Chloramphenicol- completing the course

[RockCrushesLizard]

Hi

I'm wondering how essential it is to complete a course of chloramphenicol eye drops for conjunctivitis. DD (3) was given these by the pharmacist yesterday, she has a mild case of conjunctivitis.
We've been given the drops two hourly in the day, and the infection is all but gone after 24H.
The big but is that it is extremely traumatic applying the drops - it can take up to an hour, and very high level hysteria (from me too to TBH). 7 times a day 😢

Obviously if it is important and clinically necessary I will power through, but I wondered if it is possible to reduce the number or doses or duration of the course, for all our sakes!

[Cheerfulmarybrown]

No idea about chloramphenicol but have your tried lying your DD flat on her back with her eyes closed then put the eye drop in the corner of her closed eye, (side near her nose) then get her to open her eye the eye drops will roll into the eye. This method can be less traumatic for some children.

[RockCrushesLizard]

Thank you for the suggestion - I've been trying that way the last couple of times, but she tends to try to wipe it away, or just thrash about until it dribbles far from her eye. You're right that it's better though, I'm just not convinced if any gets in.
Glad to hear it's an approved method though

[Imnotaslimjim]

Generally, conjunctivitis is self limiting anyway, so if its nearly cleared I'd be tempted to see how DD gets on without it. If it flares back up you can go back to fighting with her.

[RockCrushesLizard]

Is it really? I have no experience of it. I was worried that stopping the drops would be like stopping oral antibiotics halfway through, and it would come back with a vengeance in a few days. That's good to know.