blocked tear duct or eye infection?

[ladyV84]

hi girls,
anyone know anything about blocked tear ducts?
fraser has had a kind of yellow/greeny discharge coming from his eye ever since he was born(7 weeks ago) at first i was told that it was probably conjunctivitus sp? and so to put BM in it or bath with salted water. Tried both of these for weeks to no avail and the discharge has got worse since then. They then decided to give us some eye drops which also did nothing. One evening the pus was so bad that we called nhs and were told to get it checked at hospital. They then gave us fusdic acid drops which have also done nothing. The HV took a swab and unfortunately it came back with no growth so they are now trying to tell me that it is a blocked tear duct?? having googled this it seems that there wouldnt be all the pus/discharge if this was the case.
Anyone's lo had this or have any advice, just worried that it is an infection and we're doing nothing to treat it. thanks x

 

[thelilbump]

we had a period of a blocked tear duct, her eye was kind of sticky. My Hv also advised squirting in breast milk and to keep cleaning it with cooled boiled water, sweeping across the eye with a fresh moist piece of cotton wool until clear. Apart from that i'm out of ideas i'm afraid. You might be best just takin him to the gp's and see if he'll run another test as bacteria may now have formed. Hope it gets better x

 

[mari72]

you do get discharge with a blocked duct,usually the white of the eye is still white. If eye looks bloodshot that can indicate an infection. Sounds like blocked duct tbh,these resolve on their own but can take a while

 

[lillysmum]

i hvent had any experience with this but i reckon speaking to the hv is probabl the best thing to do

 

[ALY]

Sam ad this hun as soon as he was born his eyes were all sticky
so the doc put him on eye drops 3 times a day for 3 weeks n it cleared up
hope this helps hun x

 

[embojet]

Molly had a blocked tear duct that sounds just like what you're describing. Only way to get rid of it was to sweep a piece of cotton wool with cooled boiled water across it to get rid of the gunk every time it got sticky, (which was sometimes every 5 mins!). It worked though!

 

[chel27]

yes my LO seems to have sticky yellow stuff on her eye and it sticks so much she cant open her eye sometimes, we were just told to wipe it with cool boiled water when its sticky xxx

 

[PeanutBean]

Byron has had sticky eyes the whole time and is only now getting over it. No amount of cleaning or anything made any difference. I asked the doctor at the 8 week check and he said babies very commonly get a viral infection in the eye that causes the discharge. Unless the eye is red (which is probably conjunctivitis) it doesn't need treating. The doctor specifically said he wouldn't recommend drops. It just needs cleaning when necessary with cooled boiled water.

 

[ladyV84]

aww thanks girls...its a relief to hear that it does seem to be quite common! Like you embojet I am sometimes cleaning his eye every 5 mins !!

 

[ChloesMummy]

My little one has it to, shes 6wks, we were given drops then told to stop as the infection was gone and its now a blocked tear duct. The Dr told us to use cool boiled water with salt and just wait it out. x

 

[BlackBerry25]

Helena had this for a long time! I just wiped it with a facecloth and it finally went away on its own. It seemed like she had it forever though.

 

[baby_e]

Hi, My Niece Jamie Lee Had A Blocked Tear Duck When She Was Born, She Was Given All Kinds Of Drops And Ointments Which Never Worked, My Sister Told The Doctors She Wanted Jamie Lee Refering To The Eye Hospital, She Soon Got An Appointment, When They Seen Her The Said It Would'nt Fix Itself And That She Had To Have An Operation To Correct It.

She Had The Operation Which Went Extremaly Well, And Now Her Eye Is Perfectly Normal, Nothing Wrong With Her Sight, No More Ointments And Drops, No Sticky Green Eye.

I Think You Should Maybe Tell Your Doctor To Get You Refered, It Was The Best Thing My Sister Done For Jamie Lee. )))xxx

 

[Odette]

My LO had a blocked tear duct. I spent weeks cleaning his eye with either cooled boiled water or breast milk but this made no difference.

The doctor suggested very gently massaging the area next to his eye (sort of on the edge of the bridge of the nose if that makes sense) close to where the tear duct would be. I did this a couple of times a day for two days and then it cleared up. Magic!!

 

[Linzi]

Seths had a blocked tear duct since he was born and he does get a lot of discharge from it. I think they're meant to clear up by 1 year.


xxx

 

[Katiex]

Jacob has this since he was born too, the eye drops we have been prescribed seemed to work but its coming back. its usually worse when he has been crying.

 

[mari72]

Blocked tear ducts are incredibly common-its a topic that comes up on this forum alot, the general rule of thumb is to leave them until baby is over a year because
1. the majority-not all-spontaneously resolve on their own
2. they are pretty harmless if you ignore fact that gunk is a bit unsightly
3. nobody wants to perform an operation on a little one unless its necessary, general anaesthetics carry a significant risk
Just keep the eye clean with cooled boiled water/sterile saline etc. No kind of prescribed drops will clear up a blocked duct.

 

[palomito77]

tear duct unblock easy:
hot water will unblock it, bottled water heated up, as hot as you can, I suffered from it and it took me 24 hours to unblock with hot water

 

[VAinTX]

The doctor suggested very gently massaging the area next to his eye (sort of on the edge of the bridge of the nose if that makes sense) close to where the tear duct would be. I did this a couple of times a day for two days and then it cleared up. Magic!!

Jonathan suffers from a blocked tear duct as well, and this absolutely works! I try to do it every time I feed him, just rubbing in a circle a couple of times, and the goop is gone! If I forget to do it for a while, it comes back... so I can say that this trick really does work!

 

[harmonybunny]

We've been having a nightmare with Muprhy's eye since December so i feel your pain! He's been on 3 different antibiotic drops but nothing has worked. It was swabbed a few weeks ago and i was told to go back to the first antibiotic we were prescribed!!!!! 2 weeks on and it's still no different. The gunk is green and yellow (sorry if TMI) and it sticks tightly shut when he sleeps so he often cries when he wakes because it scares him not being able to see. I guess it's off to the dr again! We know it's a form of conjunctivitis because the swab came back confirming that but what is meant to work just doesn't. Bah.
The one thing to keep doing is bathing it with warm, plain water and only use the cotton swab once across the eye before replacing it if you need to wipe again. Also, if you bf you can always put a little breast milk on it. My midwife suggested this and it does work wonders

 

[xXhayleyXx]

My son who is now 5 had this when he was a week or so old, it got so bad that nothing ie drops, ointments etc worked and became so blocked that he couldnt open his eye properly. I had to insist he was looked at everyday by the doctors who finally agreed he needed to be admitted to the hospital to be delt with. At the age of 4 weeks he was admitted and put on strong IV antibiotics for a week which still did sod all to help. Finally the specialists at the hospital agreed he needed to be given a general aneasectic (sp?) and have the tear duct flushed out. The result within an hour of the op was amazing and his eye was almost back tpo normal. He continued on antibiotics for 4 weeks after. The hospital said it was the worse case they had ever seen and even took photos for training purposes xxx