6 yo gets very red eyes after minutes in one of our house's rooms

[tiff]

The room in our basement where he lays his Nintendo Wii
Gives him red eyes after just five minutes. My husband laid a recycled rubber floor in there since this is really our workout room. Our son has no other symptoms but intensely red eyes, even if he just plays his game for 2 minutes. Might it be the Wii game or the floor that is bothering his eyes? I intend to thoroughly scrub the floor down on Wednesdayand we will move his game elsewhere, but thought posters here might have ideas as to what is going on with him. Thanks

[NotADryEye]

It might be an allergy. If he doesn't have problems with the Wii in a different room, revisit those floors. Who knows what lurks in the recycled rubber.... or what might be under it....

[tiff]

We built this house ourselves. There is just concrete under the rubber flooring in the workout room. The surrounding rooms in the basement are engineered wood floors that my husband put down. They have a thin rubber membrane beneath them atop the concrete floor. I'm not sure what to do.

[Logandly]

Basements usually have a lot of dust. Perhaps your son is being affected by the air quality of the basement. I don't think wii has any effect on red eyes.

[littlemermaid]

TIFF, I just Googled 'recycled rubber floor allergy' and there's plenty there, especially latex allergy and ventilation issues. I think at 6yo it's better to avoid allergy triggers than have to use long term meds to fix this, esp eye steroids, if you can. This is harsh but we have to be strong. My poor daughter is on a tough Paed Ophth and Paed Rheumy discussed exclusion diet which relieves her eye and skin symptoms. She is still gaming sensibly and studying on computer fine but we are aware that not only does she stare and eyes dry up, also the eye surfaces seem to be desensitised so she doesn't get the prompt to blink either. I think this desensitisation is a particular problem with young children and we needed to use lubricant drops regularly 'whether she felt dry eyes or not' when younger. Now she is teenage she feels the dry eyes and that she needs drops. We tested it by 'staring competitions' but an Optom would test sensitivity with a slightly shredded cotton bud placed on eye corner. My d needs a humidifier next to the computer and has no heating in her bedroom to make the eyes dry unless it's too cold. Gaming has been so helpful with friendships and happiness - constructive or racing games, I mean - we just help her take breaks and keep it sensible.

[NotADryEye]

Earlier this year a new floor was installed where I exercise. The outgassing from the material, some sort of rubberized flooring and the glue, lasted for many months. I stopped using the facility until the smell was all but gone. I am sure if I stayed in the exercise room for more then a few minutes my eyes would have given me trouble.

[tiff]

We contacted the manufacturer of the flooring material and they suggested we wash it with Dawn dish soap for seven days in a row. Yesterday was the first day of washing. My husband noticed that the floor started to smell very badly just recently (we are rarely down there) and thinks it's because our overnight guests turned the heat up higher than we normally keep it in the basement and that impacted the rubber floor. I have no idea, but our children are not allowed down there until the smell is much improved. I do wonder, however, whether it's a health hazard even after the noticeable outgassing ceases.

Earlier this year a new floor was installed where I exercise. The outgassing from the material, some sort of rubberized flooring and the glue, lasted for many months. I stopped using the facility until the smell was all but gone. I am sure if I stayed in the exercise room for more then a few minutes my eyes would have given me trouble.

[NotADryEye]

IMO, once the outgassing is finished, it will be much safer and healthier. How safe will depend on how stable the material is and if it can be somehow absorbed through the skin if, for example, the children are playing on it. I don't crawl around on the gym floor, so I'm not concerned about the new flooring in my exercise facility.