Are gunky eyes always conjunctivitis?

[morningpaper]

Are gunky eyes always conjunctivitis?

DD woke up with snot ALL OVER one side of her face today and the eye on that side has been quite gunky all day.

If nursery spot this they will send her home because they have a strict no-eye-gunk policy.

But are gunky eyes ALWAYS conjunctivitis? Can it not just be related to having a cold?

[Enid]

go and buy some of that optrex stuff from the chemist and put it in every 2 hours for the rest of the day

works a treat

[slalomsuki]

They are not always conjunctivitis

All of mine suffer from blocked tear ducts which they get worse when they have a cold. It gunks up their eye lashes and makes it look awful. I have had many a discussion with nursery staff about this.

The key to conjunctivitis is the whites of the eyes go red and blood shot

[gladbag]

I don't think so. My ds often gets gunky eyes when he has a cold - yellow sticky stuff in his eyelashes and round the edges. But it doesn't itch, and his eyeballs aren't bloodshot, so I presume it's not conjunctivitis. We use a warm salt water solution to bathe them a few times a day, and it usually clears up. HTH

[NotQuiteCockney]

Everyone at the co-op seemed to have something in this line for a bit. No red eyes, no soreness, no itching, but really goopy gunky eyes. It is sometimes just a cold or something - certainly it seemed to go away without treatment.