URGENT eye advice needed

[cjt110]

Morning all. Sorry to bother you do early on a weekend... I need fellow Mum advice.Look how swollen his eye is... We saw the doc yesterday and she said she thought it was a stye. She prescribed drops in case of conjunctivitis. I've managed to do 2 lots (4 times a day) between after school and bedtime. He's refusing them now. Would you leave him be, try again with eye drops or try and get an Out of Hours appointment?

Definitely call 111 for that.

Getting eye drops in - get him to open eyes wide and look to one side, put eye drops into the corner of the eye the opposite side he is looking at. Means you can’t see the big dropper/liquid coming at you and makes it a lot easier!

How old is he? The thing is you've seen the dr yesterday, out of hours will likely result in you getting the same diagnosis and medication advice, a pharmacy will tell you to see the dr.

Easier said than done but he needs to have the medication prescribed.

I personally would take him to the pharmacist this morning for their opinion. In the meantime, get the drops in. If it is conjunctivitis, it normally takes a good 24 hours of drops to start betting better.

It looks very much like a stye I used to get them all the time as a child. Try bathing in boiled then cooled salt solution.

Thanks all. It has just alarmed me how quickly it's swollen. This was his eye yesterday... nowhere near as swollen.

Agree the swelling now makes it look much more like a stye and not conjunctivitis; so the eyedrops are less important. Agree with salt water (warm) bathing. Pharmacist suggestion not bad either.

Thanks all. I don't have much experience of eye related illness.

Just one word of caution based on experience. If you notice any bulging of the eye itself from the socket get him straight to A&E. That could be a serious infection of the eye socket called orbital cellulitis. It is a medical emergency and needs immediate hospital admission for IV antibiotics as the infection can spread up the optic nerve to the brain if not quickly treated and can be fatal.

DS had this, woke up one morning with one eye like a frog. GP packed him straight off to A&E.

There don't seem to be any signs of eye bulging in that photo, though, so would advise keep on with the drops until the end of the prescribed course and salt water bathing.

My daughter is prone to styes. We use a clean damp flannel as warm as she can stand alternated with a microwave heat pack.

When my DD looked like that it was periorbital cellulitis. She needed admission and IV antibiotics. Go and get him checked by someone who knows more about eyes than a GP.

In other words, the actual eye does not need to be bulging forward for it to be serious (though if it does it is more serious). The infection can be around the eye.