Infections, injuries, and dryness can cause periodic eye problems. We all experience them from time to time. Even factors like overwhelming perfume worn your colleagues and friends, lack of sleep, dry air, and allergies can cause dry and itchy eyes.
Now, for most people (me too), the first reaction to dry eyes is to reach for eye drops. It’s only natural. We’re led to believe that the best eye drops are to be purchased from our local pharmacy. Now, I’m not a doctor, nor I will tell you to ignore one. However, I can tell you that homemade eye drops work as well as, and sometimes even better than, over-the-counter medicine.
Why Homemade Eye Drops?
One reason why I prefer homemade eye drops to over-the-counter medicine is that I can be sure that the product I use is clean and sterile.
I can also be sure that my homemade eye drops are free of preservatives and chemicals. One such compound is thimerosal, which is found in many vaccines. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention ensures that thimerosal is not harmful when used in vaccines. But it is still a mercury-containing preservative. Standard eye drops contain not only thimerosal, but other ingredients as well.
My homemade eye drops recipe, on the other hand, is safe from those ingredients. I recommend you have these eye drops on hand, as it instantly cleans debris, relieves dryness, and soothes itchiness. In essence, this is a saline solution, but I’ve tweaked it so that you use pure salt tablets instead of table salt that contains iodine. This way, you are sure that your homemade eye drops are sterile and non-irritating.
Homemade Eye Drops Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup of filtered or purified water
- 2 sodium chloride tablets
- A mason jar
- An eyedropper
How to make it
- Boil the mason jars and lids. Dip the glass part of your eyedropper into boiling water to remove any contaminants.
- Fill the mason jar with purified water, and then add the sodium chloride tablets.
- Shake the mason jar well. Use the eyedropper to apply 2 drops in each eye to relieve dryness and itchiness.
Precautions
Now, I know for sure that most of you will know these safety precautions. But it goes without saying that I feel the need to warn you anyhow.
- For starters, if you feel discomfort when applying the homemade eye drops, stop using them. Contact your eye doctor.
- Discard the solution after three weeks, because all the particles will lose their effectiveness. Write the date on the bottle to know when it’s time to discard it.
- Do not use the eye drops for more than 4 consecutive days. Eye drops, no matter if they are homemade or purchased over-the-counter, should not be used for more than four consecutive days. This is the first thing your pharmacist or doctor will tell you.
I’m glad these are working for you. But I worked as a Certified Tech in Ophthalmology for 35 years so I have to comment on a couple of things. This is a saline solution only for rinsing your eye. It probably helps itching however it is not to be confused with a true artificial tear which has a lubricant in it. This solution will only aggravate a dry eye because the salt tends to dry your eye. You are not limited to tears or true allergy drops to 4 days. In fact you can use tears numerous times daily forever. It will not hurt you. And you can use allergy drops daily forever. Dry eyes typically burn with some itching. With no preservative in this I would not keep more than a few days and you should sterilize your water. You are putting purified water in a sterile jar and now it’s no longer sterile. Some nasty stuff can grow and I promise you do not want to put it in your eye. That type infection can take your eyesight within days if not sooner. I just felt I should warn you about what you put in your eyes. As we always told our patients..you on have 2 eyes and there are no do overs. So be very careful.