CINCINNATI — Watching the solar eclipse through the approved blackout glasses might be easy for you, but kids might have a harder time keeping them on.
Pediatric optometrist Dr. Kelsey Mach with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center knows the challenge facing parents.
“If you want to participate with little kids, you really have to be pretty much constantly with them to guarantee that they’re not taking the glasses off for any period of time,” Dr. Mach said.
Dr. Mach, a mother of two young boys, started practicing with them a few weeks before the eclipse.
“You could always practice with the glasses before the eclipse, having that be their first experience rather than when it’s the high-pressure situation," she said. "You could make it into a game, say oh let’s watch this camera light and make sure you keep your glasses on so that way they could practice."
A lot of the glasses are just made from cardboard and are flimsy. So a prop or two may help keep them secure.
“If you want to get creative you could put the glasses on and get a headband, something like that to keep the glasses on if you don’t want to be holding the glasses on your child’s head the whole time,” Dr. Mach said.
She explained that looking directly at the eclipse exposes your eyes to UV and infrared radiation that can cause long-term damage.
“There are different tests that we can do to see if the inside of the eye, the retina was damaged,” Dr. Mach said.
“Typically you would notice some blurry vision not long after the eclipse if you did view it for too long," she said. "The big thing is if you look at the sun for too long you can get some photochemical damage, basically think of it like a burn on the inside of the eye, and in some cases that damage can’t be fixed.”
If you are concerned that you or your kids were exposed to the eclipse for too long, Dr. Mach said it’s always best to call your local eye doctor.
