Wednesday, June 22, we had family over, and someone left the spray on sunscreen either on a chair or on the floor. Canaan, my 3 year old, picked it up. I was at the table, not far, and I told him to put it down, but instead he immediately sprayed it directly into his eyes, point blank. He screamed the loudest, shrillest scream of pain I have ever heard from him and I rushed him to the bathtub as soon as possible to rinse his eyes out. I saw it coming out, it was a bit foamy and white, and my dad came in to help hold his eye open so we could rinse it completely.
Canaan couldn't handle the light so we put a blanket over his face while he cried because the pain was so bad and waited for the ibuprofen to kick in. We even tried eye drops. He faded in and out of sleep, waking up just to cry and scream in pain. I researched everything I could online, but nothing said anything about this type of reaction. Everything I read said rinsing with water would be fine, and eye drops would help, but it didn't seem to be doing anything. His left eye was swollen shut and his right eye was pink.
I eventually called the advice nurse, who transferred me to poison control, who suggested I go to the emergency department. My best friend was still awake and was able to watch Simon, my 5 year old, while I took Canaan down to emergency. When we got to emergency, they checked us in and brought us back immediately. They washed his eye out, gave him numbing eye drops and a double dose of benadryl, saying it looked like an adverse reaction to the sunscreen. They listed it as chemical conjunctivitis. They prescribed an antibiotic ointment to use four times a day and told me to use benadryl and ibuprofen as well before discharging us. They said there wasn't much we can do for this sort of thing except rinsing with water.
So we got home Thursday morning at 6, and crashed. Canaan seemed to be doing better later that day, the swelling seemed to be going down, but he was still miserable. By Saturday, I wasn't sure he was getting better and got him in to see a pediatrician, who said there wasn't much we could do, he just seemed to be having an adverse reaction, but if he was still looking bad by the next Wednesday, that they would have him see a specialist. By Tuesday, he still hadn't improved and in fact seemed to be even more sensitive to the light. He couldn't stand to see any light, and every morning he would wake up screaming in pain that his room was too bright, even though the blinds were drawn. He's since been sleeping in my room, though he complains about the tiny sliver of light coming from a corner of my blackout curtains...
I spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get him an appointment to see the specialist on Tuesday. At first they said they didn't have anything until August and told me they could put me on a waiting list to see if any cancellations might happen, and I told them that Canaan's eye might fall out by then. They then said they'd call the department and see if they could get anything sooner, but when they called back it wasn't good and I told them again that he needed to be seen asap. They then called the pediatric ophthalmologist directly and he made room in his schedule for that Thursday.
Canaan was no better by Thursday, and the ophthalmologist had a hard time looking in the eye, due to how swollen and how painful it was, but he was able to ascertain that there was something on the eye. He wasn't sure if it was just debris, or an infection. The doctor was amazing with Canaan, though, and he went right then and there said he could squeeze us into his surgery schedule the first thing next morning to get at the eye better, to remove the debris if it was that, or to get a biopsy if it was an infection.
So Friday morning, we left at 5 to get to surgery by 6, and they wheeled him in by 7:15. He'd been fine up until he had to leave me, and then he was sobbing for me. They let him bring his stuffed kitty, Phobos, in at least. It felt like a lot longer than 45 minutes waiting for the doctor to come to the waiting room, but he came and with a thing of antibiotic ointment, a different type this time, and told us what happened with Canaan's eye.
This waterproof spray on sunscreen had actually latched itself around his eye and eyelid, so despite our rinsing with water, it was there and wasn't going to come off. The doctor said he had to actually scrape Canaan's eye to get it off, but the good news is that Canaan's eye should be able to heal now and we pray there's no lasting damage to it. It's still swollen shut, and he's in so much pain still, and still cannot stand the light, but we're hoping in a few days he'll be feeling better.
There was nothing online about this. I couldn't find anything at all, except a very dramatic story Snopes deemed false in which a kid was blinded for 2 days by rubbing sunscreen in his eyes. This has been 9 days with Canaan. His vision should return to normal, but it worries me that there's no information about this. It was just the Target brand sports SPF 50 spray on sunscreen, nothing that seems like it could do that. I understand, and am thankful, that Canaan's experience is a rare one, but I wanted to let people know that it can happen, and what ends up possibly needing to be done. I have no idea what would have happened to his eye if we hadn't pushed for an earlier appointment, and we don't really know yet if everything will return to normal.
So please be careful with the spray on sunscreen, and please keep it away from kids, especially the little ones. I don't want anyone else to ever go through this, and even though I know it's rare, I don't want anyone else to be one of those rare cases.
