If one of your children have woken up with eyes that have a milky film over the cornea, a thick crust in the corner of the eye, and the whites of their eyes are a bright pink hue you are going to need to move very rapidly. Pink eye is a contagious eye infection that can affect both children and adults. Since this infection can be transferred easily, you’ll need to do some cleaning and quarantining if you don’t want your entire household to suffer from the same affliction. The signs of pink eye manifest only a day or so after infection, so clean up any bedding that poses a risk and tell your children what they can do to get better faster. This is how you may be able to isolate your child who has pink eye and keep him or her from spreading the infection to other members of your family.
Prevent Pink Eye from Being Spread by Hand
Children have a habit of touching everything they see. They also need to be reminded to wash their hands regularly. Since pink eye is an infection that can be highly irritating, kids may rub their eyes repeatedly to soothe them. If those same hands are used to play with toys or come in physical contact with another child in your household, this highly contagious eye infection will spread. Have hand sanitizer available for your child to use regularly, so you can hand keep your other children from getting pink eye.
Clean Bedding to Prevent Pink Eye
When you have a child suffering from pink eye, you will need to treat the infection and keep it from transferring to others living in your house. The first place that you should treat is the bed. Clean your child’s bed linens every day so that there are fresh and infection free sheets and pillow cases for your child to use. This will aid your child in getting over his or her case of pink eye faster, and also limit the possibility of someone else coming down with this contagious eye disease.
Limiting the Interactions of Children with Pink Eye
Although you don’t want your child to be self-conscious about having pink eye, you do need to prevent them from spreading the disease. Children with contagious cases of pink eye need to be pulled out of school until they are cleared by their pediatricians. Cancel any play dates you have had planned and postpone parties until your child has completely recovered. The good news is that pink eye doesn’t take longer than one week to clear up, and in some instances, pink eye stops being contagious after a few days.
Caring for a child who has pink eye will mean doing lots of laundry. Keep your child’s eyes treated with medicated cream so that they don’t need antibiotics. Children get pink eye a lot and there are few households that have never been affected by the infection, so just take the necessary precautions to get rid of it quickly.
