Just squirted breastmilk into ds2's gungy eye. It's now all stuck together.

[princessmel]

I read on here that BM is supposed to help with this. I have previously been cleaning it with cooled boiled water.

So I squeezed a few drops into his eye and it has dried and now the eye is stuck shut.

Shall I leave it or clean it with water again?

Poor beautiful ds !!

[HumphreyCobbler]

I would clean it with water to open it up. But keep on with the bm, it will really help.

[ilikeyoursleeves]

How long will a gunky eye clear up with BM? My DS is 3 months and had a gunky left eye since birth and I have been bad at using BM, mainly I just use water so that's prob why it's not cleared up yet

[GYo]

I'd recommmed squirting the milk straight in if you can, or via a sterile syringe.

I used to drip it into DDs eye with a sterile breast shell.

I did it after cleaning with cool boiled water so it was sterile.

[ZephirineDrouhin]

Was advised to do this by HV when dd was tiny and had very gunky eye. I persisted for about 10 days before finally giving in and going to the doctor who looked utterly horrified at the state of her. (Antibiotic drops cleared it very quickly.)

BM does seem to work for a lot of people, but not every time.

[princessmel]

Thanks all of you. I am doing the BM on the dampened cotton wool and hopefully that will work.

Mw came today and she didn't seem bothered, didn't even look actually. In fact she has written on his notes, under the eyes section 'clear'.

[NorktasticNinja]

BM has always worked really well and very quickly on my DCs sticky eyes. Actually I tried it on my own eyes once (when I caught conjunctivitis from DD) and it was incredible! They felt so so much better immediately. Cooled boiled water felt horrid and almost gritty

I've always found that there's more gunk after the first application (or two) and that it then very quickly gets better. I think it's because the BM melts any dried gunk.

I wouldn't put the milk on cotton wool though, just straight in/on the eye and clean with cotton wool. If the eye is stuck together you'll need to squirt and clean repeatedly.

I hope your DS feels better soon

[princessmel]

NN so if you squirt straight into the eye, then wipe with cotton wool, do you use dry cotton wool??
Tia

[whomovedmychocolatecookie]

I use enough BM to saturate the cotton wool when I wipe after dripping it in. So yes it's dry initially.

I've done this on both kids and it does work, I even did it on my own eyes (obviously I didn't apply it directly, though if my boobs get any more droopy this may be a possibility ) when I got conjunctivitis from the urchins and it worked them too!

[NorktasticNinja]

Yup, I use it dry as there's always quite a puddle of milk in the eye. You could moisten the cotton wool if you wanted to but IMO bm would be better than water. It would dilute the milk a bit and it might also effect the action of the milk in some scientific way we have no idea about...

Mind you, I use those little flat pads you get for removing eye makeup, I suppose if you are using it from a roll (or other fluffy form) it might not work very well dry.

WMMC I think I could squirt direct into my own eyes . Never tried it though, I like to maintain a little mystery

[SHRIIIEEEKPoolingBearBlood]

i use cooled boiled water to get eye as clean as possible
then squirt directly in
leave pooling as long as possible then dab excess with dry cotton wool
never seems to get rid of gunkiness but is miraculous on any redness / swelling

[princessmel]

I have just done a mixture of the two latest posts.
I cleaned it with water and then dripped BM into the corner and wiped it accross the eye with cotton wool.

I couldn't get enough out to soak the ball completely with milk.

I think it looks slightly better this afternoon. More dry and crusty and less wet and gungy.