Children with autism may be harmed by metal shavings from swings

From The New York Times:

Children with autism are often calmed by riding on a swing; some do it for hours every day. But doctors are warning of a serious hazard that can occur when wear and tear causes small metal fragments to peel from the suspension apparatus and fall into children’s eyes.

Though medical treatment is required, the source of the foreign body in the eye is often not apparent, according to a paper in the December issue of The Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.

In one case described in the article, a 10-year-old boy came to an eye clinic at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with something lodged in his right eye, and the doctor, who had treated him once before for a similar problem, realized this was the child’s fourth such incident in three years.

“I thought that was unusual and there must be a common cause,” said the paper’s senior author, Dr. Dean J. Bonsall, an associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Cincinnati. “So I asked the mother to recall the child’s activities from the time that he wakes up to the time that he goes to bed.” He discovered the child spent hours each day on a homemade swing.

In another case, an 8-year-old boy came in with a metallic fragment in the cornea; he, too, had been in once before.

If children are using a therapeutic swing, Dr. Bonsall recommends they wear safety glasses. Parents may want to wrap the swing mechanism in a cloth to catch any metal dust, he said.