To be confused about Newborn's treatment!

[TheHermitCrab]

I have been in hospital with my Newborn for 5 days due to antibiotic treatment of an infection from my waters breaking nearly 40 hrs before labour (And the birth was a shambles!)

8 days old and back at home she developed a horrible eye. All yellow and stuck together. Took her to Urgent care as I live next to the hospital. They referred her to a hospital out of town for pediatric care at 1am! (I dont drive) after hours of waiting they came and gave her Chloramphenicol 1% cream and told me to massage the tear ducts for a week, but only one eye, as the hospital ran out of drugs for both so I have to go to a doctor for more.

They have then taken a swab to check for chlamydia, now I'm fairly positive I don't have an STD. I had a swab taken at 36w due to waters leaking but all it was was a terrible case of thrush. Surely when they took the swab (vaginal) for me at 36 weeks, an STD would have been something that they run by? They couldn't answer that for me and kept saying, "maybe, maybe not"

AIBU to think my own hospital with a special building for mothers and babies should have treated me?? AIBU to think these doctors and nurses should be able to follow my records and check the results from my last swab? also, AIBU to be panicking so much? How common are gunky eyes? and AIBU to think that between two hospitals they should be able to give me some cream for my babies eyes?!

Am I being an unreasonable worrying mother or has the NHS really gone down the shitter???

This sounds bizarre, but if you are able to express a bit of milk, put some drops into the gunky eye. Breastmilk is naturally antibacterial and will help clear it up.

I think it's pretty common. Is your midwife or HV still coming out to see you? You could try them, they'll be used to seeing it.

HV came this morning, told her the whole story and she just said "well Chlamydia is a silent disease"

But as I had a swab at 36 weeks and they just came back to me saying I had thrush (I thought my waters had broke but turns out I wet myself haha) I would presume that would be the time I would find out if I had anything more serious, and they can't seem to answer that question! I mean you think it would be something that would be a red flag on a vaginal swab of a pregnant lady.

I also asked them "If the cream clears it up, does that mean it wasn't anything more serious" And they didn't give a straight answer either!

I might try the breast milk thing too. Next time I give her a wash to put the cream on I'll put some milk on and leave it about half an hour and see if that helps too, Thank you :)

First, congratulations
Gunky eyes are very common in newborns. Three of my four had one, the first two I just treated with cool boiled water, breast milk and massage.
DS3's lasted until he was a few months and he needed an antibiotic, though is still prone to a sticky eye if he has a cold.
Is the midwife not still coming out to see you? They advised me for this kind of thing with my babies.

Sorry cross posted.

I don't think std are standard tested for unless their is reason for it. My first child had sticky eye it took a couple of months of different drops/creams until the doctors eventually found one that worked to clear it up, it was their for no reason no underlying issues. I am not sure why you went to urgent care for this why not just wash it with water then make a gp appointment?? It certainly isn't an urgent case so maybe that is why you where sent elsewhere. If the hospitals didn't have the cream why not ask for the prescription to take to a pharmacy who will get it in within about 4 days, I'm not sure why you needed it for both eyes? Overall I would say yabu if you aren't happy with the care get private care, I don't think you have been using nhs resources appropriately.

not sure why you went to urgent care for this why not just wash it with water then make a gp appointment??

I rang 111 because the NHS website states any newborn under 28 days with those symptoms should be referred immediately.

It certainly isn't an urgent case so maybe that is why you where sent elsewhere
The doctor contacted the pediatric ward at the other hospital and they agreed due to guidlines, and the fact she was a PPROM baby treated with anti biotics that they had to admit her.

If the hospitals didn't have the cream why not ask for the prescription to take to a pharmacy who will get it in within about 4 days, I'm not sure why you needed it for both eyes?

They wanted me to treat both eyes because the other one was showing signs of getting the same way, I asked for a prescription and they said I would have to go back to my GP to request it.

I would say yabu if you aren't happy with the care get private care, I don't think you have been using nhs resources appropriately.

I'm sorry you feel that way, But I did everything based on the NHS website. And when I rang 111 they had booked me into urgent care themselves without me asking, and then the doc referred me due to guidelines, I didn't really request any treatment out of the ordinary. xx

I was sent to A and E with my 2 week old DD when she had a horribly gunky eye. Think green pus. The GP rang ahead and said we were coming etc. When we saw the paediatric eye guy (technical term ) he was a bit eye roll at the fact that the GP had sent us in as he felt the surgery could have dealt with it. They tested for gonorrhoea and chlamydia - both neg. then prescribed some stuff, probably the same as you. BUT she did then get registered with the hospital ophthalmologist and had 6 monthly check ups until she was 3 as a just in case - which was very reassuring and I felt the NHS had handled it brilliantly.

My DD was born 4 days after my waters breaking as the guidelines were up to 96 hours at the time (2007). She developed a gunky eye when she was a week old or so I was referred to the local eye hospital for daily checks for a few days and given eye drops in case it was something she had picked up in the birth canal. Wasn't suggested it was connected to PROM.

I got told off by a midwife for taking her to the GP. Should have just used breastmilk apparently. Gunky eyes very common in new borns.

sorry - so my point is you did the right thing. The NHS escalates a badly infected eye quickly as the infection can cause damage and gonorrhoea etc can even be fatal.

Aye

I was saying it being a shambles due to all the fuss not lack of fusis, I think people are getting me wrong. I was expecting to ring up and get advice on the best way to treat (i.e water, eye wash, breast milk as you suggested) but 111 called me back and told me they'd booked me an out of ours doctor at urgent care. The doctor wouldn't prescribe me anything.

He said because she was PPROM and only just come off anti biotics and we haven't been discharged yet he wasn't happy sending me home in case it was a development of her infection she had in the hospital.

So I ended up in another town, with half a prescription of eye cream, and the idea of having an STD lol

That's why I thought it was a shambles. I was expecting "Do this and see a doctor about it in day or so if worse"

I think i meant AIBU to be worrying to much, and a little annoyed at the whole farce that made me worry even more. :) if you get me.

I definitely wasn't panicking when I called 111, I get conjuncitivitis a lot myself, but by the time they had finished measuring her, weighing her, checking her temp, testing her..etc I was a wreck all over a gunky eye lol

Hopefully (and probably) it's just blocked tear ducts. My dd had this on and off for months and apparently it's only really treated if they still have it at one. Massage made a big difference, there's a video on youtube of how to do it or the hv might be able to show you.

TarkaTheOtter yep I'm doing the massage and giving her a wipe before I op the cream on :)

Not strictly on topic but in my newborn baby sleep deprived state i remember trying to actually shoot milk into my babies sticky eye propping him up like a target. I totally never realised i could just express it first. So i hope that story cheers you up and that your dc's sticky eye recovers soon

haha well im expressing, shes tongue tied and had a mare trying to breast feed, so ive just dribbled some onto her eye, she wiped it off immediately lol :)

Majority of newborn sticky eyes are nothing to worry about, but a small minority are down to chlamydia (or indeed gonorrhoea)...and that small minority need more treatment than eye drops/cream and are a cause of preventable blindness. This means that we're pretty careful (possibly paranoid) about babies with eye infections.

With regards to chasing results...if your's were taken in the same hospital, they would be available to the docs seeing your baby. If they were taken in a different hospital in the same trust there is a fighting chance they'd have been available. If it was a different trust, not a hope in hell - the computers don't talk. Having said that, the swabs they take for prolonged rupture of membranes are usually looking for the ordinary bugs (such as group B strep and E coli), but they don't pick up chlamydia and gonorrhoea. You need to use a different sort of swab to pick up those bugs. So if you just had the usual swabs done (which is what is relevent to the overwhelming majority of babies with PROM) then even if they were available, they wouldn't have told the docs anything about whether chlamydia or gonorrhoea were present. Hope that helps explain what was going on.

You were absolutely right to call 111 and go to urgent care BTW. Newborns can be extremely fragile and it's not something to mess about with. Obviously it's a different story when they're older but you can't be too careful with such a young baby. That's why they wanted to see you right away.

just to add, as the person who deals with vaginal swabs/eye swabs/all other kinds of swabs in the labs at a hospital, we don't routinely culture every vaginal swab for chlamydia, gonorrhoea etc, it has to be specifically requested, so it wouldn't have been picked up on your vaginal swab at 36 weeks even if you did have it :) hope baby is ok

winewolfhowls i remember trying to actually shoot milk into my babies sticky eye propping him up like a target. I totally never realised i could just express it first.

I'm still keep laughing at this 10 mins after reading it