Christmas gifts for a farmer with dry eyes

The most useful Christmas gifts for a farmer with dry eyes are practical ones they’ll use daily: sealed safety glasses or goggles for dusty jobs, a brimmed hat, a small eye-care kit for the truck or shop, a humidifier for the house, and a bottle of lubricating eye drops for the end of a long day. Dust, wind and winter cab heaters are hard on eyes all year round.

Good gifts for farmers

Farmers are hard to shop for because they tend to buy what they need when they need it, and much of it comes from the farm store. The gifts that land are the ones they wouldn’t splurge on themselves, or the ones that make a daily chore a little easier. Eyes are a good place to focus, since almost every farm job puts them in front of dust, sun or moving air, and the dry eyes for farmers guide lists exactly where that happens.

Christmas gifts for farmers who work in dust and wind

• Safety glasses with foam-lined or wraparound frames that seal out dust when grinding, sweeping a grain bin or cleaning out a barn.
• Tinted safety glasses for outdoor work, so they aren’t choosing between sun protection and eye protection.
• A wide-brimmed hat or a quality cap, which cuts glare and some of the wind across the eyes.
• A neck gaiter or bandana for windy days, which keeps dust off the face as well as the neck.
• Insulated work gloves, so they aren’t rubbing their eyes with dirty, frozen fingers.
• A headlamp for early chores and late calving checks, so they aren’t squinting into the dark.

Winter in the cab and the shop

In winter, farm work moves into heated spaces: tractor and truck cabs with the heater on, a shop with a forced-air or radiant heater, a farmhouse with the furnace running. Warming cold air without adding water makes it very dry, and cab vents tend to blow right at the driver. A gift that helps:

• A small cab or truck organizer with a spot for eye drops, wipes and a spare pair of safety glasses.
• A thermos and an insulated cooler bag, which encourage a real break out of the cab instead of eating while driving.
• A tabletop humidifier for the farmhouse bedroom, where they spend the most uninterrupted hours.
• A note, from you, suggesting they aim the cab vents at their chest instead of their face.

One storage reminder if you add drops to a cab kit: the label gives a temperature range, and a truck parked in a field in January or July goes well outside it: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). The bottle is better off in a coat pocket or a lunch bag that comes inside at night.

Christmas gifts for a farmer dad

If you grew up on the farm and are shopping for your father, think about the jobs he’s always done and the small discomforts he’s stopped noticing. Rubbing his eyes after combining, squinting through a dirty windshield, sitting up late at a desk with the farm books: each one suggests a gift. Sealed glasses for the dusty jobs, a better lamp for paperwork, a fresh pack of windshield wipers and washer fluid for the truck. A bottle of eye drops can sit alongside any of those as a small extra, especially if he’s mentioned his eyes feeling gritty.

Adding Quell to the gift

Quell is a lubricating eye drop designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. Its Drug Facts panel states the Uses as: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. The directions are: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. And on the job, this line matters most: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination. Dirty fingers or a dusty bench are exactly the surfaces to keep the tip away from.

Check the label’s caution before giving it: Caution should be used in those with egg or bird allergies — For use in the eyes only. Farmers who keep poultry may already know whether that applies. If they wear contact lenses or use prescribed eye drops, the label doesn’t give directions for either, so they should check with their eye doctor or pharmacist. The full panel is on our Drug Facts page.

What drops can’t do

Lubricating drops are for ordinary dryness and irritation. They aren’t for flushing out grain, chaff, chemicals or a metal shaving. If something gets into a farmer’s eye and doesn’t rinse out with clean water, or if a chemical splashes, that’s a reason to get medical help right away, not reach for a bottle. The label lists when to stop using the drops and see a doctor: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.

Shipping a gift to the farm

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, to addresses across the United States, including rural routes. To send it directly, enter their name and farm address in the shipping fields and your own email, so tracking and the receipt come to you. A quick text that a small box is on the way helps it end up indoors rather than on a porch in the cold. Shipping is $10.00, and free on 3 or more bottles. No delivery date is promised, so order early in December. There’s no gift-wrap option; our guide on sending Quell as a gift covers the rest. You must be 18 or older to order, and unopened bottles can be refunded within 30 days of delivery.

More gift ideas for people who work outside are in gifts and the holidays.