How to Remove Hair From a Baby's Eye

Your baby’s eyes are windows to his personality and you love to gaze into them. Your baby rubs his eyes when he’s sleepy, and it’s easy for him to get an eyelash or other strand of hair into an eye, causing him to blink and rub as he tries to get rid of the offending hair. Take steps to remove the hair before taking him to the emergency department.

Stop your baby from rubbing her eye so she doesn’t end up with an avoidable corneal injury. Hold the upper and lower lids open so you can look for the hair in her eye, recommends the Baby Center.

Have someone hold your baby as you try to remove the hair with a cotton swab. Hold the swab lightly in one hand, use your fingers to hold your baby’s eye open, and gently touch the swab to his eye, according to the Baby Center.

Use another method to wash the hair out of her eye if your previous attempt did not work. Wrap your baby in a bath towel to prevent her from thrashing around. Have someone hold her so you can pour sterile saline solution into her eye as you hold her eye open, recommends Dr. Larry Bickford in the EyeCare Reports.

Take the baby to the emergency department in your hospital if you have not been successful in getting the hair out of his eye. Tape a small paper cup over your baby’s eye to keep him from rubbing it and making the situation worse. Make three slits in the rim of the paper cup, place it over his eye, and secure it with medical tape, according to the Baby Center.

Tips

Your baby doesn't like to have her eyes manipulated, even when you're trying to remove a hair. You need an assistant to help you. Your baby rubs her eyes frequently, and as she does so, she transfers irritants and foreign objects into her eyes.

Warnings

If you allow your baby to rub her eye, she could end up scratching her cornea.

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