Caring for your Contact Lenses

I have been wearing contact lenses for over 20 years now and I have heard a lot of people say that they find it tiring and a daunting task to wear and care for contact lenses. However, wearing contact lenses is better for your eyes as they provide better vision for the eyes, thus increasing eye health. In my case, I have Progressive Myopia and wearing contact lenses has helped stabilise my number a lot. In fact, my number has reduced in the last few years since I became more regular in wearing my lenses. So I am going to share a few tips to care for your contact lenses which will make it easier for you to maintain them.

Monthly Disposable Lenses are the best choice

In today’s polluted atmosphere and with all the dust and smoke that we face every day, it is no longer sensible to wear lenses which last a year or so. It is much more practical and safer for the eyes to wear monthly disposable lenses.

Handling the Lenses

Always wash your hands with soap and water and then dry them completely before touching the lenses. Never touch your lenses with wet hands. The bacteria in the water contaminates the lenses and makes them completely unsafe to wear. If you accidentally touch your lenses with wet hands, discard the lenses immediately.

Disposal of the Monthly Lenses

The contact lenses must be disposed in exactly one month from the date you took them out of the packaging. If you took a pair out of the box on 14th of a specific month, you have to dispose it off on the 14th of next month. Even if you haven’t used the lenses for a specific number of days in the month, the disposal date remains the same. You can’t extend the use of that pair by the number of days that you haven’t used them. It is detrimental for your eyes and can affect your eyesight in the long run. Change your lens case every month too when you are changing your lenses. Chnaging the lens case may not be mandatory but I follow it.

Usage of the Lenses

Never wear your lenses while sleeping as that blocks the air supply to the eyes and can seriously damage the eyes. However, there are specific lenses available that you can wear for 2-3 days at a stretch, even while sleeping.  But, most of us live in very polluted areas. Hence, it is something I would never recommend. Always take your lenses off before you sleep at night. Never wear your lenses in the shower, especially while shampooing hair or washing the face with soap.

If you follow these tips, wearing lenses will be a breeze. Here’s to Happy Healthy Eyes 🙂

 

 

 

 

#ToiletForBabli – An Initiative to support the health, hygiene and dignity of a female

For four year old Hiya, it was just another regular day in her life. She lived in Khadakpada on the outskirts of Aarey Milk Colony, an area that lies on the periphery of Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the suburbs of Mumbai. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, she stepped out of her house to answer nature’s call. A leopard was possibly lurking in the foliage there and attacked her. Hearing her screams, her father chased the leopard and tried to snatch Hiya from the leopard’s jaws. The leopard retreated, however little Hiya was declared dead at the hospital.

In another incident, seven year old Sanjana Thorat accompanied by her mother and grandmother, stepped out to answer nature’s call in Shankar Tekdi, Mulund Colony, another suburb of Mumbai. A leopard pounced on her, caught her by the neck and dragged her towards the jungle while her mother and grandmother screamed for help. But it was too late for Sanjana.

We are in the 21st Century and 597 million people are still defecating in the open. They have no access to proper sanitation facilities. I live in Mumbai and everyday when we are traveling by local trains, you will see a line of men sitting, defecating in the open on the train tracks with cans of water next to them. Women have to do the same, but they come really early in the morning when there are fewer people around. Mumbai is a very crowded city and there is no such thing as fewer people around. So, a woman loses her dignity everyday.

The case in our villages is even worse. A female, whatever her age(even if she is just a child), will step out to defecate and will most probably be raped and killed, sometimes even gang-raped. This is only because she doesn’t have access to proper sanitation and hygiene. Most of us want to help, but don’t know where to start in a country with such a huge population. We turn away our faces and try to ignore the situation because we feel like a tiny drop in a mighty ocean who doesn’t know how to make a difference even though we feel desperate and helpless seeing their plight and hearing of such incidents everyday. Now, here is your chance.

Domex, HUL’s flagship sanitation brand, has started a campaign to make hygienic facilities accessible to all villages across India. Their campaign is called #ToiletForBabli. You can bring about the change in the lives of millions of kids, thereby showing your support for the Domex Initiative. All you need to do is follow the simple steps below:

“Click” on the “Contribute Tab” on www.domex.in and Domex will contribute Rs.5 on your behalf to eradicate open defecation, thereby helping kids like Babli live a dignified life.

Let us all come together to join Domex in their latest initiative to help make villages open-defecation free.

A healthy child makes a happy home

It all started 7 years back when a little angel entered our lives. We named her Mihika, which means dewdrop. Just like a dewdrop, she brings a feeling of freshness, happiness and rejuvenation to our lives. When she was born, incidentally I had taken a break in my career and my sister-in-law was working full-time. So, little by little, I started taking up some responsibilities related to her along with my mom. I spent the maximum time with my niece, playing with her, reading books to her and teaching her children’s songs. Sometimes, I would get a little impatient with her, especially if she wanted to play and was completely chirpy and I wanted to rest. But this time that I have spent with her has almost created a mother-daughter like bond between us. So when she falls sick, I go through the same anxiety like a real mother. The first four years of her life, she would fall sick quite frequently and would be very quiet and low when she fell sick.

At such times, I would start missing her chirpiness and playful ways and would make all efforts to have her well and running about again. Apart from medicines, kids also need a lot of love and care at such times.

Nowadays, with the level of dust and pollution increasing at an alarming rate, children need really strong immunity to withstand the same. Just healthy food doesn’t help with this. We need to give the children additional nutrition to help them have strong bodies to fight germs and all the viruses floating around. With all the new-fangled cures coming up for all sorts of ailments, nature still is the best source of remedies for most of the ailments. Children are also very delicate and hence medicine doses need to be administered to them very carefully. It’s better to build their immunity so that they don’t fall sick and need strong medicines.
The best source of increasing immunity and strength in India has been Chyawanprash since a long time.
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Dabur Chyawanprash has many herbs like Amla, known as one of the best anti-oxidants, Giloy(Guduchi) with immuno-modulatory properties and more than 40 other natural ingredients. The combination of Ayurvedic herbs in Dabur Chyawanprash help in strengthening the body’s natural defence mechanism by stimulating the body’s Natural Killer cells(NK Cells). NK cells assist in fighting with virus and bacteria in your body, thus giving us increased immunity from various infections. Dabur Chyawanprash comes in two delicious flavours – Mixed Fruit and Mango, thus making it more appealing to a kid’s palate.
Now, two spoonfuls of Dabur Chyawanprash will keep your child healthy and happy and in turn make you happy.
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