How to give your child eye drops

This page from Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) explains how to give your child eye drops.

1. Wash your hands.
2. Get your child into any of these positions with the ear you are treating facing upwards.

• Tilt your child’s head back 
• Lay your child flat on their 
• Ask someone to hold your child in a safe position as above
• Wrap your baby or young child in a light blanket or sheet to keep their arms still

3. Shake the bottle.

4. Remove the top of the bottle and throw away the plastic seal.

5. Gently pull your child’s lower eyelid. 

Note: Avoid touching the dropper against your child’s eye, eyelashes or any other surface.

Note: If you are using another type of eye drop, wait a few minutes before you give it. This will stop the first drop being washed away by the second before it has had time to work.

1. Hold the dropper above your child’s eye and squeeze one drop into the lower eyelid avoiding the corner of their eye. 
2. Release the lower eyelid and let your child blink a few times to make sure the drop is spread around the eye. 
3. Put the top back on the bottle and wipe away any excess eye drop with a clean tissue. 

This is an alternative way of giving your child eye drops but it does not work as well as the other method. You should use this method if it is the only way your child will have the eye drops.

1. Wash your hands.
2. Shake the bottle.
3. Remove the top of the bottle. 
4. Tilt your child’s head back or lay them flat on their back with their eyes closed. 
5. Place the drop onto the side of the closed eye nearest the nose. 
6. Either let your child’s eye open or gently rub the eyelid so the drop with bathe the eye.

• Keep all medicines out of the reach and sight of children. 
• Ask your pharmacist about storing the medicine. Some need to be kept in the fridge but others only need to be kept out of direct sunlight.
• Read the instructions on the label and only use the drops or spray in the affected eye(s). If you are given different drops for each eye, make sure you use the correct one for each. 
• Always check the expiry date of the medicine before you give it to your child. 
• Eye drops should be used within four weeks of opening or as instructed on the label. If you are giving your child eye drops for a certain number of days, write the date you open the bottle on the label so you know when to throw it away. 
• Some eye drops are packaged as single doses (minims) rather than in a bottle. Twist the top off the minim to give the dose then dispose of the container in your household rubbish. Do not keep it for the next dose.