a better way of getting these in my eye but your probably wondering why I still use them as an adult and haven't found something else that doesn't sting. Well the truth is that although these drops sting at first your eyes soon adjust to them and they don't sting any more. Plus once there in they really do work. I have tried other drops which don't sting, the thing is they don't work either.

So my recommendation is to stick with these drops they will sting at first (keeping your eyes closed for a couple of minutes arter using them helps) but stick with them and they will become your best friend throughout the summer months.

Also wearing sun glasses helps, not only does it keep other irritants like dust getting into your eye but it stops you touching them so much.

Oh one last thing, if like my mum you've been telling your child to stop complaining about having their eye drops put in, you may want to try them on yourself. For years my mum thought my wriggeling and tantrums at eye drop time were just me being fussy. A couple
of years ago she got something in her eye and couldn't find the optrex so she used my drops. I found her with her head under the kitchen tap trying to wash them out because they stung so much (Note they stung her so much as they are not ment to be used to remove foreign bodies from your eye, normally the stinging is bareable and does only last a couple of minutes). Had she realised earlier she may have handled eye drop time differently when I was a child.

Finally just a reminder, read the whole information sheet which comes with your eye drops. The expiry date maybe in 2 years time but you usually find once opened they only last about a month.

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