Using breast milk for an eye infection

[KristinaM]

I?ve been told that if your baby has an eye infection you can treat it with breast milk. Does anyone know if this also works for breast-feeding mums? I have an eye infection caused by a virus - an adenovirus, if anyone is interested - so antibiotics are useless. I?ve just been using a saline solution but would it be better to use breast milk? (Apologies to anyone who thinks this is a weird idea !!)

[hercules]

Works well.

[Lisa78]

not a clue K but would be interested to hear how you get on

[Aero]

Yes - should help. Pharmasist BIL advised it for dd when little - worked well and cleared up pretty quickly

[mears]

Breastmilk has antibacterial properties hence why it helps bacterial eye infections. Don't know about viral infection but breastmilk does gave antiviral prperties so may well be worth ago. Won't do any harm... let us know how you get on

[GeorginaA]

Breastmilk eye treatment has always cleared eye infections in both my children within 24hrs, so think it's an excellent solution! I wash the eye in cool boiled water (no salt) first, then put a few drops of expressed milk into the eye. You might want to repeat a few hours later if it's still looking a bit weepy.

[prufrock]

KristinaM - you mean put breastmilk in your own eye rather than your babys don't you? Not sure if it would do any good as you are already producing antibodies to the virus and I understood that putting bm in babies eye was simply a way of transferring antibodies. But it can't harm. (But it is a very very wierd idea and I'd suggest doing it in private from a cup rather than trying to squirt directly )

[KristinaM]

Yes I do mean for my own eye infection Prufrock. And I WAS planning to squirt it as my breasts are so big and floppy now

[Thomcat]

i TREATED MY dd'S EYE INFECTION THAT SHE WAS BORN WITH WITH MY BREAST MILK, BUT NOT SURE ABOUT YOUR OWN. cAN'T REALLY HARM IT THOUGH i WOULDN' HAVE THOUGHT.

Whoops, sorry about caps.

[prettycandles]

I treated ds's eye infection with dd's breastmilk (IYSWIM!). It can't do any harm, and it seemed to work well.

[meysey]

do give it a go. my DH demanded some for his eye infection and was very pleased!

[Piffleoffagus]

also chamomile tea
the panacea of all ills...

[tinytoes]

try homeopathic euphrasia(eyebright)and eyebright herb made into a tea for bathing -very lovely and soothing-sure these will help-hope its better soon
i think using breast milk is a great idea i want to use it on my excema(mild) but there never seems to be much spare!