Clearing up baby's sticky eye without recourse to eyedrops

[wessexgirl]

DD2 is 4 months (nearly) and has had a sticky eye on and off since she was born. Did as advised by my HV and cleaned the eye with cooled boiled water, trying to give the tear duct area a bit of a massage in the process.

Eye cleared up then came back again. A friend recommended cleaning it with breast milk. Tried it; didn't work.

Another friend recommended cleaning it with a piece of sterile gauze dipped in water infused with thyme. Tried it; didn't work.

Anyone got any other folksy/commonsense remedies before I hit the GP for some eyedrops?

[Mrsbubsdevere]

I used to use milk and also give it a bit of a massage.

[zippitippitoes]

if you don't find a natural remedy i found the ointment more effetive than drops

[Miaou]

You've tried everthing I tried withh dd1, wg. We tried drops too but that didn't work either. Turned out her tear duct was blocked - she had it operated on when she was about 20 months old.

[lillady]

my son was born with a blocked tear duct- is that what your dd has?
I had to squeaze rather than massage!and it wasnt the nicest of things to do!BUT it did eventually clear up itself.Ds had to have a check up when he was 2 to make sure the tear duct was working for itself.
If not he may have under gone an operation (somehow)to get the tear duct to work by itself.

[lillady]

miaou just read your message, and i mentioned inmy last msg that if my sons hadnt cleared up they would of had to do an operaton - how do they do it?
If you dont mind me asking that is!?

[lillady]

miaou just read your message, and i mentioned inmy last msg that if my sons hadnt cleared up they would of had to do an operaton - how do they do it?
If you dont mind me asking that is!?

[wessexgirl]

Thanks everyone, I think it probably is a blocked tear duct as it doesn't seem to be infected or anything. She's quite happy but getting increasingly hacked off with me poking and prodding around her eye, poor thing.

[auntymandy]

salt water

[auntymandy]

salt water

[Miaou]

lillady - she had to have a GA, but it was a pretty quick procedure. Basically they put a fine wire (or something like that) down the tear duct and through the blockage, which is generally enough to clear it (worked for dd1 anyway). She has never had any problems with it since. I think we had to wait until she was over 18 months though before they would operate on the basis that many clear up by themselves before then.

[kateandfelicity]

Hi... apparently cold tea?? bizarre but true!

[Fauve]

I used herbal drops called Eyebright, and it did work. 4 months is still very young - I was told my dd's tearducts would mature eventually and they did.

[lillady]

its not a nice thing to do having to "squeeze" ds eye, i never actually asked how they cleared the eye up through operating - im glad i carried on "squeezing"!

[piffle]

chamomile tea and the homeopathic herb eyebright (buy off internet neals yard)
dd has always had a leaky eye, we turned down the operation as the likelihood of it recurring outweighed the positives of the op being successful.
they almsoy always wait until the child is nearly two to operate as many kids grow out of it in the 2nd year
my dd is not too bad, although gets runny whe she is ill...

[wilbur]

Ds1 got this all the time when he started nursery, had two lots of antibiotic eyedrops which didn't help. Eventually tried Hypercal tincture diluted in water to bathe eyes, all cleared up in a few days and never came back. Hypercal is homeopathic and brilliant for minor sore patches etc, use it all the time now.

[heavenis]

Take him to your GP and see if he'll refer him to hospital to get it ckecked out. We did this will ds2 as he grew so did the tear duct so he didn't need op. I just tried to keep it as clea as I could with cooled boiled water.

[mancmum]

cold tea my childminder swore by it all her mindees parents were told to bathe eyes in cold tea at first sign of gunk and I have never seen any of the kids with weepy eyes... definitely convinced me!!

[highlander]

if she has a blocked tear duct it may take up to 6 months to resolve. In the meantime, you must wipe and massage it about 4 times daily. If by 6 months it hasn't cleared, you may need to have a paed do it manually.

[wessexgirl]

Many thanks for all the advice, I'm going to keep on cleaning it, plus will try salt water, cold tea and non-prescrip. eyedrops until she is older.

Hopefully it will have cleared up again.

Thanks so much, will give GP a miss for another couple of months.

[fishie]

my ds had blocked duct, it unblocked when he was 3 months old. i wiped with cool boiled water, if it isn't an infection you shouldn't need to use anything else.

osteopath (who he was seeing for colic) said unblocking is a sign that headbone things are growing and developing (note my mastery of technicalities ). if you look on google there are diagrams of massage, but i never got to that stage.

[fishie]

sorry, massage of the eye duct, not the headbone things!